On the recordMarch 11, 2019
As I deliver these remarks, the people of Venezuela are without food, water, medicine, and now even electricity. The organizing principle of American policy seems to be the need to drive Maduro from power. What if Maduro is not really in power right now? What if the people who are really calling the shots in Venezuela are a group of transnational criminal organizations that merely maintain Maduro as a figurehead? And what if their entire purpose is to draw the United States into an ill-advised war to create a massive migration of people throughout Latin America, eroding borders, jeopardizing nation-states, and ultimately leading to a permissive environment for more illicit activity to occur? These are important questions we have to ask. My constituents have to go to Central and South America and fight these wars. And certainly, as a Congress, we need to be very critical in our thinking to not get our Nation in another ill-advised war. ____________________
