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“THE DETERIORATING SITUATION IN VENEZUELA” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H4498-H4501 on May 23, 2017.
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The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE DETERIORATING SITUATION IN VENEZUELA
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2017, the Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) for 30 minutes.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I am so grateful to Mr. Albio Sires, my good friend from New Jersey, the ranking member of our Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere in the Committee on Foreign Affairs for joining me tonight for this Special Order regarding the deteriorating situation in Venezuela, demonstrating not only the bipartisan nature of this issue, Mr. Speaker, but also the need for the United States, and specifically the Congress, to be even more engaged.
As Mr. Sires knows--and we will hear from him in just a few minutes--
the situation in Venezuela, as you can see here, is becoming more desperate by the day. The humanitarian situation is getting worse, if one can imagine that. The Maduro regime continues its flagrant human rights violations, and, despite the latest round of sanctions against human rights violators imposed by our excellent Treasury Department, the United States needs to take more decisive steps in support of the people of Venezuela.
Mr. Speaker, at least 48 Venezuelans have been killed in almost 2 months of protests, nonstop protests, against the dictatorship responsible for a litany of crimes. You cannot enumerate them. Horrific human rights abuses, drug trafficking, a rapidly worsening humanitarian situation. The list goes on and on, Mr. Speaker.
Venezuelans do not have access to even the most basic of necessities, which means water, food, and medicine. None of that exists in Venezuela. Venezuelan humanitarian shortages of food and medicine. People are standing in lines to get nothing. The Venezuelan Pharmaceutical Federation estimates that the country is running shortages on nearly every necessary medical item. For those few Venezuelans who could afford to purchase medicine, they are forced to pay exorbitant prices for supplies like gauze, pain relievers, Band-
Aids, and that is only if they are available in the first place, Mr. Speaker. Hospital workers have told us that the supplies are being raided, and they are being sold on the black market.
The situation is no better when it comes to food. Last week, a 46-
year-old man was killed by soldiers as he was on his way home from buying diapers for his baby. Killed while buying diapers for his baby. Why? Because diapers are a scarce commodity. They have been a scarce commodity for over a year now in Venezuela, a country that was abundant in natural resources. Earlier this week, this very week, a 15-year-old boy was shot and killed for the crime of buying flour.
One study reports that 75 percent of the population of Venezuela--
this is unbelievable--has lost an average of 19 pounds due to food shortages. Even obtaining water can be an expensive proposition for those without running water at home. The shortage of basic goods has led to massive lines, has led to violence, has led to looting as people have become increasingly desperate for the basic, meager means to survive. We are just talking about basic necessities, Mr. Speaker.
This tragic humanitarian situation could have been prevented, Mr. Speaker, and no one is more responsible than the thug who rules Venezuela with an iron fist, Nicolas Maduro, and his despotic regime. The Maduro dictatorship presides over the world's largest oil reserves yet has managed to run the state oil company and the entire economy into the ground.
Socialism does not work. Communism does not work. One need only look at Venezuela. Instead of allowing humanitarian relief, the regime has nationalized the food and medical supply chain and put corrupt officials in charge. What could go wrong?
Earlier this month, I wrote a letter, along with my good friend Albio Sires, as well as Eliot Engel, the ranking member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and 12 other congressional colleagues joined Mr. Sires, Mr. Engel, and myself, urging the administration to use its voice, to use our vote, to use our influence at the United Nations Security Council to demand that Venezuelan authorities allow the delivery and the distribution of humanitarian aid. We were giving them what they need. Maduro would have none of it.
But I applaud our U.S. Ambassador at the U.N., Nikki Haley, for organizing a Security Council meeting on Venezuela last week. But more needs to be done, Mr. Speaker. As Ambassador Haley bravely said, Venezuela is on the edge of a humanitarian crisis, right here in our hemisphere. Humanitarian agencies must be allowed to operate independently in Venezuela, without interference from the thuggish Maduro regime, and deliver the aid that the people so desperately need. The world is ready to help Venezuela. Nicolas Maduro refuses this help.
Humanitarian agencies must say to Maduro, if they are hindered in any way, then those responsible must be held to account. Before I continue, Mr. Speaker, to address the Maduro regime's abuse of human rights in greater detail and how the United States can be a force for good in Venezuela, I yield to Albio Sires, my good friend from New Jersey.
Mr. SIRES. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Florida. I want to commend her for her passion and her commitment to helping the people of Venezuela. I thank her for making me part of this Special Order.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the ongoing crisis in Venezuela. With every week that passes, we see the situation in Venezuela becoming more critical.
