With the Maduro regime staying in power in Venezuela, members of the Florida delegation are calling the recent election in that South American nation a sham and calling for more sanctions on that government.
After the Trump administration approved more sanctions on the Maduro regime on Monday, from his seat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., applauded the move.
“Nicolás Maduro told his supporters that pulling off a fake election would be a reset that would result in less sanctions and less isolation,” Rubio said on Monday. “Instead, he faces more sanctions and is more isolated than ever. Maduro’s days in power are numbered. Leaders of the governing party should remove him and the other criminals from power, and create a process for national reconciliation and restoration of the constitutional democratic order before time runs out on them as well.”
Rubio also ripped into the Venezuelan elections held over the weekend.
“Until a constitutional and democratic order is restored in Venezuela, the Maduro regime should face increasing isolation from the international community,” Rubio said on Sunday. “The democracies gathered at the G20 summit this week in Argentina should collectively reject the results of the fraudulent election conducted by the regime today.
“In addition, the humanitarian crisis created by the Maduro regime poses a national security threat to the United States and our allies in the region,” Rubio added. “I now fully support President Trump’s position that all policy options to help return Venezuela to a path of democracy and prosperity should be considered. This includes any measures that will open the way for the delivery of international humanitarian aid to be delivered to the people of Venezuela.”
Freshman U.S. Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., the vice chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, also dismissed the election results.
“The Venezuelan people deserve better than the fraudulent, rigged re-election of Nicholas Maduro. Bolivarian socialism has been an absolute failure. Venezuela, once one of the wealthiest countries in the Western Hemisphere, has fallen into complete ruin. People are starving while the Maduro government clings to power at any cost,” Rooney said on Monday.
“The average Venezuelan lost 8 kilograms two years ago and 11 this past year, and inflation right now is 80 percent per month,” he continued. “The United States must work with our allies in the region to exert as much pressure as possible on the regime, including sanctioning government officials and their cronies, and hunting down their illicit assets."
On the other side of the aisle, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schulz, D-Fla., also took aim at the Maduro regime.
“Yesterday’s sham election in Venezuela has fooled no one," she said on Sunday. “Nicolas Maduro is a dictator with zero democratic legitimacy. From banning potential opponents from running to bribing and intimidating voters to outright election fraud, the Maduro regime continues to deny the Venezuelan people the right to choose a better future. Whether it is harsh economic misery and political oppression, to brutal food and medicine shortages, I have heard too many harrowing stories from my Venezuelan friends and neighbors who have been displaced to my community. Yesterday’s farce only makes me more determined to work to make Venezuelan elections free and fair once again so that voters can elect leaders who are committed to improving their lives.”
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtine, R-Fla., the first woman to ever lead the House Foreign Affairs Committee, met with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres last week and expressed her “grave concerns over the human rights crises” in Venezuela and other Latin American nations.
“While meeting with Secretary General Guterres, I encouraged him to continue making progress on his reform agenda at the UN and to lend his voice on a number of important issues,” she said.
“The people of Venezuela are demanding real elections that are free, fair and transparent; not the fraudulent excuse that Maduro is setting up," Ros-Lehtinen insisted. She also raised the problems currently plaguing Cuba ad Nicaragua. “I urged Antonio to take a stronger stand and be a vocal leader in support of the people of these countries that are simply asking for their God-given human rights.”
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