Marco Rubio: “I wish to speak about two separate topics. The first is Venezuela. Venezuela is a country in our hemisphere in total…”

“I wish to speak about two separate topics. The first is Venezuela. Venezuela is a country in our hemisphere in total crisis, total chaos, and that is because of a number of things: failed leadership, failed economic policies, a complete societal breakdown, human rights abuses, and now a de facto political coupe that has plagued the country for about 15 years. This all started with Hugo Chavez and has now continued with Nicolas Maduro, his successor. Let's talk about the first cause of the disaster that has now befallen the people of Venezuela--failed leadership. For over 15 years now, Venezuela has been ruled by two strongmen who have mismanaged the country with an iron fist, have squandered its vast wealth and natural resources, they have imprisoned political opponents, they have corrupted all of the country's political institutions to ignore the will of the people and to entrench their power. By the way, this failed leadership has only gotten worse because the successor to Hugo Chavez is a completely incompetent person. On top of the fact he is a strongman, he is incompetent. He does not know what he is doing. The result is this very wealthy country, with a highly educated population, is being led by someone who, quite frankly, isn't qualified to lead anything, much less a nation of the stature of Venezuela. The second cause is failed economic policies. Venezuela suffers from shortages across the board.…”