[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 17146-17147]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          CRISES IN VENEZUELA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, stability in the Western Hemisphere is 
in jeopardy due to the political and economic pressures occurring in 
Venezuela. Misguided financial decisions, attacks on entrepreneurship, 
and socialist policies have led the economy in Venezuela to a free 
fall.
  With oil prices continuing to decrease, Venezuela is suffering from 
large budget shortfalls due to its large dependency on oil sales. To 
try to make up for the deficiency, the Venezuelans have a foreign debt 
of over $100 billion and have had to cut its oil shipments to some 
Caribbean and Central American nations.
  This paradigm shift can lead to an opening for the U.S. to get more 
involved in the region and deter the large democratic setbacks that we 
have experienced in recent years.
  Venezuela's economic crisis is combined with its political problems 
and, Mr. Speaker, I rise to urge this body to stand in solidarity with 
the freedom-seeking people of Venezuela. Nicolas Maduro's intransigent, 
brutal regime continues to desperately and violently

[[Page 17147]]

silence dissonant voices who believe in freedom, in democracy, and in 
respect for human rights.
  Just last week, democracy advocate Maria Corina Machado was summoned 
to a kangaroo court in Caracas. This courageous woman was, until 
recently, a member of the Venezuelan National Assembly until she was 
illegally removed from her seat in Congress by the Venezuelan thugs. 
Why was she removed from that seat? Because she spoke up for the people 
of Venezuela.
  Before she was removed unjustly from her legislative seat, she was 
physically assaulted on the floor of the National Assembly. Yes, on the 
floor of the Venezuelan Congress, she was beaten up.
  Maria Corina, despite being banned from leaving her country, 
continues to use the power of her voice to spread awareness about the 
violence and the corrupt nature of Nicolas Maduro's brutal regime.
  Sadly, Mr. Speaker, her case is not an isolated incident. Earlier 
this year, savage repression met the thousands of students who 
peacefully demonstrated, seeking a better Venezuela. Maduro, in 
desperation, used his National Guard and paramilitary forces to 
savagely quash the protest. During that time, innocent people were 
injured, arrested, and even killed, unarmed demonstrators killed by 
Nicolas Maduro. Seventy-two of those students remain in prison today, 
as well as two mayors who are in prison and opposition leader Leopoldo 
Lopez, another brave voice for freedom like Maria Corina.
  Here is Leopoldo Lopez. He remains in solitary confinement in Ramo 
Verde military prison under the poorest of conditions and without 
regular access to visitors and all denying his due process. His wife, 
children, family, and friends are not allowed to freely visit him, Mr. 
Speaker.
  His case caused international outcry from Amnesty International, 
stating that the charges against him are politically motivated and an 
assault on dissent in Venezuela.
  More recently, the United Nations working group on arbitrary 
detentions, along with that body's top human rights officials, demanded 
the release of Leopoldo Lopez as well as the release of all of those 
who have been detained for exercising their legitimate right to express 
themselves freely.
  In response, the Venezuelan regime stated that the U.N. body's 
decision was nonbinding on them, and so these innocent civilians remain 
in prison.
  The Venezuelan people have been met with intimidation, with violence, 
with imprisonment for simply calling for respect for human rights and 
democratic freedoms in their own country.
  So the United States must stand with them in their struggle for 
freedom. That is why this body passed H.R. 4587, the Venezuelan Human 
Rights and Democracy Protection Act, in May, a bill that I authored. 
The bill targets Venezuelan officials by denying them visas to enter 
the United States, blocks their property, freezes their assets, and 
prohibits financial transactions of these thugs responsible for 
committing human rights abuses against the people of Venezuela.
  I call on the Senate to pass the Venezuela sanctions legislation 
immediately to send a signal that these abusive tactics by the Maduro 
regime will have consequences.
  Mr. Speaker, the people of Venezuela are sending us a distress 
signal, and the United States must stand ready to act for the cause of 
freedom, democracy of our own hemisphere. Democracy leaders like 
Leopoldo Lopez and Maria Corina Machado are counting on us.

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