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A country with the world's largest known oil reserves is spiraling into a collapsed state where people are struggling just to survive. Journalists and citizens risk their lives every day to report what is happening inside Caracas and around the country. We see that tensions are growing, and government security forces shoot first and don't even bother to ask questions later.
Maduro continues to keep political prisoners like Leopoldo Lopez under lock and key to send a strong message to those trying to question his actions. Just yesterday, we saw reports that government buildings in western Venezuela are being set ablaze. Make no mistake: It is the failed Chavismo policies and the authoritarian actions of Nicolas Maduro that have brought all of this pain and suffering upon the Venezuelan people.
Press reports show that of 800,000 businesses that opened during the Chavez regime, nearly 600,000 have shut down. Both the Obama and Trump administrations have sanctioned senior officials in the Venezuelan Government for their associations with narcotrafficking, money laundering, and other illicit activities.
Just today, Reuters released an exclusive report that the Venezuelan Government is in possession of 5,000 shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles that are typically used to shoot down low-flying planes and helicopters.
Last week, Spanish authorities interdicted a shipment of 6 tons of cocaine from Venezuela en route to their shores. With the recent sanctions of Vice President Tareck El Aissami, under the Kingpin Act, it has become clear that Venezuela's Government is acting as a narco-state and facilitating the shipment of narcotics throughout the region. These sanctions are not against the Venezuelan people but are carefully crafted and targeted towards the individuals who are committed to destroying the lives of millions of innocent civilians in exchange for money and power.
Last week, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned members of Venezuela's Supreme Court for their rulings that stripped power away from the National Assembly, further consolidating Maduro's authoritarian regime. Maduro and his cronies continue to get rich as they traffic money and drugs while doing nothing to help the millions of suffering people in Venezuela. They continue to loot the country as reports regarding the worsening situation continue to make front-page news throughout the region. Maduro's tactics are making it impossible to survive.
Multiple news reports confirm a growing health crisis as people lack access to basic medicines, and infant mortality rates and preventable diseases such as diptheria, malaria, and the Zika virus are all on the rise. In addition, nearly every day we hear of young children whose lives are cut short, whether it is from a bullet from Maduro's thugs or the lack of access to food, water, and basic services.
That is why I am grateful for the efforts of my colleagues here tonight who have supported several initiatives in Congress that work to hold these thugs accountable. My colleagues and I have held hearings, sent letters, and met with our allies in the region to work together to try to bring sound relief to the Venezuelan people.
Meanwhile, instead of focusing on the economy, Maduro is staging mock military exercises and stoking fears by spreading propaganda of U.S.-
led invasion.
The truth about Maduro is clear, and the international community is starting to unify against him. The OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro has wisely called for Venezuela's suspension from the OAS unless it frees its political prisoners, accepts humanitarian aid, and holds elections without delay.
I believe we need to work together with our allies around the world and continue to insist Maduro abide by international norms and give the Venezuelan people the freedom they deserve.
I thank my dear friend from Florida, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and the other Members here tonight for their relentless commitment to these important issues.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Sires for such an eloquent statement on behalf of the beleaguered and embattled Venezuelan people.
Before I yield so proudly to Mr. Castro of Texas, another member of our Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, I would like to say just a few words about the continuing human rights abuses and the deteriorating situation in Venezuela.
As we have heard from Mr. Sires, we are dealing with a corrupt dictatorship, and we are dealing with a brutal dictatorship. At least 42 are dead and 90 arrested since protests began in March of 2017, you can see on this poster.
This is a dictatorship that will go to all lengths to maintain its tight grip on power and silence the opposition by tear gas, by real bullets, by jailing, and by intimidation. The people of Venezuela are literally dying, Mr. Speaker, on the streets from the violence of the Maduro regime. They are dying on the streets from starvation, and they are dying from the lack of medical supplies, yet they still risk their lives.
This goes on each and every day in Venezuela. They go out into the streets. They demonstrate to the world that they will not be silenced, and what they desire is freedom, and what they desire is democracy, and what they desire is nothing less and nothing more than their God-given human rights, the very same intangibles that many in America here take for granted because we live in the greatest country in the world. We take for granted that we have our freedom.
But the ideals that we proudly espouse and defend around the world are alive and well in the streets of Venezuela. Venezuelans are protesting against the regime's continual assaults on Venezuela's constitutional and democratic order.
