Theres no great tragedy than to move further south in venezuela. The maduro regime is destroying that countrys democracy and economy but the dictatorship created the largest cross border mass exodus in the history of the americas. By some accounts, 3 million venezuelans have fled their homeland. From violent crackdowns to holding some 200 Political Prisoners in brutal conditions, theyve inflicted unimaginable suffering on their people. But were also here, and i call this a cross roads moment because theres reason for hope. Brave men and women in each of these countries have refused to give up. Theyve refused to give in. Therefore, neither should we. Theyve never given up in cuba. Three years ago, castros people infiltrated and they began a Propaganda Campaign against its leader in an effort to force her to resign. Shes too clever. She surprised them by promptly calling for a vote among the organizations rank and file. You see, castros spies never anticipated democracy nor did they understand it. She won in a landslide. Inning in rog with a, Roman Catholic priests continue openly to call for a peaceful end to political solution to the terrible brutal policies of the government. In venezuela, despite all that happened, democratic actors continue to resist. Civil Society Groups are persevering so they can report human rights abuses that help chronicle the depths of the humanitarian crises. Were here today because we stand with these brave souls. Were here today because we refuse to be mere spectators. Our very first secretary of state, thomas jefferson, perhaps more than any other man of his time understood that in this hemisphere, what they then call the new world, citizens had devotions to principles enshrined in our declaration of independence. They had it in their dna. He wrote to a friend in 1823, america north and south has a set of interests distinct from those of europe. Our endeavor should surely be to make our hemisphere a hemisphere of freedom. Hemisphere of freedom. How beautiful that sounds not only for a young United States but for our Foreign Policy at this cross roads moment. At the summit of the americas, our Vice President made it clear that pursuing this goal should be the heart of our policy. To drive the point home, National Security advisor john bolton recently described the regimes in cuba and venezuela anding in rog of tyranny. This is a sign he meant when what he said. This weeks action by President Trump to sanction two high level officials from the nicaragua regimes for human rights abuses and acts of corruption. Usaid pledges to do our part for this great cause. We recently learned that the scientists had been imprisoned for disrespecting Government Authority and his sister and sole means of support had fallen ill, our partners immediately fast tracked 70 pounds of food and medicine to him in prison. And in nicaragua the u. S. Is one of the largest and only remaining donors still working on democracy and human rights and well make sure that continues. And to help suffering venezuelans that fled maduro as well as support the communities that have given them refuge, we have expanded our support to brazil, colombia, ecuador, peru, even some of the caribbean countries to try to help. We wont give up because they wont. These heros of freedom. Today im pleased to announce were providing an additional 750,000 in humanitarian assistance to Political Prisoners in cuba. This will help facilitate [ applause ] this will help facilitate information and help document ongoing human rights abuses. Im also announcing an additional 4 million for nicaragua. [ applause ] this will be the form of support to Civil Society organizations and others who are advancing democratic reform and human rights there. Finally, today, im also announcing the usaid is mobilizing more than 13. 6 million in new funding for those fleeing tyranny in venezuela. [ applause ] this will help provide muchneeded water, sanitation, hygiene assistance, and governmentfocussed programming in colombia and across the region. To be clear, we know, all of us know, humanitarian assistance is relief not a solution. Not an answer. We know the answer must be human liberty and democracy. We are fortune to be joined by champions of that cause today. Senator bob menendez is has been a steadfast leader. Then theres my friend, and former colleague, congresswoman ileana ross. She deserves every single tribute shes been getting. I mentioned earlier that sometimes when people come to me and talk to me about a new Tropical Storm in the caribbean, i said have you been to ileana . She has been passionate, she has been forceful, she has been tireless. She has given hope to so many who feared they had been forgotten or left behind. Senator menendezs Public Service began when he was 19 years old. During his time in congress, he has been a steadfast advocate for u. S. latin american relations. As you heard, they have partnered together on some of the most important pieces of legislation affecting this region in a long time. From different sides of the ais aisle, working to do what is important. I know, as a former member of congress, its difficult to pass legislation. Yet they have joined together to passkey legislation at key moments in time. Well also hear from the president of the National Endowment for democracy, a long time friend. Ned has been, quite literally, a lifeline for key groups and individuals in very difficult places. He is provided hope to those who truly thought all were lost. Today is an opportunity to hear from them. Its an opportunity to hear from you. Finally, ill say that i, you know, i understand why some may fret about the challenges facing Democratic Values in the region, but we must remind ourselves these toauthoritarians are not motivated by courage. Theyre driven by fear. Quite simply, authority yans are afraid. Theyre afraid of their own people. Theyre afraid of democracy. Theyre afraid of freedom. They fear what we and all of you most treasure, a hemisphere of freedom. Thank you. