Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

These are the actions of a thug who wants to stay in power no matter what the cost.

It pains me so much to see Nicaragua go down this path again.

Ortega is the sole individual responsible for the ongoing violence and the rising death toll in Nicaragua today.

I have already led two letters urging sanctions on Ortega's cronies for their roles in corruption and human rights violations against the Nicaraguan people.

There should also be a written game plan in which all the concern from all sides were addressed.

He is bad and she is a great partner in terror.

Activists are still being held for days at a time. Las Damas de Blanco are still being beaten and arrested.

In my native homeland of Cuba, Raul Castro continues to call the shots as head of the Communist Party.

Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro continues to rule with impunity ignoring the pleas of the Venezuelan people for new leadership.

Since widespread protests began on April 18 in Nicaragua, we have seen over 300 people killed under the direction of Daniel Ortega and his henchmen.

This bill should lay out the conditions we need to see reform at UNRWA before the U.S. will allocate more money to that agency.

I applaud their efforts to find a way forward in ensuring that we hold UNRWA accountable and that no U.S. taxpayer dollars are being misused against our interest.

We would like to see Pakistan arrest, expel, or bring to the negotiating table Taliban leadership...

The wrongs committed upon American citizens have gone unpunished, particularly in the case of the murders of these four brave pilots.

Sadly, many of our allies around the world turned a blind eye to that atrocious attack

There is no question that Castro ordered his Cuban air force to shoot down the two unarmed civilian aircraft

I have urged administration after administration to bring these perpetrators to the United States so that they can be prosecuted in accordance with our laws and justice for this criminal act can be served.

Thank you so much, Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel, for your leadership in holding this important hearing.

One of my biggest concerns is the increasing amount of collaboration between repressive regimes as dictators and their accomplices get together and they share best practices and techniques for crushing dissent.

I appreciate the subcommittee's commitment to our duty as Members of Congress to examine how the U.S. is allocating its finite resources to confront a range of threats in the Middle East.

If you want to be a friend of the United States, drive the terrorists out of your mosque.

We can acknowledge the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and work with our allies to address it, even as we decry Hamas.

Both of these were policy objective heavy and short on strategy.

It is often difficult to know if the request matches the objective, because we are often presented with broader generic policy objectives rather than strategies to achieve those objectives.

This year's budget request for the Middle East and North Africa, sadly, is no different.