Like Chavez before him, Nicolas Maduro has a horrific human rights record, including restrictions on freedom of expression, restrictions on the press, widespread arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial killings, torture, and the list goes on and on.
In its human rights reports on Venezuela last year, our own State Department noted how the Maduro regime has misused the judiciary to undermine the National Assembly, a body overwhelmingly manipulated by the opposition since December of 2015. This opposition has risen to power thanks to the vote of the people.
So what did Nicolas Maduro say? Well, his supreme court nullified almost every action taken by the National Assembly, including refusing to allow lawmakers to take their seats in the legislature and overturning laws to free political prisoners and grow the economy.
I am so pleased to see that we have been joined by the chairman of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Mr. Duncan, tonight.
But things have only gotten worse since that time. In March, the regime controlled the Supreme Tribunal of Justice--a sad name for what it does--and ruled that it would resume the responsibilities of the National Assembly. It said: We are the state. Who needs the National Assembly that is manipulated and controlled by the opposition? We nullify its actions. We will assume the responsibility.
And although what the Tribunal said, they had to backtrack almost immediately because the condemnation internationally was so loud. It partially reversed its decision just a few days later, but the damage was already done, Mr. Speaker. Venezuelans had further proof of a break in the constitutional order.
Anti-regime protests have been going on, as we can see here, day after day, day after day, as hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have taken to the streets to demand relief from the Maduro repression. According to The New York Times, before these protests even began, Mr. Speaker, the Maduro regime had arrested 6,893 people, jailed 433 for political reasons just in the past few years, and there are at least 175 political prisoners behind bars today, including Leopoldo Lopez and Daniel Ceballos.
Joshua Holt, a United States citizen, Mr. Speaker, is being unjustly held for nearly a year. In September, I wrote a letter, joined by my colleagues here, to the State Department about Joshua's case. Joshua Holt's health has deteriorated over the last month. I urged the State Department to secure his unconditional release on humanitarian grounds. We all were humbled to meet with Joshua Holt's mom, who is so anxious to see his release, just last month.
So, Mr. Speaker, despite all of the Maduro regime's human rights abuses, the beatings, the violence, the murders, the repression, and the political prisoners, despite all of this, the Venezuelan people are refusing to be silenced. They are rising up, and they are protesting in even greater numbers. This is just amazing.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Castro), my good friend from the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee.
Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen and Congressman Albio Sires for their incredible work on this issue and all of their passion. I also thank the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee chairman, Congressman Duncan. I know how much he has worked on the issue of Venezuela, and Latin America also.
The people of Venezuela are in dire need of humanitarian assistance to endure critical food and medicine shortages. The desperation, oppression, and violence in Venezuela really are reaching a breaking point.
Three out of four Venezuelans have lost significant weight during the last year due to food shortages.
In 2016, the nation suffered a homicide rate of 91.8 per 100,000 people, making Venezuela the second most violent country in the world outside of a war zone.
We have reason to believe more than half of Venezuelans want to leave their home country.
Last year, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said Colombia should expect an ``avalanche'' of Venezuelan refugees, an influx that could complicate this critical time for Colombia's own peace agreement. Meanwhile, President Maduro's government is taking increasingly antidemocratic actions in violation of Venezuela's own constitution.
Since Venezuela's supreme court attempted to dissolve the country's legislature in March, the Venezuelan people have sustained massive protests, leading to a brutal crackdown from government security forces. The best outcome for this political crisis is a Venezuelan solution: a peaceful return to free and fair elections.
At the same time, the United States has a responsibility to work alongside our allies at the Organization of American States and the United Nations to hold Maduro's government accountable and to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Venezuela.
Last week, President Trump authorized sanctions against the members of Venezuela's supreme court who attempted to shut down the legislature. While U.S. sanctions against individuals in the Maduro regime are justified, sanctions work best when implemented multilaterally. More importantly, unilateral actions are no substitute for collective, coordinated pressure.
The OAS has scheduled a meeting of foreign ministers on the situation in Venezuela to take place on May 31 here in Washington, D.C. This meeting presents an opportunity to work with our partners and Venezuela's neighbors to support a return to democracy and respect for human rights. I hope Secretary Tillerson will represent the United States at this meeting and demonstrate our Nation's support for the Venezuelan people.
One of the reasons that I chose to join the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee when I was already part of the Foreign Affairs Committee is because I believe that there are many things that happen in Latin America that don't get the attention that they deserve here in the United States.
