[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 43 (Monday, March 11, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H2630]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               VENEZUELA

  (Mr. GAETZ asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GAETZ. Mr. Speaker, as I deliver these remarks, the people of 
Venezuela are without food, water, medicine, and now even electricity.
  The organizing principle of American policy seems to be the need to 
drive Maduro from power. What if Maduro is not really in power right 
now? What if the people who are really calling the shots in Venezuela 
are a group of transnational criminal organizations that merely 
maintain Maduro as a figurehead? And what if their entire purpose is to 
draw the United States into an ill-advised war to create a massive 
migration of people throughout Latin America, eroding borders, 
jeopardizing nation-states, and ultimately leading to a permissive 
environment for more illicit activity to occur?
  These are important questions we have to ask. My constituents have to 
go to Central and South America and fight these wars. And certainly, as 
a Congress, we need to be very critical in our thinking to not get our 
Nation in another ill-advised war.

                          ____________________