[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 33 (Thursday, February 27, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H2012]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      IN SUPPORT OF WOMEN FOR LIFE

  (Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in solidarity with the 
Women for Life in Venezuela. These women, headed by opposition leader 
Maria Corina Machado and the wife of an opposition leader who is in 
jail, Leopoldo Lopez, who is also a leader in this march, they have 
dressed in white, and they have carried white flowers as they march 
peacefully, demanding that the Maduro government end its violent 
suppression of pro-democracy movements in Venezuela.
  In these protests, at least 14 people have been killed by the state 
thugs of Maduro, and many more have been unjustly harassed, detained, 
and beaten.
  It is poignant that these women model themselves after the Ladies of 
White in my native homeland of Cuba, because Maduro seeks to do to the 
Venezuelan dissenters what the Castro brothers do to theirs: silence 
them through intimidation.
  This is a classic example of an autocratic regime's false notion that 
might is right, but we must show Maduro and other violators that the 
world is watching, and that we will not allow these transgressions to 
pass unnoticed.
  I stand in solidarity with the Women for Life in Venezuela, and I 
urge my colleagues to do the same.

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