Ladies in White protesting in Cuba
The junior senator from Florida listened respectfully Monday, as U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, delivered a floor speech, much of it in praise of the “paradise” of Castro’s Cuba. When it was Republican Marco Rubio’s turn, he gave his colleague across the isle an education of the hell the Cuban dictator had made of the island nation.
Protestors taken to jail in Cuba
“Let me tell you what the Cubans are really good at,” Rubio told the chamber. “What they are really good at is repression…They have exported repression in real time, in our hemisphere, right now.”
The Miami Herald reported:
For 14 minutes and 16 seconds, Rubio gave the best oration of his political career, speaking largely off the top of his head and with only the barest of notes. Rubio sometimes dripped with sarcasm or simmered with indignation as he made the case to Congress that the United States needs to continue Cuba sanctions and punish Venezuela.
Protestors taken to jail in Cuba
After listing the numerous things Harkin and the rest of his delegation missed on their junket to Castro’s Cuba, Rubio addressed Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro regime.
“We don’t have an embargo against Venezuela,” he said. “They have a shortage of toilet paper and tooth paste. Why? Because they are incompetent. Because communism doesn’t work. They look more and more like Cuba economically and politically every single day.”
The Florida senator continued the Cuba-Venezuela comparison, as an assistant showed oversized photographs depicting the stark reality that is Venezuela today.
Included was one of a once-proud former mayor pulled into an armored truck, and another of a demonstrator dragged through the streets of Caracas. The most heart-wrenching one of the lot was the image of a young Venezuelan beauty queen, her limp body draped on the handlebars of a motorcycle.
Cuban police women pulling Ladies in White protestors to jail.
“This is Genesis Carmona. They shot her in the head. She died last week,” Rubio said simply. No rhetoric was necessary — the images spoke volumes.
“What’s the first thing the Venezuelan government did when these broke out?” he asked. “They shut off access to Twitter and Facebook and the internet. They ran CNN out of there. They closed down the only Colombian station. Years before, they had closed down all the independent media outlets that criticized the government.
“Where did they learn that from? From Cuba. And yet we have to listen to what a paradise Cuba is.”
Venezuelan national guardsmen shooting at student protesters
This is Rubio at his best, and a stirring reminder of why Floridians hired Rubio in the first place. When you’re finished, check out “Brave actress Patricia Heaton’s honest pro-life tweet draws attention from both sides.”
VIDEOS OF PROTESTS IN VENEZUELA ARE AVAILABLE IN VENEZUELA TV HERE
Student shot in Venezuela protests by national guardsmen
Venezuelan guard kills student during national protests
