‘Betrayal’: Miami Republican representatives lambaste Biden talks with Maduro over oil
.jpg "Republican members of Congress from Miami Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez and Maria Elvira Salazar during a press conference about the Biden administration officials’ meeting with Venezuela’s authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro, at the Miami International Airport on March 15, 2022.")
The Biden administration’s recent outreach to Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro to discuss oil purchases is “idiotic” and a “betrayal” of the Venezuelan people, Republican members of Congress from Miami said Tuesday as they slammed the administration’s policies on foreign affairs and energy.
“It’s hard to believe that anybody could be so reckless, so irresponsible, and frankly, so idiotic,” U.S. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart said during a media event at Miami International Airport.
“The fact that that the Biden administration would meet with Maduro and his cronies, who by the way are under investigation for crimes against humanity, to do so in secret just tells you the level of recklessness, of irresponsibility, and, frankly, of stupidity that we are seeing coming from the Biden administration,” Díaz-Balart added.
Also attending were U.S. Reps. Carlos Gimenez and Maria Elvira Salazar, who echoed Díaz-Balart’s comments, calling the overture to Maduro “senseless” and “mind-boggling.”
Earlier this month, a delegation of U.S. officials, led by the National Security Council’s director for Latin America, Juan Gonzalez, surprisingly traveled to Caracas to discuss the release of American detainees, the possibility of new talks in Mexico between the regime and the opposition, and a plan to grant American energy company Chevron a license to resume importing Venezuelan oil to the United States, sources in the Venezuelan opposition have told the Herald.
The meeting with Maduro brought a wave of criticism from both parties, and the administration has indicated that it is backing away from an oil deal, at least for now. After acknowledging the U.S. delegation discussed “energy issues” with the Maduro regime, administration officials later denied the trip was motivated by the soaring price of gas and the need to replace the around 600,000 barrels per day the U.S. was buying from Russia. Instead, they said the primary goal was the release of Americans imprisoned in Venezuela.
Two of the Americans were released following the controversial meeting: Gustavo Cardenas, one of six Citgo oil executives arrested in 2017, and Jorge Fernandez, a Cuban-American tourist detained in 2021. But at least eight Americans remain in prison. The families of the remaining detainees commended President Joe Biden for taking the risk of engaging in negotiations to get their release, they said in a letter.
The Biden administration did not respond to a request for comment about the accusations made by the Miami representatives, but a State Department official spoke about the release of the detained Americans.
“As President Biden said, even as we celebrate the return of two U.S. citizens to the United States, we will not stop working every day to bring home every U.S. national held hostage or wrongfully detained anywhere in the world, including those who remain wrongfully detained in Venezuela,” the official said. ”We thank their families who continue to tirelessly advocate for their return. The practice of wrongfully detaining U.S. nationals represents a threat to the safety of everyone traveling, working, and living abroad. The United States opposes this practice everywhere.”
Ahead of the conference in Miami, relatives of one of the Americans still held by the Maduro regime were hoping the three representatives would hear their plea.
“All this is above politics; it is a human rights issue, it is a human issue,” said one relative. “Members of Congress and the entire United States government should focus on freeing Americans unjustly detained in Venezuela and around the world,” said a second relative. They asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Asked twice about the imprisoned men’s families’ support for further negotiations, Díaz-Balart did not address the issue, saying only that authoritarian regimes in Cuba and Venezuela have taken Americans hostage to get concessions from the U.S.
The three members of Congress repeatedly questioned the administration’s decision to reportedly reach out to Maduro and other autocratic regimes in Iran and the Middle East to boost oil imports rather than relying on U.S. production. (Experts in the energy sector have said, however, that exploiting new oil wells in the U.S. will take time and is not a solution for increasing domestic production in the short term.)
Gimenez said the Biden administration is “waging war on our oil and gas industries” by making it difficult to invest in the energy sector, recommitting to the Paris Climate Accord and suspending the extension of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
“It’s crazy,” he said.
“It’s ideological,” Salazar added.
Díaz-Balart said the administration is using the war on Ukraine and the American detainees as “an excuse” to “help” the enemies of the United States and “sell out” the cause of the freedom of Venezuela.
“This is the largest, the worst betrayal since the ‘60s of the Cuban people,” he said in reference to how some Cuban-American exiles feel about how the Kennedy administration handled the Bay of Pigs invasion.
References to other controversial decisions by Democratic presidents, including Barack Obama’s engagement with Cuba and Biden’s decision to remove the Colombian FARC guerrillas from the list of terrorist organizations — as well as the presence of Venezuelan, Cuban and Colombian activists who spoke at the press conference Tuesday — suggest the representatives believe the administration’s talks with Maduro have provided Republicans with a new line of attack and an issue that could unite the Hispanic communities ahead of the 2022 elections.
A rally has already been announced for Sunday at Bayfront Park in Miami to protest the negotiations with Maduro.
“Elections have consequences,” Díaz Balart said. “And now the far left controls the majority in the House, the Senate and the White House. We are going to continue fighting, and we are so grateful for the support of this community, which is never confused.”
This story was originally published March 15, 2022 at 5:06 PM.