Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, Nicaragua continues to offer its unconditional support to Nicolas Maduro and his dictatorial regime in Venezuela. And according to congressional testimony, Venezuela's entity, PDVSA, has also used its subsidiary in Nicaragua, which is called Albanisa--and I will give the exact letters of those names--to launder money. So, Mr. Speaker, if Venezuela's Maduro is using Nicaragua in order to evade U.S. sanctions, we need to take a closer look at these ties. We need to hold people accountable because all of that hurts the people of Venezuela and the people of Nicaragua. It helps the government, but it doesn't help the people. That is what this bill does. We want to hold the Nicaraguan Government accountable, just like we have done in other countries, as I said, in Central America. This is not something new, out of whole cloth, that we have invented. It has worked, and it has truly helped the people. Now, earlier this year, Mr. Sires and I, we traveled to Honduras, we traveled to Guatemala, and we saw firsthand how conditioning our support for these countries works and has been extremely effective. Has it hurt those countries? It has not. It has worked. It has strengthened their democracy. It has strengthened the rule of law, the independent judiciary. So placing conditions incentivizes countries to do the right thing, and it makes institutional reforms, as needed, to improve the livelihood of their citizens.…”