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The Midnight Raids of the Venezuelan Secret Police and Marco Rubio

In the Americas’ newest tyranny, the Venezuelan secret police, as always happens when socialist/communist regimes want to consolidate their power, have begun their late night raids against people who oppose them:

Senator Marco Rubio answers them.

Translation Excerpt:

“I have seen firsthand the corruption which results from the absolute power now in the hands of a privileged few in Nicolas Maduro’s government.

The vast horse ranches in Wellington, Florida and the mansions in Gables Estates. The private jets at our airports and $ 10,000 shopping sprees at the Mall at Merrick Place.

Vast amounts of wealth stolen from you by the families of those in power and those who support them.

While the people of Venezuela struggle to feed their families, how many of your leaders have gained weight?

While many people have been struggling to access basic medicines, when was the last time to relative of someone in power died in Venezuela because they could not get prescription medication?

We see them flying into Miami, Enjoying luxuries few Americans themselves enjoy, and then return with a smile on their face. As if to say, we can do anything we want, anywhere we want, and no one can stop us. “

Full Translation:

I am speaking to you tonight from Washington, DC But I come to you not as a United States Senator, but as Someone who was born and raised in a community shaped by the events of our hemisphere.

The over 1 million Cubans forced to flee their homeland because of the Castro dictatorship. The tens of thousands of Nicaraguans forced to begin life in a new country because of the Sandinistas. And now, sadly, the thousands of your fellow countrymen who seek asylum because of recent events.

The exodus of these people to the United States has enriched our country. And it has made the city of my birth and the state I represent here in Washington among the most vibrant in the world.

But it also divided families, killed dreams, and robbed these nations of the talents of their people.

The root cause of all these tragedies is not a battle between the political left and right. For a lot of nations in this hemisphere and around the world have found how to provide space for both points of view in its political system.

The root cause is tyranny.

Tyranny that unjustly imprisons and even kills those who the tyrants see as a danger to their power.

Tyranny that manipulates the power of government to close off of those with different points of view.

Tyranny that ultimately concludes it can not hold on to power if it must submit to free elections and a free press.

A close relative of tyranny is corruption. For with tyranny you eat unchecked power. And in the words of the wise British politician Lord Acton, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

I have seen firsthand the corruption which results from the absolute power now in the hands of a privileged few in Nicolas Maduro’s government.

The vast horse ranches in Wellington, Florida and the mansions in Gables Estates. The private jets at our airports and $ 10,000 shopping sprees at the Mall at Merrick Place.

Vast amounts of wealth stolen from you by the families of those in power and those who support them.

While the people of Venezuela struggle to feed their families, how many of your leaders have gained weight?

While many people have been struggling to access basic medicines, when was the last time to relative of someone in power died in Venezuela because they could not get prescription medication?

We see them flying into Miami, Enjoying luxuries few Americans themselves enjoy, and then return with a smile on their face. As if to say, we can do anything we want, anywhere we want, and no one can stop us.

And it was this, as much as anything else, which led me to take up this cause here in Washington.

The United States has its own challenges, both at home and abroad. But as someone raised in a community of so many people who were victims of tyranny and corruption in the nation of their birth, I simply could not stand by silently while history repeated itself in my time.

We have seen undemocratic leaders come to power in our hemisphere by manipulating and even abusing the instruments of democracy before. But yesterday, for the first time in almost four decades, We witnessed an attempt to formally and openly destroy the last remnants of democracy in a neighboring nation.

The tyrants usually do, they seek to cover their failures by blaming their opposition at home and others abroad. Thankfully, the people of Venezuela are too well informed and too sophisticated to fail for their tricks.

There is no US economic blockade on Venezuela. Yet the economy of a rich nation is in shambles, because the Maduro government has given away your oil and much of your sovereignty to Cuba.

Multiple nations and the Catholic Church have offered to provide food and medicine for their people, but the Maduro government has refused to allow it, because it uses access to food and medicine as a way to punish its opponents and reward those who remain loyal .

And every few months, The Maduro government sells oil to China and Russia for far below market value in exchange for cash. Those in power take a percentage of it for them and use the rest to make interest payments on the old debt, so they can keep borrowing money from the same all over again.

Now, speaking to you as a Senator of the United States, I state at the outset that it is neither my right nor my intention to interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation. But all nations have a right to determine with whom they seek to have relations and what the nature of those relations should be.

I for one, seek to have peaceful and respectful relations between the United States and Venezuela. But to Venezuela represented by legitimate and elected leaders. Not with leaders who have seized power without the consent of those claiming to represent.

For the United States, or any nation, to accept a legitimate government which holds on to power through intimidation and brutality, is equivalent to condoning those actions. It would be a betrayal to the principles our nation was founded on. And it would be to abandon the people of Venezuela.