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you very much. Congresswoman, please come up. We want to hear from you. Thank you so much. Thanks. [ speaking in a Foreign Language ] im so short you see my head bobo bobbing on top of this podium [ speaking in a Foreign Language ] ive got to say hello to a special shoutout to all of our former irl alums who are the defenders of freedom and now working in various agencies. Be afraid. [ spe eddie, golan, juan, jody, jason, sandy, i didnt get all of you but thank you so much. Youre all there. I am so happy that you have found a home elsewhere. Thank you, dan. [ speaking Foreign Language ] im so filled with optimism. Thank you, mark, for those incredible words of nondeserved praise, but im deeply humbled by them. Carl, i cant wait to hear from you, but i know we all know of carls work because we see it all around us. Those flowers of democracy and freedom that are sprouting up all over our hemisphere. Special thanks to bob. Senator menendez, as he told me, the senate doesnt work on fridays, he worked they work in their districts and their states on fridays, but he stayed for me. I am just so grateful to him for his many years of service for the values of freedom and democracy. Im thankful for his kind words and for his dedication to the fight of and john. Theres another one of our former hill rats who has found their way elsewhere. I know im going to skip so many and get in trouble. Thanks to bob for his fight for the people of nicaragua and venezuela and cuba especially. As you heard from bob, two days ago, just two days ago, thanks to bobs efforts, we finally were able to pass the nica act in the senate. Can we get an amen. I still want believe that this actually happened. Weve already passed it twice in the house. It made it better. It got improved because its a stronger bill now thanks to bob. It includes language from his bill to sanction human rights violators and corrupt regime officials. Now it comes back to the house for number three, we have to really pass it, you have to really mean it, and maybe this coming week, tuesday or wednesday, please, light a candle, sacrifice a goat if youre into that, whatever it is, lets just make sure we do it. I still cant believe it. The genius behind that and im going to give a special shout out, eddie, come on, stand up. [ applause ] the nica act should be called the eddie act. Mark, you made a great acquisition when you stole eddie from us. Im just so very happy. [ speaking Foreign Language ] im so honored to participate in this discussion with mark, with carl and dan as the orchestra director. Mark and i go way back. When we served together in the Foreign Affairs committee and the house of representatives, and im so glad to see mark in the position that he is at right now. Having you, a principaled visionary leader at the helm of usaid, has made an incredible difference. We have seen it, in addressing new challenges, emerging challenges, throughout the world, but more specifically in latin america. Up with more thing that i have to say to you, mark, you know, tomorrow we will be commemorating World Aids Day and this year we are also celebrating 15 years of success through pepfar. This is an ambitious, wonderful program, that was created by george w. Bush. He doesnt get enough credit for it, shepherded through the house by mark greene, and its unbelievable the success weve had. Im reminded that when mark served as ambassador to tanzania, mark, you wrote to me and i still have it, a letter highlighting the threat that hiv aids poses to the security of our country. We never frame it that way. You said, quote, in tearing apart the social fabric and leaving a generation of orphans, the scourge of hiv aids could create a longterm breeding ground for radicalism. End quote. Thank you, mark. You were a visionary and youre so right. Carl, you and i go way back as well. Hes testified multiple times before our committee, always highlighting the successes and the challenges that come with trying to strengthen Democratic Institutions across all regions, but thank you, carl, for everything that you do and everything that your organization does in leading the way and for also to shine a spotlight on human rights atrocities. We need to do that. We want to talk about how everything is good, but we need to shine the light on these abuses. That is the way that we get at the oppressors of the people, not just in latin america but around the world. Its a tough job youve taken on and with great pride, i thank you so much. Thank you, carl, thank you, mark, thank you dan. As you know, maybe youve heard, i was born in cuba and i came to the United States fleeing the oppressive communist regime in cuba when i was only 8. For me where i was born, its not just a place in your passport. It has really defined me as a person. It has defined how i view the world. Its through the prism of democracy, of freedom, of human rights, principles that