Salazar Unveils Legislation to Solidify Sanctions on Illegitimate Maduro Regime

September 11, 2024

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Western Hemisphere Subcommittee Chairwoman María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) joined Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Chris Smith (R-NJ), Mike Waltz (R-FL), Jenniffer González-Colón (R-PR), Keith Self (R-TX), Joe Wilson (R-SC), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), and Carlos A. Giménez (R-FL) in introducing the Venezuela Advancing Liberty, Opportunity, and Rights (VALOR) Act.

Senators Jim Risch (R-ID), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Rick Scott (R-FL), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), and John Barrasso (R-WY) introduced the Senate version of the legislation.

Although Edmundo Gonzalez won the election in Venezuela with over two-thirds of the vote and has the receipts to prove it, the Nicolás Maduro regime claimed victory anyway in one of the most blatant and obvious stolen election attempts in our hemisphere.

Since then, the Maduro regime has failed to produce evidence of its proclaimed victory, despite the Venezuelan constitution requiring them to do so. Nicolás Maduro has impeded the peaceful transfer of power and forced Edmundo González Urrutia, the winner of the Venezuelan presidential election, into exile in Spain after threatening him with an arrest warrant. The United States must respond with the clear message that Maduro’s time is up.

“The message needs to be sent loud and clear that the United States will be doing no more business with the Maduro dictatorship,” said Chairwoman Salazar. “By passing the VALOR Act into law, Maduro will know that the United States is serious – listen to your people or pay the price.”

The VALOR Act:

Establishes democratic benchmarks guiding the removal of sanctions on the Maduro regime and any non-democratic successor;
Reaffirms financial sanctions on the Venezuelan Central Bank, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., and Venezuelan cryptocurrency;
Requires the United States block participation of any non-democratic government of Venezuela at the Organization of American States, Inter-American Development Bank, and International Monetary Fund;
Authorizes a $5M U.S. contribution to create an OAS Emergency Fund to deploy human rights monitors and electoral observers;
Authorizes nongovernmental organizations to support humanitarian, democracy building, education, environmental protection, and non-commercial development projects in Venezuela directly benefiting the Venezuelan people;
Blocks U.S. foreign assistance to any country providing assistance, including financial assistance (except humanitarian aid), to the Maduro regime or any non-democratic successor;
Requires the president to develop an economic assistance plan to a democratically governed Venezuela and creates a “coordinating official” within the State Department to oversee development and implementation of such a plan; and
Requires the president to submit a report to Congress outlining barriers and policy objectives on trade and investment between the U.S. and a democratically governed Venezuela.

For the last year, Western Hemisphere Subcommittee Chairwoman Salazar has been sounding the alarm on the Maduro regime’s tactics to impede a free and fair presidential election in Venezuela for 2024. Chairwoman Salazar has urged the Biden Administration to take decisive action and unite an international coalition to reject Maduro’s theft of the elections and recognize Edmundo González Urrutia as the true winner.

For the full text of the VALOR Act, click here.

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