After Historic Venezuelan Elections, Political Prisoners Should Be Immediately Released

 

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women’s Issues, issued the following statement today regarding Venezuela’s historic elections:

“The people of Venezuela have courageously stood up demanding a better future and rejected not just the Maduro regime and all the misery it has brought to Venezuela, but also the axis of repression and tyranny that it represents in the Western Hemisphere.

“Maduro and his followers should accept the will of the Venezuelan people, and accept accountability for mismanaging the economy, destroying the rule of law and violating the fundamental rights of countless Venezuelans. Acknowledging the will of the Venezuelan people by releasing all political prisoners, including Leopoldo Lopez, Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma and San Cristóbal Mayor Daniel Ceballos, would be a positive start and should happen immediately.

“These election results are even more remarkable considering the Obama Administration’s neglectful, and at times counterproductive, approach to the Western Hemisphere. This outcome in Venezuela comes at a time when the Obama Administration is propping up Maduro’s allies in Havana, and despite the fact that mounting serious human rights abuses and repression have been met largely with indifference from the White House and a failure to fully implement a sanctions law I helped pass last year to crack down on human rights violators.”