should also form the basis of every strategic decision made in the name of u. S. Foreign policy. Those should be the pillars. That should be our guiding light. Youre all here because you also believe in those values, you also believe in those guiding principleses, because as the title of this event says, we want to see a hemisphere of freedom. Say it with me. Hemisphere of freedom. Amen. As you know, unfortunately, there are too many rogue regimes who seek to undermine this goal at every turn. Little by little we have witnessed how other countries throughout our hemisphere have taken a page out of castros playbook and have been systemically dismantling Democratic Institutions and continuing with the human rights violations. In fact, we see today how cooperation between these des pits is increasing. Theyre sharing repression tactics, best practices of torture, best practices of repression, and best practices of how to stay in power. Specifically we see it in venezuela and nicaragua, whether through ambassador greenes leadership in usaid, in bringing humanitarian assistance to help the venezuelan refugees lets give him a shout out for the help hes giving. What three great announcements youve made. Targeted sanctions against a regime officials of ortega in nicaragua or reversing some of president obamas misguided and hurtful cuba policies, this administration has served as a beacon of hope for the people of these countries who are suffering under such repressive regimes. As always, the fight is far from over. More can be done. Our nation must pay close attention to this band of tyrants, where as ambassador bolton said, this troika of tyranny. I think thats going to be something that people will really understand, troika of tyranny. It undermines our National Security. It is of interest to us. It undermines the National Security of our allies as well. Weve got to use every tool at our disposal to hold these regimes accountable. Unfortunately, other nations are following in these this troika of tyranny and examples of these dictators. Bolivia, he continues to change the constitution ensuring he remains in power, no matter what. Overpowering the opposition with violence and arrests. This trend only emphasizes the importance of discussions like this one and the work that all of you are doing. Not just these big shots up on the stage, but the big shots here in the audience, each one of you, is that ambassador of freedom. Ultimately it will be the people of cuba, the people of venezuela, the people of nicaragua who will bring freedom to their countries, who will be the political opposition, who are the civil Society Groups, individual citizens. They are going to be the change that we want to see. Although my time in congress is coming to an end ive got a couple weeks still left. If we gave you my card, its got an Expiration Date on it. I hope that our guys we are still hustling and passing out cards. If you dont have my card see angela. Were still working it. My time is congress is coming to an end, but im not going away because i am never going to stop working until we see a free and democratic hemisphere where human rights are respected. [ speaking Foreign Language ] [ applause ] wow. Ileana, you cant were going it after all this, you cant leave us. We are still going to need you in your new role and new life. Lets get right to it. Carl, i dont think we have to explain to this audience, but its important for the folks watching on tv who may not follow the issue, why should this region matter . Why should we care about democracy and human rights and Good Governance in the hemisphere . What are the stakes . Why should we care about this . Senator menendez made it perfectly clear when he talked about the very critical refugee problems that are being created as a result of [ no audio ] democracy in venezuela and now there are refugees leaving nicaragua. This creates a problem for us. This is one of the many, many problems that are created. This is our neighborhood, our hemisphere, and when you have the kind of problems we have in the northern triangle and Central America and then, of course, in venezuela and cuba, it affects us. You know, i just want to say a word about cuba. Mark mentioned that this constitution, which they want to bring to a referendum on february 24th, really is not any reform. They take it. It is really mutating. Its actually not mutating. Its getting worse. Article 5 of this constitution changes the old constitution, which said that the communist party of cuba was the guiding force. The new constitution that is going to be voted on february 24th says that communist party is the only legal party, there can be no other parties. It also says that system, the communist system there, is irrevocable and cannot be changed. Its written in stone. This is and they fake it. They fake it, the idea that this is reform. At a memorial meeting we had in 2011, there was a video, he was in cuba, he talked about fraudulent change, fraud leaule change, and thats whats happening now. Six months after he sent the video to us he was murdered by the cuban regime. Rosa maria is here today and will be speaking to you at the next panel. Its amazing to me how his daughter has emerged as a real leader taking his place. Yes. [ applause ] mark mentioned alberto. Lets not forget lauren, she, too, was murdered. She was murdered. Terrible. And there are many, many others, hundreds of others. You know, the cubans dont do it the way they do it in saudi