U.S. Policy on Venezuelan Opposition Leader

In the aftermath of the removal of Maduro from power,

Maria Karina Machado, who has since won a

Nobel Prize for her advocacy for Venezuelans,

and who has visited Washington and presented the Nobel Prize to President Trump as

a thank you for the U S.'s role in removing Maduro,

has essentially been blocked from going back into Venezuela.

There's been recent reporting,

and I would like to just put one article in for the record, from June 29,

U S.-backed Venezuelan government blocks opposition leaders' flight home,

if I could introduce that.

And that's just one of a number of articles that have

reported that in the aftermath of the earthquake,

Ms. Machado, wanting to return home as any of

us would want to go back to our homes in the aftermath of a disaster in our home,

has been essentially rebuffed.

And to short form the reporting,

the reporting suggests that she has been in dialogue with the State Department.

Secretary Landau had given her reason to believe she could return,

but on two occasions when she's made effort to fly back to Venezuela in

the last two weeks,

her plane has been turned around reportedly at the direction of other

U S. officials.

This reporting has occurred during the two weeks we've been on recess,

and it deeply affects the efforts to reach Mr. Landau to find out what's going on.

I was very heartened to see that President Trump,

on the way back to the United States from the Ankara NATO summit,

was asked by reporters about this and said he has no opposition

to Maria Karina Machado returning to Venezuela.

And I just want to clarify that the administration

is not opposed to the Nobel laureate returning to her home country as the country is

dealing with earthquake relief. Is that correct?

It is correct.

Let me comment on a couple of things quickly, Senator.

First, you're absolutely right about the 2024 elections.

As we have said before Maduro's leaving,

Edmundo Gonzales was the rightful president elect

of Venezuela.

With respect to Maria Karina Machado, who I think we all know

and admire,

the administration has tried to walk the line with

the earthquake relief of saying we don't oppose her returning.

She's not a prisoner or anything like that.

At the same time,

we have said in terms of using our energies and resources that we're not going

to facilitate or encourage or endorse it, take the steps that would be

necessary to get the interim regime to accept her at the time that we're trying

to deal with the earthquake relief.

I mean, this is a fairly narrow window here of not

introducing a political element into the earthquake relief.

Yeah, but I want to drill down on that.

So not opposing her return.

not able to facilitate the return,

but not even willing to speak to the government to say she should be treated fairly.

I mean, she is a Venezuelan citizen.

Where did you grow up Mr. Kozak? In California. Did you saw a family there? Yes.

So if there was an earthquake in California, I can almost

guarantee you would want to go home to be with your family and help them.

There's nothing unusual or political about that as a motivation.

So to say that, well,

we need to be worried about the politics of her return. She is a Venezuelan citizen.

She would want to return to her home in the same way that you would or I would to

try to help her family and friends.

And so I don't think there's an expectation that the U S.

has to protect her, but the U S. has huge influence in Venezuela.

And if she were to want to go home, the U S.

should say and you should treat her with the respect

that she deserves as a Nobel Laureate and as somebody whose political party

just won a presidential election in the eyes of the world in the last two years.

And I would hope that that would be the administration's position.

Our position, Senator, has been that all of the

Venezuelans who have been in exile because they have arrest warrants out for them

in Venezuela and stuff

should be able to go back. Thank you.

And that includes,

first and foremost, Maria Carina Machado.

At the same time that we have we've made progress on that,

we haven't reached a complete resolution of it with the interim authorities.

A lot of people were in that same boat.

They passed an

amnesty law to amnesty a lot of the people who were in jail and a lot of

the people who were in exile. It is not a perfect amnesty law. It worked for

a lot of people. A lot of politicians have been able to go back and get active.

Her party was able to reopen its headquarters and so on, but there are

still something

just under 400 political prisoners in Venezuela that should all be released.

And there are still people like her outside Venezuela who should be able to

come back and can't

yet because of this.

It's my hope and I want to see to Senator Scott because my time's up.

I will come back on a second round on another topic. But look, it's my hope.

When I see reporting suggesting that the U S.

is actually blocking her from returning,

A, I hope that that's wrong.

B, if it was right for a week,

I hope President Trump clarifying on the plane home from NATO that the U S.

has no objection to her returning to

Venezuela. I hope that is now the clear unequivocal policy of the

United States and that that policy is communicated to the Venezuelan government

over whom we have significant influence at the present time.

I yield back, Mr. Chair.