Gov. Rick Scott (FL) has suggested that any business within the state of Florida dealing with the Venezuelan government should have their license revoked as the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, ramps up repression against his people.
In a statement on his official website, Scott wrote:
On Venezuela Independence Day, we stand in solidarity with the opposition to the brutal Maduro regime, whose crimes against his own people continue daily. In fact, just today, Maduro’s henchmen violently disrupted a meeting of the opposition-controlled National Assembly. This is unacceptable behavior that Florida will not tolerate.
During the next meeting of the Florida Cabinet in August, I will bring forward a proposal that will prohibit the State of Florida from doing business with any organization that supports the oppressive Maduro dictatorship. Floridians stand with the people of Venezuela as they fight for their freedom, and as a state, we must not provide any support for Maduro and his thugs.
The state administration will now consider the plan, which would stop businesses from making any dealings with the Venezuelan government. One of those businesses would be Goldman Sachs, which in May bought $2.8 billion worth in Venezuelan bonds in a move widely condemned by opponents of the Maduro regime.
However, the move risks facing legal opposition after a law passed in 2012 known as the “Cuba Amendment,” which banned all business dealings with both Cuba and Syria, was ruled by a federal court as unconstitutional.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio has also been a prominent critic of Venezuela, and in February, he welcomed Lilian Tintori to the White House, the wife of Venezuela’s most prominent prisoner of conscience Leopoldo López, alongside President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
The state of Florida has always been particularly sensitive to dealings with left-wing governments, given the huge influx of Cuban refugees who fled Fidel Castro’s communist regime in the 1960s.
Many are now making comparisons with the Castro regime and its proxy socialist government in Venezuela, where dictator Nicolas Maduro is attempting to cement his authority by rewriting the country’s constitution. The plan would replace the power of lawmakers with a “constituent assembly” made up of individuals hand-picked by the government.
Daily protests are now taking place across Venezuela calling for fresh elections amid the country’s ongoing economic collapse. According to a running tally at Venezuelan outlet RunRunes, at least 108 people have died since the protests began in April as police up their brutality with the use of water cannons and rubber bullets.
Inflation is also expected to rise as high as 1500 percent as many Venezuelans struggle to afford basic necessities such as food, medicine, and sanitary products. A recent report found that over 15 percent of people scavenge as a means of survival, while a majority of people go to bed hungry.
You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.
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