Machado Thanks Salazar, Balart, and Gimenez for Hosting Venezuelan Dissidents

Venezuelan Democratic opposition leader Maria Corina Machado personally thanked Republican South Florida Representatives Maria Elvira Salazar, Mario Diaz-Balart, and Carlos Gimenez for hosting three Venezuelan dissidents who recently fled Venezuela.

The three Republican representatives hosted Venezuelan democratic dissidents Pedro Urruchurtu, Claudia Macero, and Humberto Villalobos. 

The dissidents had been sheltering inside Argentina’s embassy in Venezuela after Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro’s government threatened to arrest them for supporting pro-democracy initiatives. 

“We will always remember and be grateful,” thanked Machado, “to the United States for its liberation and for supporting the cause for Venezuela's Freedom.”

Representatives Salazar, Balart, and Gimenez have been consistent critics of Dictator Maduro’s regime and supporters of Venezuela’s democratic forces. 

“I’m glad these individuals are now safe on U.S. soil, free from the cruel and oppressive grip of the Maduro regime,” remarked Balart, further commending President Donald Trump and State Secretary Marco Rubio “for standing in solidarity with the Venezuelan people.”

Maduro has intensely persecuted political dissidents and persistently threatened Machado and her followers since Venezuela’s fraudulent presidential elections last July.

Political persecution has reached unprecedented levels, to the point that the State Department recently warned all US citizens to “immediately depart” Venezuela. 

According to the State Department, Americans in Venezuela face “severe risks…including wrongful detention, torture in detention, terrorism, kidnapping, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, and poor health infrastructure.”

Despite the risks, Machado remains steadfast in her defiance of Maduro and persists at the helm of Venezuela’sdemocratic opposition.  

In the latest faceoff between Machado and Maduro, the former managed to decrease Venezuelans’ participation in staged regional elections to 12.5% after issuing a national call for boycotting the “farce” elections. 

“Venezuelans inside the country, in the United States, and around the world know that we can count on you,” concluded Machado as she thanked the South Florida representatives for their continued support.