Republican Senator Marco Rubio warned that it is necessary to stop the usurpation of the dictatorship before holding a presidential election in Venezuela.
“The change that many of them are waiting for is to remove Maduro and that anyone of those gangsters remains in power would not be accepted either”, said Rubio, who added “it is possible to have an election, but that is not fair and democratic, because they control all the organisms, it is impossible to have free and democratic elections with Maduro in power.”
Rubio said that “having elections where opposing candidates do not have access to the media, or can be jailed if they have a chance to win, that is not a free choice.”
The US senator stressed that the administration of Donald Trump has shown that it is committed to continuing to put pressure on the regime so that the cessation of usurpation is achieved.
Finally, he stressed the importance of supporting independent journalists. “In Venezuela we have seen reports of censored journalists within Venezuela. They have also limited access to the internet so that the people cannot receive that information. But for us they have been key, outside the country, to inform us on a daily basis of what is happening”, he concluded.