House Passes Legislation to End American Contracts with the Maduro Regime

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed H.R. 825, the Banning Operations and Leases with the Illegitimate Venezuelan Authoritarian Regime Act’’ or the BOLIVAR Act, legislation that Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) proudly cosponsored and supported.

Nearly four months after Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro’s shameless attempt to steal the July 28 presidential election from his own people, the United States stands proudly with the opposition led by María Corina Machado and President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia. Led by Reps. Mike Waltz (R-FL) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the BOLIVAR Act will freeze up additional assets currently at Maduro’s disposal, placing additional pressure on his dictatorship.

“By passing the BOLIVAR Act, the House of Representatives is sending the clear message that the United States will never do business with a tyrant like Maduro,” said Rep. María Elvira Salazar, Chairwoman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee in the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Edmundo González Urrutia won the election in July even after Maduro cheated, and no amount of repression will hide that simple truth from the Venezuelan people. Maduro’s time is up, and he knows it.”

Since the July 28 election, Chairwoman Salazar has championed the fight for freedom led by Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia and opposition leader María Corina Machado. She joined a bipartisan group of her colleagues to introduce the REVOCAR Act and VALOR Act, legislation that would cut off all financial lifelines for the Maduro regime’s repression at a time when he is strengthening the crackdown on opposition leaders and operatives throughout the country.

She also led the introduction of the VERDAD Reauthorization Act, which reauthorizes sanctions placed on the regime in the VERDAD Act of 2019.

To read the full text of the BOLIVAR Act, click here.

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