VIDEO: CASTRO DISCUSSES POLITICAL UNREST IN VENEZUELA, COMMENDS TARGETED SANCTIONS
Washington, D.C—Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20) discussed the political unrest in Venezuela during House Foreign Affairs Debate on Venezuelan Human Rights and Democracy Protection Act (H.R. 4587). Below are his remarks as delivered:
“I want to speak on these resolutions, with respect to the Venezuela Resolution, thank you Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen for your work. You know, the United States one of our jobs around the world is to make sure we stand up for democracy and for human rights and that’s without regard for what kind of political leaders are perpetrating human rights abuses—whether it is a fascist dictator or a communist leader , we’ve got to stand up to them. And too often we have not attended enough to issues in Latin America. There are things that happen in Latin America that if they had happened in another part of the world, we would jump on it more quickly. So I think this is, quite frankly, long-overdue. I do think that there is merit to the concern that Mr. Meeks raised that there is a process—in other words—this is a more aggressive step that usually we… in other parts of the world we would have done other things first, but the fact is now this has gone on for months and so we must act swiftly at this point. And I want to say particularly with respect to Latin America—first, we must realize that each of these countries is unique and different. But we also can’t overlook that the history of the region and the fact that in the 1970s and 80s you had leaders who disappeared thousands and thousands of people throughout Latin America and we can never let that happen again. So we have to be swift in condemning it and making sure that they know that the United States will take real action.”
Click on photo to view video remarks of Rep. Joaquin Castro (TX-20) at House Affairs Committee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcgrGdAMGss&feature=youtu.be
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