WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, along with Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) released a bipartisan statement after the Maduro regime recently announced a new date for presidential elections. Maduro has disqualified the leading opposition candidate, María Corina Machado, from participating in the upcoming presidential elections. The Venezuelan dictatorship has also arbitrarily arrested members of Machado’s campaign team and continues to censure the independent press.
“The United States and the international community must recognize the stark reality about the criminal Maduro regime and the recently announced elections: Venezuela’s institutions are currently incapable –by design– of holding free, fair, and democratic elections so long as narco-dictator Maduro’s handpicked cronies run all aspects of the process, including the National Electoral Council. As the Venezuelan dictatorship arbitrarily determines who can and cannot run, so-called elections in the nation will simply result in Maduro’s favor. The opposition candidate, María Corina Machado, whom the majority of primary voters in Venezuela elected as their nominee, is currently prohibited from running in the presidential election for the simple reason that Maduro is scared to confront her in a truly democratic process. He knows Venezuelans overwhelmingly voted for her in their collective pursuit of a life free from tyranny.
“Per the Barbados agreement, the U.S. should reimpose oil sanctions, and refuse to recognize any electoral ‘winner’ of a process that excluded the Venezuelan people’s democratically elected opposition candidate, María Corina Machado.”
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