Congressman Gimenez: Maduro is a threat to the safety and security of the US

In an interview with LiveNOW Digital Journalist Christy Matino, Congressional representative Carlos Antonio Gimenez (R-FL) says Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is a threat to the safety of the United States, and he supports the ramp up of U.S. military operations near Venezuela.

"He is the head of a foreign terrorist organization about to be designated so, Cartel de los Soles. Those cartels, along with other cartels that come out of Mexico and Colombia, have been responsible for the deaths of over half a million Americans in the last five years. And so the president is actually taking direct, decisive action against these cartels that have been killing hundreds of thousands of us for the last five years. It's about time that we take this threat seriously," said Gimenez.  "I've been calling for something like this for a long time, and I'm glad that the president is taking this decisive action. Maduro is also the illegitimate ruler of the country. Last year there were free elections in Venezuela. He lost by an overwhelming majority, but he refuses to give up power. And so that makes Maduro, you know, a double threat to the safety and security of the United States of America."

Representative Gimenez: Nicholas Maduro needs to leave Venezuela

Last week the Pentagon announced the launch of Operation Southern Spear, a new mission targeting narco-terror networks across Latin America.  U.S. Southern Command and Joint Task Force Southern Spear are leading the mission to defend the homeland and dismantle narco-terrorists networks across the Western Hemisphere. The U.S. has warships in the region, including the world's largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford.  Many are wondering if the U.S. is going to attack Venezuela and Giménez says he is not aware what the plans are. 

"I really don't have any comments on what the plans are. I don't know what the long-term plans are for President Trump. He hasn't divulged that to me, and if he did, I probably wouldn't be telling you. But I think a lot of this has to do with keeping Maduro, you know, and making him think and sweat a little bit. I think there's no doubt that we'd like to see Nicholas Maduro leave Venezuela and allow a free democracy and freedom to reign again in Venezuela," said Gimenez. 

"The Chavez Maduro regime has destroyed that beautiful country, just full of natural resources, but also they've been involved in killing hundreds of thousands of Americans, and so there's a price to pay for that. And unfortunately, you know, these cartels have been running rampant for years, either by shipping their poison into the United States and killing us, or allowing millions and millions of illegal immigrants to come into the United States with an invasion."

Representative Gimenez supports designating Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization

On Sunday, Secretary of State Rubio announced that Cartel de los Soles will be labeled as a foreign terrorist organization. 

In a post on X, Gimenez says by designating the Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization, it allows us to attack them militarily within the framework of US law, and they can't say they weren't warned.
 

In our interview, we asked Rep. Gimenez to elaborate on his post.

"Well, I mean, it says this is a foreign terrorist organization, it's no different than if we were attacking ISIS or Al-Qaeda, you know, somewhere halfway around the world like we've done for the last 25 years. These folks are right across the border, these folks are right in our backyard. But yet they've been killing a heck of a lot more Americans than the terrorist organizations in the Middle East, you know, a lot more than ISIS, a lot more than Al-Qaeda. Like I said, we've lost over half a million Americans to these drugs, especially fentanyl that's attached to these drugs over the last five years. That's more people than we lost during the entire World War II. That's more people than live in the entire city of Miami. And so, you know, people say, well, it's drugs. Wait a minute. You know, you either get killed by a bomb or a bullet or poison, you're still dead, all right? And so the number one job of the American government, of any government, really, is to protect its people. And for far too long, we have been woefully inadequate in protecting the American people from these criminal organizations, the criminal terrorist organizations that have been really, you know, plaguing us for a number of years. I am glad that President Trump is taking these actions."

The backstory:

Congressman Gimenez represents Florida’s 28th congressional district, which encompasses all of Monroe County and the southwest portion of Miami-Dade County.

He was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020, becoming the only current Cuban-born member of Congress and the first career firefighter-paramedic to serve in Congress.

Congressman Gimenez currently serves on the House Armed Services Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee, where he chairs the Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security. He was also appointed by the Speaker of the House to be a member of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, and serves on the Board of Regents for the Smithsonian Institution and the Mexico–United States Interparliamentary Group.

Within Republican leadership, Rep. Gimenez serves as Vice Chairman of the Republican Governance Group (RG2) and Vice Chair of Community Outreach for the Congressional Hispanic Conference.