[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 142 (Thursday, September 12, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S6008]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Venezuela

  Mr. President, in 2018, 6 years ago, I visited Venezuela--a once 
prosperous, albeit imperfect, democracy suffering terrible economic and 
political decline.
  As we drove around the streets of Caracas, the person from the 
Embassy in the car said: Take a look at something you might not notice. 
Notice the belts that the people of Caracas are wearing, particularly 
the men, and notice how long the end of the belt is and how many 
notches they have put in the belt. The people are starving in this 
country because of the government of Nicolas Maduro.
  I told President Maduro at a meeting during that visit that the 
upcoming election, which was just months away, would only be credible 
if it was monitored and honest. He went ahead with the discredited 
election anyway. The result was as predicted: an exodus of millions of 
desperate people fleeing repression and economic collapse.
  A few weeks ago, Venezuela held another Presidential election in 
which the regime had arbitrarily blocked key opposition candidates from 
the ballot and had tried to undermine the preelectoral process. This is 
an indication of what activities are going on. Venezuelan opposition 
candidate Edmundo Gonzalez eventually left the country, even though it 
was pretty clear from the results that we were able to glean from the 
Venezuelan election that he was the winner. Ten million Venezuelans 
peacefully had voted. Results that were meticulously documented by 
credible monitors showed an overall win for this opposition candidate. 
Despite this, the Maduro regime refused to release the results and 
announced that they had won instead. It arbitrarily arrested thousands 
of opposition supporters and issued an outrageous warrant for the 
arrest of Gonzalez, forcing him to leave the country.
  Enough of this madness. Enough of this outright theft of the 
Venezuelan voters' overwhelming choice for a better future. This week, 
I have introduced a simple 2-page bill terminating all U.S. petroleum 
cooperation and related trade with Venezuela until the legitimate 
results of the election are respected. I also filed it as an amendment 
to the annual Defense authorization bill.
  The entrenched regime clings to power using oil revenues dependent on 
U.S. involvement. Under my bill, that is going to end and so will 
Maduro's financial strength. It is simply that simple. Are we going to 
do business as usual with a dictator who ignores the results of a 
freely held election?
  I also appealed to our democratic allies in the region, including the 
democracies of the Caribbean, to stand resolute in the defense of a 
sweeping and clear vote by the Venezuelan people. They cannot sit idly 
by for another 6 years amidst regime-inflicted suffering and economic 
collapse in Venezuela. Our neighbors in Venezuela deserve better.