Tillis and Cruz Express Concerns Over U.S. Relations with Venezuela

Press Release

Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) recently sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, expressing grave concerns over Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon's recent trip to Venezuela. The Senators questioned the Administration's engagement with President Nicolas Maduro given his regime's human rights violations, disastrous economic policies, and anti-American rhetoric.

"Secretary Kerry, if we have learned anything from the deteriorating condition of human rights in Cuba following the Obama administration's engagement with Fidel and Raul Castro, it is that unconditional outreach to totalitarian regimes does little to curb their human rights abuses," the senators wrote. "Rather, it emboldens them to escalate their oppression without fear of any reprisal from the United States. In fact, Maduro appears to have detained two additional opposition figures, Francisco "Pancho" Marquez Lara and Gabriel San Miguel, either while Mr. Shannon was still in Venezuela or immediately after his departure.

"Rather than propping up Maduro's failed and oppressive regime, now might be the moment for the United States to stand unequivocally with the political opposition forces he is trying to silence."

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