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Cape Canaveral, FL — U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) issued a statement after the U.S. Treasury Department, pursuant to Executive Order 13850, announced new sanctions against four officials of Venezuela’s General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (La Dirección General de Contraintelligencia Militar or DGCIM), an agency responsible for significant torture and violence against Venezuelan citizens at the direction of the Maduro regime. The new sanctions target Division General Rafael Ramón Blanco Marrero, Colonel Hannover Esteban Guerrero Mijares, Major Alexander Enrique Granko Arteaga, and Colonel Rafael Antonio Franco Quintero.
 
“The Trump administration has taken yet another step to hold accountable members of the illegitimate Maduro crime family. Members of the DGCIM not only brutally tortured and killed retired Navy Captain Rafael Acosta Arévalo, but also committed violations of human rights against other Venezuelan nationals,” Rubio said. “The United States will continue to stand with Interim Venezuelan President Juan Guaidó and his fight to restore democracy and the rule of law. As a Senator from Florida representing a large majority of Venezuelan-Americans, I will continue to fight for their desire to see Venezuela prosperous and free again.”
 
Rubio is the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women’s Issues.
 
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• On July 19, 2019: Rubio welcomed U.S. Sanctions targeting a senior Hizballah operative plotting terrorist attacks in the Western Hemisphere.
• On July 3, 2019: Rubio commented on sanctions against Cubametales, a Cuban state-controlled oil import and export company that illicitly imports Venezuelan oil from the Maduro regime. 
• On June 28, 2019, Rubio applauded sanctions against Nicolás “Nicolásito” Ernesto Maduro Guerra, son of Maduro, for his involvement in the regimes malign efforts to undermine constitutional order. 
• On June 28, 2019, Rubio issued a statement following sanctions against two Maduro cronies complicit in significant corruption and fraud.
• On June 28, 2019, Rubio wrote an op-ed addressing the destabilizing role Hezbollah plays in Venezuela. 
• On April 12, 2019, Rubio commented on additional oil sector sanctions against individuals and entities providing a lifeline to Maduro’s narcoterrorist tyranny. 
• On April 10, 2019 Rubio discussed the threats to U.S. national security posed by the presence of Hezbollah in South America with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. 
• On March 22, 2019, Rubio applauded the Trump Administration’s sanctions against BANDES (Banco de Desarrollo Económico y Social), Venezuela’s national development bank, and its subsidiaries.