[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 112 (Thursday, June 29, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3841-S3842]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Venezuela
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I come to the floor to speak about the
rise of a failed state, Venezuela, and the manmade tragedy President
Maduro has imposed on his citizens.
For 3 months, Venezuelans have taken to the streets in daily
protests. They are speaking out against their country's economic
collapse, against widespread food shortages, the disintegration of
their medical system, against endemic corruption, and against a
government that denies them their human rights and fundamental
freedoms.
Appallingly, President Maduro has responded to the protests by
unleashing his National Guard. As a recent Washington Post article
stated, ``Mr. Maduro and the corrupt clique around him are hanging on
by the brute force of tear gas, water cannons, mass arrests, and
shootings by snipers.''
Since April, Venezuela's increasingly unstable crisis has left over
75 dead, thousands jailed, and thousands more injured. Yet, instead of
listening to his people's legitimate demands and mitigating this
tragedy, President Maduro is attempting to rewrite the Constitution,
despite widespread opposition. Additionally, he declared this week that
``what couldn't be done with votes would be done with weapons.''
This is our hemisphere. This is a hemisphere that prides itself in
democratic states, and here is the President of Venezuela saying he
doesn't care what the voters say. With Maduro threatening to use arms
against his people, one can only imagine the bloodshed and abuses will
continue unabated.
Despite these threats, protests endure because Venezuelans see no
alternatives. They have no other recourse against standing in lines for
endless hours to scour the empty shelves at their markets. They have no
other way to channel their sorrow over the spike in maternal and infant
mortality rates in hospitals that lack supplies to treat the most basic
diseases. They have no other way to express their outrage at the
military profiting from corruption in food procurement contracts, even
while children increasingly suffer the ravages of malnutrition.
Parallel to the protests, chaos is becoming commonplace. In the past
72 hours, the National Guard troops have stormed the National Assembly
and assaulted opposition legislators. They came into the Parliament and
assaulted the opposition. The supreme court has stripped the attorney
general, Luisa Ortega, of her authorities for her criticism of
President Maduro.
We have seen lootings and the burning of government buildings.
Alarmingly, a rogue police officer commandeered a helicopter and
launched grenades and small arms fire while flying over the supreme
court. These incidents from just the last 3 days should make it clear
to all we are now dealing with a failed state in our own hemisphere.
As this crisis cripples Venezuela, I call on all sides to refrain
from violence. I also want to recognize that the current situation is
the product of 18 years of systematic efforts to dismantle Venezuela's
democratic institutions.
Since coming to power, President Maduro--like Hugo Chavez before
him--has filled the ranks of government with loyalists who have led the
economy to hyperinflation and the brink of default. State oil companies
like PDVSA, the country's only source of revenue, has been purged of
its expertise. In a truly devastating blow to democracy and the rule of
law, the judiciary has been entirely sapped of its independence so it
now functions as a political appendage of the executive branch.
In the 18 months since the opposition coalition won control of the
National Assembly--and I must tell you there was hope when we saw the
voters in Venezuela enacted a new government in their Parliament--the
supreme court has overturned every piece of legislation passed, gave
itself authority to approve the national budget, and in April
temporarily usurped the rest of the legislature's authorities,
completely reversing the will of the people.
Additionally, as Venezuela's civilian and military justice systems
have become accomplices to persecution and torture, the number of
political prisoners has soared. Leopoldo Lopez, Judge Afiuni, Daniel
Ceballos--these are just some of the more well-known names among the
more than 350 political prisoners recognized by Venezuelan human rights
NGO Foro Penal. These are people who are in prison as a result of their
political beliefs.
It is no surprise the decay of judicial independence has led to an
alarming rise in corruption and impunity. It is now a stated fact that
senior officials have syphoned billions out of Venezuela and are
engaged in the illegal drug trade.
In response, the United States has designated a dozen people under
the Kingpin sanctions, including Vice President Tareck El Aissami.
Interior Minister Reverol was indicted in the United States last year
for drug trafficking. Even Maduro's nephews were convicted in the
United States on drug charges.
The sum of these trend lines is truly disturbing. Today, Venezuela is
a failed state, where authoritarian leaders profit from links to
corruption and drug trafficking, while the Venezuelan people are
subject to precarious humanitarian conditions and human rights abuses.
Against this backdrop, we require little explanation why more than
18,000 Venezuelans sought asylum in the United States last year.
We are all concerned about the flight of people at risk. What is
happening in Venezuela directly impacts people trying to seek safety
coming into the United States. If all this wasn't enough, in late 2016,
Venezuelan State oil company PDVSA used its U.S. subsidiary Citgo as
collateral to secure a loan from Rosneft, a company that is controlled
by the Russian Government and is currently under U.S. sanctions. The
result is, the Russian Government holds at least 49.9 percent of
Citgo's mortgage and could come into control of critical U.S. energy
infrastructure, including refineries, terminals, and a large network of
pipelines. This should
[[Page S3842]]
concern every Member of the U.S. Senate.
So the question for the United States and the international community
is, How do we respond? What do we do? We cannot let this circumstance
continue.
Thankfully, supported by a growing diplomatic coalition that includes
Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica, Peru, Canada, and the United States, the
Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro,
is marshalling international pressure. Mr. Almagro has called on
President Maduro to heed the demands of his citizens, free political
prisoners, permit the delivery of humanitarian assistance, commit to a
timetable for overdue elections, and restore the authority of the
National Assembly.
However, despite Mr. Almagro's leadership, the results of last week's
meeting of Foreign Ministers was a stunning failure to reach consensus
on a hemisphere response. Appallingly, eight countries refused to vote
their conscience, among them Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El
Salvador, Trinidad, and Suriname. They did not use the power under the
OAS to recognize that Venezuela today is not living up to its charter
commitment to be a democratic state. There is a process at the OAS to
take action. They were unable to do that--a major setback.
As efforts at the OAS continue, all must remain clear that there are
no alternative facts when it comes to Venezuela, there is just a
manmade tragedy that demands collective action.
While providing full support for multilateral diplomacy, the United
States must also lead. In May, I introduced bipartisan legislation to
address the multifaceted crisis in Venezuela. My bill will authorize
humanitarian assistance and require the State Department to coordinate
an international approach to humanitarian challenges. The legislation
will also provide strong congressional backing for OAS efforts, as well
as funding for international election observers and civil society
groups working to defend human rights and democratic values.
Given the rising instability in Venezuela, the bill would codify two
lines of targeted sanctions against Venezuelan officials involved in
corruption and undermining democratic governance--the very authorities
the administration used to rightly sanction members of the Venezuelan
supreme court last month.
Congress should act, as we have done in so many other places where we
show congressional leadership to make it clear that this type of
activity will not be allowed to continue and that Congress will take a
strong position to give appropriate authority to sanction those
individuals who are responsible.
Finally, the bill would require the State Department and U.S.
intelligence community to prepare a report on the role of Venezuelan
officials in corruption and drug trafficking.
As the instability in Venezuela grows, every day we decide not to act
only makes the crisis worse. I urge my colleagues to work with
legislation I have filed. Let's work with the Congress and the
President to make it clear to the Venezuelan people they are not alone,
and we will not tolerate a country in our hemisphere to become a failed
state.
Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________