As Republican and Democratic members of Congress continue to tussle over the impeachment inquiry in Washington, D.C., and as Turkey has grabbed center stage over their invasion into Northern Syria, it seems as if legislators have taken their eye off the ball in regards to Venezuela.
But not all legislators are ignoring the escalating crisis in Venezuela, as Senator Marco Rubio (R), arguably the loudest and most effective voice of opposition to the Maduro regime, is now suggesting that because of the growing terrorist threat to Colombia from Venezuela continues to grow, the Trump administration needs to designate the “Maduro crime family” or regime as “a terrorist organization.”
“The crime regime of Nicolas Maduro has outsourced patrols of parts of Venzuela’s border with Colombia to the FARC, a narco-terror group,” stated Rubio “It is time for the U.S. to designate this regime as a terrorist organization.”
Colombia’s ambassador to the U.S., Francisco Santos recently said that “the threat of Venezuela and the instability that Maduro wants to create in Colombia is very clear,” adding that Maduro’s actions of hiring the FARC and ELN, another narco-terror group, was “an existential issue for Colombia.”
Santos told the Miami Herald that he has a dossier that “provides details about where the guerrillas are operating deep in Venezuelan territory "and a lot of evidence of how Maduro is using the ELN and using the FARC there."
"That dossier shows where (guerrilla) camps are, where the landing strips are in Venezuela," he said. "It makes the ELN sort of the Hezbollah of the Western Hemisphere. ... This is right here in the neighborhood."
President Donald Trump has levied the most significant and crippling sanctions against Maduro’s government, but it appears as if Maduro’s operations continue, most likely due to the assistance they receive from their partners, Russia and Iran.
The criminal regime of @NicolasMaduro has outsourced patrols of parts of #Venezuela’s border with #Colombia to the #FARC a narco-terror group.
It is time for the U.S. to designate this regime as a terrorist organization.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 24, 2019