Gov. Ron DeSantis delivered his first remarks since the apprehension of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro by U.S. military forces over the weekend while speaking at "Deportation Depot" in Sanderson this week. The comments come after some in the media questioned the governor's silence on the news, given Florida's extensive Venezuelan-American population, particularly in South Florida.
"For many, many years, we have seen the country of Venezuela suffering under the yoke of Marxist ideology, first with Hugo Chavez and then with Nicolas Maduro, and we've had a lot of people in the state of Florida that have firsthand knowledge of that," DeSantis said.
President Maduro, viewed by the U.S. as the illegitimate leader of Venezuela following its 2024 presidential election, was captured along with his wife in a pre-dawn raid at his heavily fortified compound in Caracas. Maduro was long wanted by the U.S., including under the Biden and Trump administrations, on drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges.
Maduro had been "president" since 2013 after the death of Hugo Chávez. Like Maduro's regime, Chavez's was also viewed as an authoritarian ruler, leaving many Venezuelans displaced and looking for refuge, including in the U.S.
"We have a big community in South Florida, and you will be hard pressed to find a reign as destructive as the Chavez Maduro reign has been - taking a country that had been prosperous, it has an abundance of resources, and basically destroying it, making it so that it is miserable, repressed, and now one of the poorest countries," DeSantis countinued.
After his capture, Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were transported to the USS Iwo Jima en route to New York City, where he was arraigned this week.
Both Maduro and Flores have pleaded not guilty.
Maduro has been accused by the U.S. of being the leader of the Cartel of the Suns, an alleged drug trafficking and narco-terrorism network facilitating cocaine into the United States. President Donald Trump has also accused Maduro of intentionally emptying Venezuelan prisons to send inmates to the United States, mostly through the southern border.
"He is the head of a drug cartel, and he was releasing people from his prisons and sending them to our southern border under the Biden administration," DeSantis said, adding it was a successful operation.
"He deserves to be brought to justice, and my sincere hope is that the people of Venezuela are going to be able to liberate themselves from the yolk the Chavez Maduro reign, because it has been one of the most destructive reigns of any in the Western Hemisphere's history," DeSantis said.
