[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 58 (Wednesday, April 11, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2050-S2052]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Venezuela

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, last week, I spent 4 days in Venezuela. I 
had never been there before. I was given an opportunity to get a visa 
to go to the country, and I jumped at the opportunity. Venezuela, of 
course, on the north end of the South American continent, is a constant 
source of concern in the United States and the region, and I wanted to 
see for myself what was happening. No doubt, many are aware that 
Venezuela has been suffering devastating economic and democratic 
backsliding, but what I found was a country that is on the edge of 
collapse, facing overlapping economic, humanitarian, and political 
crises.
  On the economic side, Venezuela has so many positive things. It is 
rich in natural beauty, oil, minerals, and human talent, but it has 
seen its economy run into the ground by mindless price controls, 
multiple exchange rates, and gross mismanagement. Inflation is rampant 
and expected to reach 13,000 percent this year, leading to what some 
call ``a race for survival.''
  Imagine walking down the main street of Caracas and seeing long lines 
at every ATM. Why are they there? Because each day, the residents of 
Venezuela must go to the ATM machine with their credit card or debit 
card and take out the maximum withdrawal allowed. It is hundreds of 
thousands of Bolivars, which sound like more money than you could 
possibly need, but it translates into 20 cents--waiting an hour at an 
ATM machine for 20 cents' worth of currency so that you can ride the 
bus back and forth to work. That is what life is like in the capital of 
Venezuela.
  They have universally discredited and arbitrary price controls that 
are eerily reminiscent of the failed policies in Cuba and the Soviet 
Union. They have decimated local production and left basic goods 
unavailable or unaffordable.
  I went down the main street in Caracas and saw many shops but no 
customers. Basic goods were available--shampoo or diapers, for 
example--but they cost the equivalent of 2 or 3 months of salary. We 
stopped and did a translation at one store that isn't under price 
controls, and we found that a pound of hamburger costs $4, which 
doesn't sound bad, except that that is the minimum monthly wage in 
Venezuela--for a pound of hamburger. People waited in long lines.

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  Rampant inflation--hyperinflation, really--has made actual cash 
scarce, and near worthless when it can actually be found. I have never 
visited a country where I never touched their currency. They warned me 
against it. They said: If you buy things here, as a tourist, you are 
going to pay 20 times what local people pay. They have exchange rates 
that are bizarre and change by the minute. These people live with this 
every single day.
  The government of Maduro stages raids into formal grocery stores to 
impose arbitrary price controls, leaving the owners unable to stock 
their shelves or run a functioning business. If there is a rumor that 
there are eggs for sale somewhere in Caracas, there is a rush to that 
location, and people wait for hours in the hopes that they can buy 
eggs.
  As a result, informal markets are springing up trying to meet the 
people's demands. Yet even while I walked through these markets, I saw 
long lines. From the second floor in the back, in the dark, there was a 
long line waiting. I went to the front to see what they were waiting 
for. They wanted to buy toilet paper.
  Business leaders told me that they are being vilified by the 
government, forced to sell products below cost and out of markets so 
the government can be the exclusive seller of imported goods.
  Listen to this. They also shared stories of workers fainting on the 
job from hunger. Of particular concern, one of the largest employers in 
Venezuela said they decided they had to start bringing fruit to the 
workplace in the morning so their workers could get something to eat. 
When they fainted, it was not only dangerous to them but to people 
around them, and they wanted to keep their workers awake. Only one out 
of three people in Venezuela eats three meals a day. There are children 
fainting at school.

