Marco Rubio

What are your recommendations for the President, as far as how important that challenge is?

They are efforts to, basically, make these nations economically, politically, and, eventually, militarily dependent on and vulnerable to China.

They have most certainly not embraced democracy. They have actually gotten more autocratic.

Defending human rights isn't just a good thing to do or just the right moral thing to do, which it most certainly is.

One of the first things autocratic rulers do, almost by definition, is they violate the human rights of their people.

There is no equivalence between the promotion of democracy and Russian and other attempts to interfere in democracy.

Promoting democracy is in the vital national interests of the United States.

The major faultline in global affairs repeatedly is the competition, really a global competition between autocratic systems of governance and the democratic system

They point to our model and say, 'It is dysfunctional.'

The world has always been influenced by whatever the most powerful country in the world's model is.

We have to start from the basis that we are in a competition.

I completely reject that view, but it is one that is being effectively promoted.

The United States does have a very potent power of example.

That is where we get a lot of complaints from American companies seeking to do work in the region.

The private sector needs to be a voice for democracy.

The one thing they all have in common is authoritarianism in some way, shape, or form.

I want to make sure I do not forget to get back to the point you just raised, because I think it is at the heart of what is happening in this region and all over the world.

This is going to be a vote that is fraudulent, that is not free and fair.

It is a fraud, and it is why none of the international organisms will go in and supervise it.

My view, and I am pretty confident that I am correct about this, is that Maduro is trying to follow a pattern that we see Putin pull off in Russia.

So even though there is bad news that there is corruption and the instability that comes with it, the good news is that the processes and the institutions seem to be working and gaining momentum in at least certain parts of the region.

In essence, there was a time not long ago, and there are countries in the region like Venezuela and other parts of the world, where corruption is rampant.

I really do believe that the administration's decision on TPS is going to make that even more challenging.

This is a hearing that is timely, and it comes at a critical moment for the region.

The hearing of the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women's Issues will come to order.