NOTICIAS

Interview: Sen. Marco Rubio warns about socialist regimes in Latin America and the presence of China and Iran in the region

April 20, 2024

VOZ

A key moment for the hemisphere

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Rubio criticized the position of the current administration towards allies or those who want to become allies. “We must be friends and support leaders and governments that are aligned with us, and that is not done,” he said. He pointed out that at this time, there is a “tendency” in American policy to ignore, or even punish, those who want to align themselves with the United States….

“We want to be friends of our friends, and we have to confront those who oppose not only the interests of the United States, but the interests of the free world.”

On the presence of China and Iran in Latin America

Rubio is one of the few senators who has criticized the presence of China and Iran in Latin America and the threat this means for the region. “Cuba has a long history of intelligence and military cooperation with the communist government of China,” said Rubio, explaining the relations of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with the Castro regime.

…He also highlighted businesses in telecommunications, and stressed that in many cases, the governments of these countries do not want to do business with the CCP, but they have no other alternative. He explained that the relations between some governments in the region and the CCP in many cases have their roots in the negligence of the United States. “In many cases, we have not done enough to create alternatives to what China has done in many countries.”

Regarding Iran, he noted that this regime aims to have a presence in the region directly and also through Hezbollah. Primarily, this is because Latin America serves as a place for them to raise resources through illicit businesses. The second reason, says the senator, is that Latin America is a place where they have operatives, or terrorists, to take actions against the interests of the Jewish community or the United States. In the particular case of Venezuela, Rubio specified that, in addition, there is a relationship between Iran and the sale of weapons.

The Biden administration’s relationship with the Venezuelan regime

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“Reimposing sanctions is the right thing to do, but it is not enough, it is not simply reimposing sanctions because they violated all the agreements they made with us, but now what we are seeing is a complete assault against democracy. They have disabled all the candidates who could possibly threaten even a stolen election … we have seen the arrest of many people from Maria Corina’s campaign team.”

The senator assured that the United States must work to explain to the European Union what is happening in Venezuela so that they also begin to impose sanctions against the regime….

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On the infiltration of the Castro dictatorship in American institutions

Rubio noted that Rocha helped influence Bolivia’s elections in a way that went against the interests of the United States… It is very worrying that many of these people who work for Cuban intelligence are not paid, but do so out of sympathy, which, he assured, complicates the situation, since it means that they are truly committed and can dedicate their entire lives to infiltrating until they reach places where they have real power.

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Border crisis

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Specifically regarding the case of Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Rubio stated that “it is not only a matter of bad policy, but that he lied to Congress. He told Congress certain things, certain figures, that turned out not to be true and that he knew were not true. but he said it…. And lying to Congress is a crime.”

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