  The government has run the state oil industry into collapse, treating 
it as its cash cow and as a way to line their pockets. Currently, there 
is little or no investment in the oil industry, the national oil 
industry of Venezuela. There is little or no maintenance, and there is 
a mass exodus of skilled personnel and engineers. What would an 
engineer working for a Venezuelan national oil company earn in the 
course of a year? Dramatically more than most Venezuelans--$1,700 a 
year in annual income. What do they earn in other countries in Latin 
America with the same skills? They would earn an average income of 
$85,000 a year. Is it any surprise they are leaving?
  It is also no surprise that the country is suffering a heartbreaking 
humanitarian crisis, one that is notable for malnutrition and a 
breakdown of basic public health. Brave and dedicated healthcare 
workers--and I have met some; NGO leaders told me of a shortage of 
vaccines with outbreaks of measles and diphtheria that haven't been 
seen for decades. Malaria is at record levels.
  When the public health officials gave me a briefing on the public 
health crisis of Venezuela, they said that the maternal mortality 
rate--the death of mothers--is at the level it was 50 years ago, the 
early 1960s. The same thing is true for infant mortality--that high a 
level. You have to go to South Sudan, Yemen, or Syria to find 
comparable public health crises, and those three countries are all at 
war. Venezuela is at war with itself. In fact, one expert said that the 
outbreak of measles, diphtheria, and malaria was the worst he had seen, 
certainly the worst in all of South America.
  With Venezuelans flooding into neighboring countries, many of them 
are spreading diseases that have been cured in so many countries around 
the world. Basic diabetes, asthma, and HIV treatments are simply not 
available. For 4 months now, HIV patients have not been given 
medication.
  A staggering number of hospitals cannot perform basic services. Many 
do not have any capacity to perform a blood test. There are no x ray 
machines available on a 24/7 basis. Many of them don't have 
electricity. Some do not even have clean water.
  Venezuelans are suffering malnutrition, and it is particularly acute 
for children, who suffer for a lifetime due to stunted brain 
development. One expert said that the rates of malnutrition have 
affected more than 8 percent of the population. In some areas, the 
percentage of people suffering from malnutrition is as high as 15 
percent. You can see it on the streets of Caracas. When you look at the 
public parks, you see these children--thin limbs, spindly legs and 
arms, and you think to yourself: These kids are not getting enough to 
eat.
  It is hard to know precisely about all of these statistics because 
the government has officially stopped collecting and releasing 
information. They leave it up to private organizations.
  What I found particularly cruel is the government's supposed effort 
to help with hunger. A provision of a monthly food basket was linked to 
having the right political identification card. Sadly, these food boxes 
are imported. Someone is making a lot of money in that process, with 
corrupt middlemen taking a cut at multiple steps along the way, all to 
provide a politically manipulated lifeline that meets only 7 of the 12 
basic food needs.
  The regime has also linked these food rations to polling stations 
during elections, which brings me to the third overlapping crisis, a 
democratic crisis. Let me acknowledge that Hugo Chavez did, in fact, 
win his initial terms in democratic elections. He tapped into public 
disenchantment with the failure of traditional governing parties to 
address the deep chasms of poverty in Venezuela. He even said ``I am 
not the cause, I am the consequence,'' referring to his rise to power. 
But his election, like that of so many other autocrats at heart, also 
brought the steady dismantling of the country's democracy, a path 
followed by the current President.
  You see, in Venezuela, political parties that look threatening are 
arbitrarily banned. Political opponents who appear to be popular are 
jailed or exiled or just plain disqualified from running for office. 
Government institutions, like the Venezuelan election commission, are 
simply political tools of the regime. The rule of law has collapsed.
  In 2015, the opposition won a sweeping victory in legislative 
elections. What happened next? The President of Venezuela, Maduro, 
installed an illegitimate rubberstamp constituent assembly to usurp the 
legitimately elected National Assembly. It was his way of stopping his 
opponents. The supreme court and national election council are stacked 
with partisan cronies who do whatever the regime asks, regardless of 
the law.
  Now, with the country on the edge of economic collapse, the President 
has called for a snap election on May 20--more than 6 months before it 
traditionally would be held. He wants to move quickly, for fear that he 
might lose. Maduro doesn't want to risk losing even under a rigged 
system, so he is rushing forward with this election that doesn't even 
come close to meeting established international standards.