In this struggle, we neither know nor you are alone. Since last night’s fraudulent exercise, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico and other nations from across the world have joined in announcing they do not recognize this constituent assembly.

In the days to come, You can expect the President of the United States to impose sanctions against even more individuals who have carried out and benefited from the tragedy that faces your nation.

And yes, it is my hope and my expectation, that the President will impose sanctions on economic sectors of the Mature regime in a way that does not harm the people, but deprives their corrupt government rulers from continuing to enrich themselves by stealing the treasure of A wealthy nation.

My closing message to you is this. You are not alone.

Your cause is being spoken about here in Washington. At the time of deep divisions in our own politics, both the left and the right here in the United States support the people of Venezuela and condemn the Maduro government. Even those who sympathized and defended the late Hugo Chavez, Condemn the direction Nicolas Maduro has taken your country.

Ultimately, the way out of the tragedy before you are not violent or armed conflict. Venezuela is only a free and fair election away from a better future.

If the mature regime is so confident in the support of its people, then why not schedule the free and fair election called in your constitution? Why do not you submit yourselves to the people in an election that recognizes the principles of one person and one vote?

Why do not they imprisoned for their political views?

And why not recognize the power of the National Assembly directly elected by the people?

For Nicolas Maduro, who I am sure is watching, the current path you will not end well for you.

Unlike Fidel Castro in 1959, there is no Soviet Union left to subsidize your government for the next 30 years. The loyalty of you depends entirely on your ability to continue to provide them with privileges most in Venezuela no longer have. When you can no longer provide them toilet paper, toothpaste and bread, they will no longer have any reason to be with you.

And I assure you, that already, there are those who yesterday wore their red shirt while celebrating the Constituent Assembly on national television, but this morning were already plotting to take your place when the time was right.

There is only one way forward, elections, freedom and peace.

I will continue to pray that God will create the space for this to happen.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • John A. Fleming August 2, 2017, 11:17 AM

    Los venezolanos voted for it. Let them eat their rich. We should help by closing off all travel from V to the USA so los ricos cannot escape. It’s none of our business.

    The day will come when they piano wire their self-chosen caudillos, and beg for our help to bail them out of their self-chosen ruin so they can continue their gran fiesta de socialismo. Not one red cent! We don’t owe them anything. Wipe the nation of Venezuela off the map, put in a blank spot, and write upon it “Here be dragons!”

    Either that, or enforce the Monroe Doctrine, kick out Russia and China, and subject the surviving beggars to good ol’ Yanqui colonialismo. It’ll be better than any deal they’ll get from R or C.

  • John A. Fleming August 2, 2017, 11:30 AM

    And Rubio is a typical politician of the non-Anglo Americas persuasion. You seem them everywhere in all the countries. Oh so smooth, ¡tan galan! Give him power, and he’ll regress the United States to the Americas mean, while he acquires those estates and manses and his family spree shops. I don’t know why, but that’s just the way of the world.

  • John A. Fleming August 2, 2017, 11:31 AM

    Los venezolanos voted for it. Let them eat their rich. We should help by closing off all travel from V to the USA so los ricos cannot escape. It’s none of our business.

    The day will come when they piano wire their self-chosen caudillos, and beg for our help to bail them out of their self-chosen ruin so they can continue their gran fiesta de socialismo. Not one red cent! We don’t owe them anything. Wipe the nation of Venezuela off the map, put in a blank spot, and write upon it “Here be dragons!”

    Either that, or enforce the Monroe Doctrine, kick out Russia and China, and subject the surviving beggars to good ol’ Yanqui colonialismo. It’ll be better than any deal they’ll get from R or C.

  • Howard Nelson August 2, 2017, 4:15 PM

    Rather than give credit when and where it is do, do we denigrate one who speaks the truth to those poor souls who cower and to those who cower behind their power?
    Marco Rubio’s sin? He is less than perfect, not good enough compared to some of his critics.
    We need more sinners like Marco; perfectionists like Jesus and Gandhi cannot be trusted because they left some of the job incomplete expecting we mere mortals would continue, in word and deed, to honorably pursue justice with compassion.
    Have you noticed that we geniuses have perfected the means for bitching, moaning, and groaning. Oh! You believe you’re not one of those geniuses? Where’s your evidence?

  • John A. Fleming August 2, 2017, 5:11 PM

    I tried to get another comment through but it bounced. To summarize: V’s agonies are none of our affair. They chose it, let them dig themselves out, or not. Not a red cent from us!

    “A free and fair election away”? C’mon. They did that for 50 years, and always for more socialism.

    Marco, imo, is just another politician who would spend our money bailing them out after that election so they could keep their socialist paradise, and he’d get rich off the vig, and get powerful. It’s out in the open now. All pols, D’s and R’s, just want you to give them your money on pain of death, then shut up and go away, so they can dole it out to their friends.