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It is amazing to think that there is a human rights crisis going on right now in our own Western Hemisphere. Of course, there are many challenges around the world. We know that because of the war in Syria and the unrest in the region, Europe, over the last few years, has faced its largest migration crisis since World War II.
There are challenges with human rights and freedom in every continent just about. But we have to make sure that we attend to the things that are happening in our own backyard, so to speak.
So I thank each of you for being here tonight to speak up on this issue of human rights in Venezuela and the crisis that they are going through.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, we are so pleased that Mr. Castro has, once again, joined us in this battle for human rights, for democracy, for justice, for the rule of law, in our hemisphere. His voice is a valiant one that needs to be heard and is always present whenever the struggle for human rights is mentioned.
So thank you, Mr. Castro, for this stance today and for the stance that you have taken on behalf of beleaguered people in our hemisphere every day.
Now, Mr. Sires and I are so thankful that our subcommittee chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Duncan), has joined us.
As I mentioned, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Sires is the ranking member of that subcommittee, and Mr. Duncan is the chairman of that subcommittee, a valiant voice for freedom that must be heard.
I yield to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Duncan).
Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the chairwoman, former chairwoman of the full committee when I first came to Congress, and a real leader on foreign affairs issues, focused on Cuba and Venezuela. She has been a real mentor to me, and I want to thank her for her work on this, giving us the opportunity to speak tonight.
Again, Ranking Member Sires has been a champion on our subcommittee. I want to echo the words about Mr. Castro as well. We have got a great Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere focusing on freedom and democracy in the Western Hemisphere.
What we see in Venezuela is alarming, as well as it is saddening, when we hear about Venezuelans who are scrounging for food in the dumpsters, eating domesticated animals, even flamingos; people who are hungry because the socialistic policies of the Maduro and the previous Chavez regime has not worked in Venezuela. A country that has bountiful natural resources, more oil than Saudi Arabia, should be leading this hemisphere in economics.
Yet because of the policies of the Chavez and Maduro governments, the people of Venezuela are continuing to be oppressed. This weekend, more than 2,000 Venezuelans took to the streets, marking, I think, the 50th day of protests against this regime. I can't think of any other way to describe this faux democracy in Venezuela, other than a regime.
The Venezuelan people are standing up and calling for a new government. They are calling for more democracy, true democracy, representation in their own government, freedoms that we take for granted here in this country, freedoms of speech, and the right to peacefully assemble, the right to participate in their government and have accountability, the right to petition their government for grievances. And they have got some grievances against the Maduro regime.
Yet Maduro continues to oppress the Venezuelan people. It is not unlike what we have seen in Cuba. Folks, socialism doesn't work, and it is not working in Venezuela, and they are a prime example. But Maduro doesn't want to listen to his own people in Venezuela and call for new democratic elections, where the people elect their representatives to congress and to the Presidency.
But he has called for elections, and he said just recently: `` `Votes or bullets. What do the people want?' Maduro asked a crowd of red-
shirted supporters waving Venezuela flags at the Miraflores presidential palace.''
Votes or bullets? Is that how we talk about the democratic process in a true democracy? I say no, and I tell the Venezuelan people, America stands with you as you approach democracy.
It is time for more people in this hemisphere and the Organization of American States, all the member countries, to stand with the Venezuelan people, and let's change the government in Venezuela through peaceful means, democratic means, that their Constitution calls for.
But yet, Maduro is ignoring the Constitution. In fact, he got the Supreme Court to go along with him to discount the National Assembly there, and, luckily, they reversed course on that because they realized the world was watching and the world was saying that is not how democracies operate.
The Venezuelan people need the support of the world, and I call on the world today to come to the backs, standing with, watching the backs of the Venezuelan people, because Maduro has told his snipers to get ready; told his snipers to get ready to attack the protesters that are protesting a supposed democrat government. Wow.
So I want to thank the chairwoman. I want to thank Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Governor of South Carolina, who has stood strong in the U.N. as Ambassador to the U.N. for the Trump administration. I want to thank her for standing with the Venezuelan people for democratic principles.
I want to thank all those in this Chamber, including my ranking member, for having stern and direct conversations with the OAS about Venezuela.
I want to thank Argentina for what they have done, stepping up to the plate. These are countries that understand the democratic process.
I want to thank Brazil for actually allowing the democratic process to work in the country of Brazil through an impeachment of their President, and allowing the democratic forces to work to return that to a representative government.
It is time for America to stand with our friends about democratic principles here. Snipers? That is not how we operate.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. I yield back the balance of my time.
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