On Monday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted in a bipartisan landslide to pass legislation banning contracts with the socialist regime in Venezuela led by dictator Nicolás Maduro, who rigged the Venezuelan election in his favor earlier this year.
🚨BREAKING: Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela's dictator, has ordered his police force to prevent election observers from monitoring the ballot counting process at voting centers nationwide.
— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) July 29, 2024
The bill — titled the “Banning Operations and Leases with the Illegitimate Venezuelan Authoritarian Regime (BOLIVAR) Act” — was introduced by Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).
The bill states: “The head of an executive agency may not enter into a contract for the procurement of goods or services with any person that the head of an executive agency determines, with the concurrence of the Secretary of State, knowingly engages in significant business operations with an authority of the Government of Venezuela that is not recognized as the legitimate Government of Venezuela by the United States.”
Waltz, who was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump as national security adviser for his second term, issued a statement about the bipartisan measure.
“The BOLIVAR Act compliments existing sanctions by prohibiting the U.S. government from contracting with any person that has business operations with the illegitimate government of Nicolas Maduro, as well as any successor government of Venezuela not recognized as legitimate by the United States,” he wrote.
Waltz went on to highlight the fact that “Venezuela is in crisis due to the illegitimate, authoritarian rule and the Marxist policies of Nicolas Maduro and his Caracas cartel” — calling out the Venezuelan despot and “his cronies” for their authoritarian actions, noting that they “have mocked and ignored the electoral will of the Venezuelan people, inciting violent action against the democratic opposition.”
Edmundo González Urrutia won the elections in Venezuela with around 71% of the votes, according to the public analysis of the electoral records.
Maduro committed the biggest election fraud in Latin America in front of millions of people around the world. pic.twitter.com/NkGttpXv1A
— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) July 29, 2024
He then called on Americans to stand in “solidarity with the brave activists” speaking out against the Venezuelan socialist regime.
“Our policy must be based on solidarity with the brave activists that strive to break the shackles of oppression and not provide aid and comfort to their oppressors,” Waltz argued. “We must maintain existing sanctions against the regime and seek to expand sanctions to minimize Maduro’s resources to abuse the freedoms and prosperity of the Venezuelan people. This legislation sends a clear and powerful message to Maduro, as well as other dictators around the world, that there will be no appeasement, there will be no tolerance, there will be no reward for their rogue, illegal actions. … I urge the Senate to quickly pass this important bill and send it to the President’s desk for his signature.”
Meanwhile, the stolen election in Venezuela was directly caused by the Biden-Harris administration, which made a ridiculous deal with Maduro’s socialist regime that the U.S. would reduce sanctions in exchange for the country holding legitimate elections.
Biden & Harris broadly eased Trump sanctions on Maduro regime as part of a “deal” for elections in #Venezuela
Today was that election and it was a complete fraud
The latest example of how our enemies have suckered Biden and Harris repeatedly over the last four years
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 29, 2024
Of course, the election earlier this year was anything but legitimate, as exit polls showed Maduro’s opponent, Edmundo González Urrutia, winning in a landslide — but Maduro was still declared the winner, prompting widespread protests.
BREAKING: Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and candidate Edmundo González have officially declared victory in the election.
"Venezuela has a new elected president and his name is Edmundo González Urrutia. The victory has been absolute. We won in absolutely every… pic.twitter.com/kStBbfM8Pc
— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) July 29, 2024
Maduro then went so far as to order the arrest of his opposition in September after Urrutia declared that the socialist dictator had stolen the election. Urrutia has been charged with “‘usurpation’ of public functions, ‘forgery’ of a public document, incitement to disobedience, sabotage, and ‘association’ with organized crime and financiers of ‘terrorism,’” according to AFP.