  • GoneWithTheWind August 2, 2017, 6:40 PM

    “V’s agonies are none of our affair”

    Really! Could you be so naive? You won’t have to wait long to see the evidence. China and Iran putting their forces and weapons in Venezuela, what could go wrong. Terrorists getting so many Venezuelan passports that there weren’t enough to passports for their own citizens. Where did these terrorists go once they got Venezuelan passports? We will boycott Venezuelan oil so they will sell it to China and our citizens will pay more for gasoline at the pump. Tens of thousands perhaps hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan refugees will escape Venezuela in the next few years where do you suppose they will go? But don’t worry, it’s not our problem…

  • Casey Klahn August 2, 2017, 7:01 PM

    It’s painful having a long memory. Obama did lend verbal support to Maduro early on. Obama is a fellow traveler of Maduro’s, in my opinion.

    Venezuela is an object lesson. Don’t go Socialist/Communist. Don’t do it.

  • Nori August 2, 2017, 9:17 PM

    The people who continue to loot Venezuela are walking their dogs in Manhattan.
    They will continue to do so.
    Rubio is a political animal,he has genuine family history of real oppression,and he uses it to further his ambition. Not surprising.
    Venezuela’s morass is of their own making. They voted in the socialistas,Chavez,Maduro,darling dingleberries of marxism’s neverending grasp. Sean Penn & Danny Glover, who do you stand with now? Oh,that’s right…you live right here,in America. Where George Clooney has decided to relocate.

  • John A. Fleming August 2, 2017, 11:09 PM

    I’d already gone there GWTW. Enforce the Monroe Doctrine and kick out C&R, and make it our economic colony, and admit no venezolanos to the USA. Don’t be a sap for a beggar’s threat. They want us to rescue them, so they can keep their glorious socialist Bolivarian revolution going. C&R will just suck them dry and cast them off. We should be as every bit as hard as C&R.

    Look at Marco’s ridiculous statement (promise) of one election will fix everything. Nobody can be that stupid. Marco is promising a bailout with our money. He should have told them to give up on socialismo forever, but he didn’t. That tells you all you need to know.

  • ghostsniper August 3, 2017, 7:25 AM

    @GWTW, well YOU can take on that problem if you like but I’ll have none of it.
    No, politicians choices are never mine.
    What goes on in V in of no more concern to me than what goes on on my neighbors property.
    When he crosses my property line in any way he will find out instantly what major life turmoil is all about. Until that time, I have a full plate to deal with as life is short and getting shorter each day.

  • Howard Nelson August 3, 2017, 11:57 AM

    Venezuela is in unstable condition for some reasons similar to those of China of Tiananmen Square 1989 time, and Iran today.
    The citizens are restless, dissatisfied and seeking means and opportunity to overthrow their rulers.
    Our government can help weaken the tyrants by interfering in their profitable machinations. Then, as outlined in our Declaration of Independence, para 2,
    it’s up to the people to setup their own citizen-serving system. No need for our boots on their ground. Loans we might offer could be repaid with oil.

    P.S. The –do, do — in my Aug 2 comment above, should read — due, do. Forgive my doodoo, please.

  • GoneWithTheWind August 3, 2017, 3:45 PM

    Ghostsniper:
    That might work with your neighbor but it is not a good policy between countries. I am not comfortable waiting until a country attacks or causes us harm to then “react” to them. We need to think strategically and to understand threats and deal with them in a proactive manner. Am I happy about having to deal with this problem? Of course not but I reject the head in the sand approach and I don’t have a lot of faith in the bluster and threatening approach either (“When he crosses my property line in any way he will find out instantly what major life turmoil is all about”).

    I’m not suggesting we invade them or assassinate their president I’m suggesting using all diplomatic resources and backing it up with a big stick. It is possible that Maduro might prefer to leave the country with a suitcase or two of the money he looted rather then end up like Noriega.

  • Vermont Woodchuck August 4, 2017, 6:53 AM

    No one is going to embarrass Penn, Glover or Clooney by asking them about Venezuela. The media will not disturb the Hollyweird pigs.

  • ghostsniper August 4, 2017, 7:08 PM

    GWTW, your last comment is overflowing with fear, why is that?
    Are you not aware of the capability of the US military?
    Believe it or not if anyone anywhere tries to harm the US they will be wiped out asap.
    Go take a look what they’ve stashed at the top of hawk hill, anywhere USA.
    They aren’t bothering the proverbial us so let them alone until they do.
    If you want to summons a group out of your own resources and go tell them what for, knock yourself out. But if you ask known thieves to further attack me that puts you on the same side of the fence as V. Lighten up on the caffeine already.

  • Bill Jones August 6, 2017, 3:07 PM

    What business is this to Americans?