No sanction imposed by the U.S. can cause more damage or be as politically destabilizing for the Venezuelan government as the sanctions that the Maduro administration and its Cuban handlers are currently imposing on 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?

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.

The only additional thing that I will urge you is that when these individuals are sanctioned, it be very clear why.

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

More should be done to make it apparent to the rest of the world that Venezuela today just impersonates a democracy and is not a democracy.

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

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.

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 United States will not stand by an idly watch as the rights of people, with whom we share this hemisphere, are systematically violated by an anti-American government.

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.