The United States will not give up the fight for democracy and respect for human rights in Latin American countries in the face of “what is happening” on the continent, said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez.
“We continue to stand up for democracy and respect for human rights in Cuba, in Venezuela, in Nicaragua, also when we see what is happening in El Salvador and other parts of the hemisphere,” said the Cuban-born legislator.
The Democratic legislator, who struggles with. foreign policy issues from the upper house of the federal legislature, spoke to the Hispanic press at noon on Thursday in Congress.
Menendez maintained that the sanctions imposed by the Biden Administration on elements of the Cuban military were along the right lines.
On Venezuela, the senator valued the coordination from the State Department for countries to disavow the recent “fictitious elections”.
On Nicaragua, the Latin American consensus is overwhelming, said Menéndez, noting that most countries have recognized “that Daniel Ortega has become a dictator.”
Other Hispanic lawmakers have lambasted the governments of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.
Ahead of the midterm elections in Venezuela, Republican Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart told Voice of America that any electoral process lacking “freedom of the press, freedom of political parties and when people cannot express themselves freely,” cannot be considered legitimate.
“We have to continue helping the Venezuelans, that brave people, and also putting pressure not only on the dictatorship in Venezuela and those who help that dictatorship,” said Díaz-Balart then, who criticized that, in his opinion, the Biden Administration tends to relax sanctions on the oil-producing country.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio, of the Senate Western Hemisphere Affairs Committee, told last weekend to. Radio Mambí that his office will continue to support with resolutions the Cuban people and other countries that suffer abuses of power.
The repression “is a strategy to intimidate, to send a very clear message to the population” so that they desist from protesting, he said about the Cuban government.
Senator Menendez also spoke Thursday about the change of government in Honduras with. President-elect Xiomara Castroand pointed out that, from words to deeds, there is a gap.
“We start from the position that we see not only the words but the actions of any president. Honduras is an important part of Central America and of migratory issues, if Honduras follows in steps towards democracy, respect for human rights and adherence to the law, it will have the help of the United States and if not, we will have a completely different position”, he pointed out.
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