Florida’s capitol sees common ground on Venezuela

Nicolas Maduro continues to bring together Republicans and Democrats in Florida’s Capitol.

And on Wednesday the Venezuelan strongman had lawmakers and leaders from both parties supporting the actions of President Donald Trump.

Democrats lined up outside the Florida Historic Capitol Museum to demonstrate support for Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido after Trump recognized him as the legitimate president of Venezuela.

“We’re in solidarity with the Venezuelan community, the Venezuelan people, to put pressure on the Maduro regime at a critical moment toward a peaceful transition to democratic elections in Venezuela,” said state Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez of Miami amid a group of Democratic lawmakers and flag-waving Venezuelans.

“Another thing we know happened today, was that Maduro reacted by taking a page from the dictator playbook,” Rodriguez continued. “He first read a speech that could have easily been written by the Castro brothers and then proceeded to break diplomatic relations with the United States.”

Earlier in the day, Gov. Ron DeSantis noted he pushed Trump to act in support of Guaido.

DeSantis, along with Florida’s U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, went to the White House on Tuesday to discuss the Maduro regime.

DeSantis said he advised Trump to “seize the moment” by recognizing Guaido, which would be “bold” and “have a huge impact on Venezuela.”

“The president was receptive to that,” DeSantis said Wednesday while in Miami.

“And then we were also urging ways to circumscribe Cuba, because it’s really the Castro regime that is fueling some of what you see in Venezuela,” DeSantis added. “I think we have a great chance to really be pushing some of these really bad regimes in Latin America towards freedom and really standing up for these people that have been oppressed so much.”