  What I found, and bears repeating, is that the critics of the 
Venezuelan Government regime and their actions are not confined to the 
United States or Canada. They include Central American countries like 
Panama and South American countries, which have expressed their 
displeasure with Maduro's actions, as well as the European Union's 
displeasure. The parties and candidates still remain arbitrarily 
banned. There is zero trust in discredited election commissions, and 
registration and voting processes have been dramatically manipulated.
  I met with some of the opposition leaders, and they told me what 
happens when people try to vote. They have to go through an elaborate 
process with a machine to register to vote. It is controlled. It takes 
too much time. It limits the opposition from registering their voters. 
There is little time for a legitimate campaign, especially with 
government control of the media. Reputable, long-term election monitors 
are nowhere to be seen, and none seem to be planned for the actual 
election, either.
  Under these conditions, how can any such election be credible? If 
President Maduro proceeds with this May 20 election under these 
circumstances, he is going to find Venezuela further isolated.
  Amid these deeply troubling and ominous conditions, I nonetheless met 
many brave and dedicated Venezuelans who are trying to endure and 
reverse this horrible situation. Doctors, nurses, civic leaders, 
business people,

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politicians, and so many others are sharing food and medicine, running 
for office and facing the threat of arrest or exile, documenting human 
rights abuses in the shrinking media state, trying to run businesses in 
a broken economy. It is an incredible act of courage each day.
  I also met with former political prisoners, political opposition 
members, and their families who are under constant threat or already 
under some kind of arrest. I would name them here, but to do so would 
put them in danger in Venezuela. I was moved by their dedication and 
humanity.
  I am haunted by the comments of one group of young idealists. Over 
dinner Friday night in Caracas, they talked about the future. They 
said: If we called the same group of five opposition leaders together a 
year from now, we would be lucky if three showed up. Two of us will be 
exiled or jailed between now and then. That is what they face by being 
political opponents of the current regime. I fear how many of 
Venezuela's most talented will be sacrificed under these conditions.
  The regime is also tragically holding a U.S. citizen, Josh Holt of 
Utah, on criminal charges. The charges are nonsense. I visited with 
Josh Holt in his prison. The prison is known locally as hell on earth. 
Josh and his Venezuelan wife have served 21 months, with no end in 
sight, and they still haven't gone through the criminal process. He is 
suffering, and he should be. It is understandable. He is clearly being 
held as a political hostage. I appealed to the President and every 
member of the government to release this young man and his Venezuelan 
wife and her daughter so that they could come back to the United 
States. Keeping Josh Holt as a political hostage will just isolate the 
Maduro regime even more. I am one of a bipartisan group of Members in 
Congress who will continue to push for his immediate release.
  Lastly, I want to note that every time I go on one of these trips 
overseas, including to some of the most far-flung corners of the globe, 
I am always moved by the group of talented Americans working for us and 
representing us; those are the men and women in our Embassies, without 
exception. Under the Charge d'Affaires, Todd Robinson, our Embassy team 
in Caracas is a point of great pride and outstanding public service. 
The conditions under which they are forced to operate are 
extraordinarily stressful.
  There was some small hope that negotiations led by the Vatican and 
regional leaders or most recently hosted in the Dominican Republic 
could lead to some kind of path forward between the Venezuelan 
Government and the opposition before it is too late, but all of these 
have failed. Some hoped years ago that a group known as the Boston 
Group--American and Venezuelan elected officials--might be the 
beginning of a dialogue and might be continued to this day, but it is 
increasingly difficult to see that possibility. I met some of the 
Venezuelan Boston Group members. Several of them are deeply committed 
to this administration currently in power. Many of them talk about 
changes that need to be made in Venezuela. I haven't given up hope 
completely that there may be some voices that can move this country 
back to a civilized status.
  Let me be clear in my concluding message to the Venezuelan 
Government, specifically, a message that they should proceed with an 
election that meets the following basic standards: All political 
prisoners must be released, and all candidates and parties must be 
allowed to compete. There must be at least 6 months for a legitimate 
campaign. The national election council should be restructured and led 
by a credible group of professionals on an evenly divided partisan 
basis so that it isn't loaded for one party or another. There must be 
no linking of food with voting or political party affiliation. The 
National Assembly must have its powers restored. Credible international 
and local election monitors must be allowed to observe preelection and 
actual election processes, with full accreditation and access. Going 
forward otherwise will only bring more suffering to the people of 
Venezuela and more isolation to their nation.
  Republicans and Democrats don't agree on much these days, certainly 
not here in Washington on Capitol Hill, but we do agree that Venezuela 
and the consequences of President Maduro's regime continue to lead that 
nation down a negative path, a path of suffering.
  I yield the floor.