Senator Marco Rubio is taking aim at the Maduro Regime, calling for the United States to recognize the regime as a State Sponsor of Terrorism. Senator Rubio is a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and a letter was sent to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by Rubio and two other senators, commenting that they “respectfully write to request your support for designating the Maduro regime in Venezuela as a State Sponsor of Terrorism.”
They also added that “the Treasury Department found, under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, that the Maduro regime in Venezuela has taken no action against senior Venezuelan government officials who are under U.S. sanctions for assisting the narcotics-trafficking activities of the FARC terrorist group, which for more than fifty years has waged a guerilla war against the Colombian people and fueled its terrorist activities by trafficking weapons and drugs.”
Finally, they concluded that “It comes as no surprise that the Maduro dictatorship aided and abetted terrorists. After years of cooperating with FARC, ELN, and other narcotrafficking terrorists, Venezuela has now become a ‘narco-state.’ In fact, Tareck al-Aissami, who served as Venezuela’s vice president until June 14, 2018, has been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department as a ‘Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker,’ and two of Maduro’s nephews are currently serving 18 years in a U.S. prison for conspiring to import cocaine into the United States. The crisis in Venezuela is dire and worsening every day. The United States must use all available tools to protect the American homeland and our people from the Venezuelan dictatorship’s egregious support for terrorism and narcotrafficking in Venezuela. We strongly believe that the Maduro regime in Venezuela meets the criteria necessary to designate the current Venezuelan government as a State Sponsor of Terrorism.”
The State Department categorizes State Sponsors of Terrorism as “Countries determined by the Secretary of State to have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism are designated pursuant to three laws: section 6(j) of the Export Administration Act, section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act, and section 620A of the Foreign Assistance Act. Taken together, the four main categories of sanctions resulting from designation under these authorities include restrictions on U.S. foreign assistance; a ban on defense exports and sales; certain controls over exports of dual use items; and miscellaneous financial and other restrictions. Designation under the above-referenced authorities also implicates other sanctions laws that penalize persons and countries engaging in certain trade with state sponsors.”
