Florida lawmakers speak in Doral, praise U.S. effort to capture Maduro
Several Florida lawmakers spoke in Doral on Monday and praised the Trump administration’s effort after deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was captured by U.S. forces.
U.S. senators Rick Scott and Ashley Moody, and House Rep. Carlos Gimenez, spoke at Las Vegas Cuban Cuisine where the three Republicans commended and defended the Trump administration’s actions over the weekend in Venezuela.
“When I got the phone call early, very early, Saturday morning from Marco Rubio, I was ecstatic. I was always hoping this was going to happen,” said Scott.
Scott praised Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, whom he said is “not probably getting enough recognition today.” He added: “If it hadn’t been for what she was willing to do and others … we also wouldn’t be here. And I want to congratulate her [on winning the] Nobel Peace Prize.”
Moody said that Maduro “hijacked” the Venezuelan government and was “not the rightful president,” while Gimenez, who represents parts of Miami and the Florida Keys, said there are still others wanted by the U.S. government in Venezuela that must be brought to justice.
“I’m heartened also by the words that were spoken by the president yesterday, saying he’s now turned his eye a little bit over to Cuba,” he said. “If you’re shuddering a little bit, if you’re a little bit scared in Cuba … because the president doesn’t say stuff just to say stuff. I mean … on more than one occasion, he’s mentioned Cuba publicly and privately. He’s mentioned Cuba, and he understands that the Cuban regime is at the weakest point it’s been in a very, very long time.”
Meanwhile, at an event in Sanderson on Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also praised the capture of Maduro.
“For many many years we’ve seen the country of Venezuela suffering under the yoke of Marxist ideology, first with Hugo Chavez, and then with Nicolas Maduro. We have a lot of people in the state of Florida that have first-hand knowledge of that, there’s people that have fled to the United States, we have a big community in South Florida, and you will be hard-pressed to find a reign as destructive as the Chavez-Maduro reign has been, taking a country that had been prosperous, that has an abundance of resources and basically destroying it, making it so that it’s miserable, repressed and now one of the poorest countries,” DeSantis said. “Maduro was indicted and he is the head of a drug cartel and he was releasing people from his prisons and sending them to our southern border under the Biden administration. So that operation that was successful, he deserves to be brought to justice and my sincere hope is that the people of Venezuela are going to be able to liberate themselves from the yolk of the Chavez-Maduro rein because it has been one of the most destructive reigns of any in the Western hemisphere’s history.”
Maduro’s capture happened during the early morning hours on Saturday after the Trump administration launched a major military attack on Venezuela.
After Maduro and his wife, first lady Cilia Flores, were captured, they were indicted in the U.S. for alleged narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy and weapons offenses.
On Monday, Maduro and his wife arrived at a New York courthouse for their first appearance in the case, where they pleaded not guilty.
There has been a wide range of reactions after the operation in Venezuela, where lawmakers have expressed their support as well as their concerns towards the Trump administration’s actions.
During an appearance on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. is not a war with Venezuela, and that the United States would not take a day-to-day role in governing Venezuela other than enforcing an existing “oil quarantine” on the country.
