Friends of Freedom Make Case For Sanctions On Eve of Venezuela House Vote

On Eve of House Vote on Venezuela, Friends of Freedom Make The Case For Favorable Action on Sanctions

Washington, D.C.: The U.S. House of Representatives will take up The Venezuelan Human Rights and Democracy Protection Act (H.R. 4587) tomorrow. In the run-up to the vote to impose sanctions on individuals and institutions associated with the increasingly repressive regime of Nicolás Maduro, a just-released summary of the proceedings of an important, bipartisan meeting of champions of liberty in Venezuela offers fresh evidence of the need for such penalties.

The event was a roundtable featuring many prominent independent Venezuela thought-leaders and other friends of freedom who convened to address the topic: Pressure, Sanctions & Strategy – How to Influence Change in Venezuela. Sponsored by the Washington-based Center for Security Policy’s Menges Hemispheric Studies Program and Miami’s Foro de Promoción Democrática Continental and InterAmerican Institute for Democracy, the roundtable featured in person and recorded remarks by several of the nation’s most influential lawmakers: Sens. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL).

The meeting brought together 100 individuals from Venezuela, the United States and other nations in the hemisphere who share a commitment to helping Venezuela’s beleaguered opposition challenge – through peaceful protests and civil activism – the crippling shortages, sky-high (60%) inflation, the worthless currency (88% devaluation in the last 3 months) and repression brought on by Cuban-style communism, as practiced by the regimes of the late Hugo Chavez and his chosen successor, Nicolás Maduro.

Since the protests started in February 2014, Maduro’s security forces have killed 46 people, injured more than 1000 and arrested over 3000, with reports that many of those in detention have been subjected to torture and other mistreatment.

Such outrages have inspired a desire on the part of Americans and their elected representatives on both sides of the aisle to stand with the people of Venezuela and against their tormentors. This sentiment was broadly shared by the participants in the roundtable who, when surveyed, responded as follows on two points directly relevant to tomorrow’s deliberations in the House of Representatives:

• 71% of the participants agreed that U.S. sanctions in response to the Venezuelan government’s criminal abuse of power will put pressure on the regime’s illegal activity and cash flow, perhaps bringing it to the point of financial collapse. Such pressure may lead the regime to ask independent Venezuelans trusted by world investors to help fix the economic and financial mess Chavez and Maduro have created.

• 90% of those present agreed that Venezuela’s operating model establishes state monopolies with absolute discretion to use public power and money secretly – and that U.S. sanctions would be vital for deconstructing the state monopolies and separating governing powers to counter official corruption, theft, despotism and secrecy.

On the occasion of the release of the summary of the roundtable’s proceedings, Center for Security Policy President Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. observed: “The American people are shocked by what is going on in Venezuela – no longer our ally, but still our fourth largest oil supplier. We have a vital interest in what happens there and an obligation to help those who share our commitment to liberty but are afflicted by the Maduro regime’s repression at home and subversion in much of the hemisphere. The Pressure, Sanctions & Strategy Initiative is an important contribution to that end.”

Media coverage of the Roundtable was extensive (see, for example: NBC Telemundo television report, a front-page article in the Nuevo Herald , and reports in the Latin American Herald Tribune and PanAmPost).

Two of the presenters at the Roundtable – political consultant and columnist Michael Rowan and entrepreneur Russ Dallen – are in Washington this week and available for briefings and interviews concerning the situation on the ground in Venezuela and what should be done about it.  For more information, contact: Jordi Chervitz at 202-719-2411 or [email protected].