arabia, which is pretty stupid, doing it in their consulate just killing this journalist. They do it carefully with Car Accidents and poisonings and all these things. They systemically try to get rid of their opposition. As somebody said this morning that you have in these three countries, one regime and three governments, it really is a single system and we have to learn how to counter this. In each of these countries, in each of these countries there are its remarkable to me, given the crisis in these countries, the economic and political crisis, the repression, there is emerging really strong opponents, strong opposition. In cuba, you know, next week theyre going to approve this decree 349 which tightens the controls over musicians and artists and performers. Thats crazy. Theres real resistance to this change in the constitution. In venezuela they formed the free venezuela broad front and they had a Congress Earlier this week and they came out with a whole program for reform. Theyre going to meet again on december 12th. You have the fake inauguration coming for maduro on january 10th. That should be boycotted. Im unhappy that they have invited this fake ruler to the inauguration tomorrow. The regime should be boycotted. In nicaragua, the white and blue united for national unity, this is a tremendously important now movement for nicaragua to get the opposition together so that they can speak with a common voice and provide and have a voice in this country so people can know what the people of nicaragua think. Weve got to find ways of supporting them. Weve got to find ways of supporting the Political Prisoners in these countries. There are over 600 Political Prisoners in nicaragua and hundreds in venezuela and cuba. We have to make visible the faces of these Political Prisoners who and to get behind them and seek their release. What we have to try to help them do is to connect them with people in support here, with people in latin america, with those to help them unite and find a common way of resisting these brutal dictators. If we dont do that, our country i think is going to suffer. Carl, i completely agree. Thank you very much. Just in terms i get the sense that the bad guys are Getting Better at being bad and that thats good. Congresswoman roslehtinen used the term best practices, which is, you know, of course, an ironic term but an accurate term. We need to have the communities of freedom in these three countries working together. You mentioned that. How could we do that better and get these three, the communities of freedom work better together. There was a time somebody wrote a book called the dictators learning curve and he was talking about putin and some of these other what they call hybrid regimes where you can keep power, but being a fake democrat, and they have elections and they try to have fake institutions. Whats happening now in these countries, i think theyve decided they dont have to fake it anymore. What you have is theyre sending the signal theyre going to do anything that is necessary to hold on to power. That means even as this happened in venezuela, destroying the country, or in nicaragua, this didnt really happen before, mark said killing over 500 people. I want to note by the way, i think its a terrific thing the oas created this tribunal which recommended to the International Criminal court that they investigate venezuela where they said there is reason to believe they are guilty of crimes against humanity and bring them before the International Criminal court where they had justices on this tribunal and that has now been sent to the criminal court and you have five latin american countries plus canada have now formally presented this case to the International Criminal court. [ applause ] amen. Thats thats what has to be done. We have to take new and creative actions to hold these regimes accountable and then to mobilize support and to support the people in these countries because ultimately the liberation will come from them. Ileana, thank you, again, for your tireless efforts. Thank you, dan. What makes you optimistic . You could leave this conversation being depressed or kind of down because these bad folks are real bad people and theyve just they have they will do anything to stay in power. What makes you optimistic . I am so optimistic. Carl mentioned this group in nicaragua and its bringing all of these factions together and, you know, not this group and that group, but everybody united. Thats the key to success. I am very optimistic. We see look frank calzone, thank you for putting this together. Women under repression in cuba. Center for a free cuba. Just an incredible document. Not only are these brave cuban women a ray of hope and carl mentioned some of them specifically, but we also have some the newer generation of cuban dizssidents a lot coming from the Artistic Community and one has sewn his lips as a symbolic representation of what the castro regime wants to do to silence him. Theres a ray of hope, a very strong ray of hope in cuba and nicaragua and venezuela. We have my goodness, the women especially, maria machado, they are leading the way. [ applause ] women are leading the way in all of these countries. Im very optimistic that the youth, the artists are seeing the repression and the brutality of this police state all around them and theyre rising up. These are this is a generation that has grown up only knowing repression because thats all theyve ever known. They understand that this is not a