Rep. María Elvira Salazar
Toward ensuring that the United States supports the Venezuelan people’s best chance to end more than two decades of socialist dictatorship, U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) on Dec. 14 sponsored a bipartisan bill to reauthorize the anti-Maduro Venezuela Emergency Relief, Democracy Assistance, and Development (VERDAD) Act of 2019.
The VERDAD Reauthorization Act, H.R. 6831, which has seven original cosponsors, including U.S. Reps. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL), would reauthorize the VERDAD Act and extend sanctions on Venezuela through Dec. 31, 2025.
The law supports efforts to restore democracy in Venezuela by sanctioning key regime officials of Nicolás Maduro Moros, who has served as the president of Venezuela since 2013. The law also safeguards the rights and liberties of those escaping socialist persecution, according to a bill summary provided by the lawmakers.
“The dictator Maduro and his lackeys are doing everything in their power to ensure Chavismo’s primary opponent, María Corina Machado, never reaches Miraflores,” Rep. Salazar said. “Maduro is a tyrant who needs to go. My bill reauthorizing the VERDAD Act will show the Venezuelan people that America is still on their side in the fight against socialism.”
First passed in 2019, the VERDAD Act is critically important as Maduro has stepped up his attacks on Venezuelan institutions and the opposition, according to information from Rep. Salazar’s staff, which said the regime nullified the opposition’s primary results after his main competitor, María Corina Machado, won over 90 percent of the vote. Maduro also had his Attorney General arrest several of her closest political advisors.
H.R. 6831 is the companion bill to the same-named S. 3363, introduced on Nov. 29 by four Republican senators in their chamber.