Bob Menendez

I am not asking Venezuela's neighbors or the Organization of American States (OAS) to intervene in Venezuela's politics.

The defining issue of current-day Venezuela is the wholesale, state-sanctioned, and amply documented violation of human rights of those who oppose the government.

We can aggressively hold individual political and military figures responsible for promoting violence, condoning or committing human rights violations.

Economic sanctions could well collapse an already staggering, imploding economy and cause great suffering to the Venezuelan people.

But is it not really unusual for us to basically sit and watch the situation in Venezuela continue to deteriorate to the great suffering of the people of Venezuela, not to mention suppression of all those freedoms?

I hope that this type of hearing will encourage the administration to do more for democracy, for human rights, for the promotion of fundamental freedoms in this hemisphere.

After 15 years in power the government owns this crisis. They made it and it is theirs.

I think a strong case has been made for us to at least consider sanctions.

We have to condemn those arrests in the strongest possible terms. Those were peaceful protests.

How many more people have to be tortured? How many more have to be arrested? How many more have to be fired upon before we say, well, guess what, the process is not working?

I deeply believe that the United States cannot and should not be a main protagonist of what is going on there.

The Maduro government would clearly love to turn their domestic crisis into a bilateral one, and we should not be sucked into that dynamic

The primary responsibility for the excessive, unjustified use of force rests with the Maduro administration.

We must also be perfectly clear that a foreign power is acting openly in Venezuela, fueling the country's instability and economic and political crisis.

I strongly oppose and urge against any United States oil embargo of Venezuela.

Unfortunately, as we speak here today, there is another improbable and surprising external power calling the shots in Venezuela and interfering with the will of the people there, Cuba.

I do not know how long I am personally willing to wait for those set of circumstances to continue without pursuing a more vigorous action such as the sanctions that several of us have called for.

I have introduced legislation, along with Senator Rubio and Senator Nelson, which calls for targeted sanctions on individuals responsible for rights violations.

The scale of human rights violations in Venezuela, a report documenting human rights abuses far worse than I had anticipated.

President Obama faces the gravest challenge of his presidency in figuring out how to respond to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

I support the actions of the Ukrainian Government to retake government buildings and try to restore order--they have a right and responsibility to do so; it is their country, after all.

We need to take a more proactive stance to prevent and preempt further Russian aggression...

The current crisis is the creation of Vladimir Putin whose goals are to retain Crimea, destabilize Ukraine...

I strongly support doing what we can to help Ukraine, the interim government, civil society and soon a newly elected leadership, but helping Ukraine requires simultaneously pushing back firmly against Putin and his regime.

Staying in power is what drives Putin's actions internally and also across Russia's borders.