way to govern. This is not a way to live. Thats what keeps me energized and thats what will keep me engaged. I hope that ill be part of this csis family as all of you are. Always promoting. Thats a given. Always promoting human rights. Thats in our dna. Its in our blood. We have to do it. We have to do it for all of these people who think that they have no voice. We will help them. Thank you so much. If you were going to give a homework assignment to the Trump Administration, we have administrator greene here, what homework assignments do they need to be doing for the next couple years . We have this impending legislation on the hill, but what homework assignments do you want give mark over the next couple years on these issues . I know youre never without she gives me homework anyway. Mark does not [ speaking Foreign Language ] usaid [ speaking Foreign Language ] hes the professor at usaid, thats what usaid stands for and carl stands for, but i would love to give the Trump Administration books like is rosa maria here . Yes. Lets hold up that book. Oh, my gosh. Her dads book. Wow. Carlos, where are you . Wheres your book . I have it. I dont know where my purse is. Whoever has my purse, i have no money, so you can keep it. Here we go. [ speaking Foreign Language ] i mean, they are just some incredible human rights pro ponents. All of you in this audience are those ambassadors and i thank you for everything youre doing. I think the Trump Administration is doing everything right internationally, but yes, as a former schoolteacher, i would give them a few more homework assignments. I will leave that for mark and carl and you, dan. Ill give a list of suggested readings. Well start with those two books. Thanks, ileana. Thank you. Administrator greene, i think its really important that this audience and the audience outside understand all of the work that usaid does. I think the congresswoman was referring to it. Youre doing a whole an incredible amount of work and really at the forefront of pushing back against these bad regimes. Well, thank you. A few things, first off, this session today really came out of a gathering that i had with ileana in miami after my visit to the summit of americas in which those representing these three countries got together and we were struck by how the troika of tyranny really was one regime, three governments, and sharing methods, dark methods and technology, and really a reminder that for those of us who believe wholeheartedly in freedom and democracy and potential, we had better start meeting and sharing information and sharing ideas. Thats whats led to today under dans great leadership. I think thats the path forward. Part of what we can do is help to support and be a lifeline. As i indicated, often is, for many of those suffering the most, we can provide small pieces of Economic Relief and Food Assistance to Political Prisoners and were doing that. I think as much as anything, we need to be clear eyed and clear voiced in our condemnation of tyranny and our standing up for democracy and freedom. History tells us when we take a look at the iron curtain and the old soviet empire, the statements that came from washington were a godsend to those who would otherwise thought they had been left behind and without hope. We must be a source of hope. We have to send clear signals that they are not alone, that we recognize this is one broad community, it is in our communitys dna that what happens elsewhere in the region affects us in so many ways in the obvious ways when you take a look at this horrible grooimigrs fleeing maduro. Interestingly to me, despite its proximity to the u. S. , i think it is one of the least covered forces under way in the world today. We need to do a much better job of helping those in the u. S. Realize what is happening so close to their borders. The consequences of this are enormous, not just the suffering and economic forces, but the potential for it to become destabilizing left unchecked. We have a number of those fleeing maduro who are moving into countries with fragile economies, economies that were not designed to be able to withstand these sorts of numbers, so part of what were doing, we view our role to help reinforce those supporting communities, those host communities, those communities of refuge. We think thats crucial. We are part of the discussion on sanctions. Sanctions are important not only for the precise sanctions themselves, but again, as an expression of american views towards these actions. They have a double importance. Finally, what we want to do is to help amplify all of your voices. I know the next panel which we should get to soon is far more important than quite frankly any of us. I dont know. Present company excepted. We should be guided by them. Its not people like me sitting in washington saying i have the answers. Its trying to unleash what you bring to the table, your experience and your notions and your contacts and your ideas. The reason that im optimistic is because as i met with your constituents down in miami, i was incredibly impressed by their strength and energy and optimism and drive. If after all they have been through they dont give up, how can we . How can we . We have to be wow. That is terrific. How can we . That is great. [ applause ] i could be here all day. I foe all of you would like to be here too. The show must go on. One of the reasons we wanted to cup veen this conversation is we wanted to honor ileana and so i was going to ask carl to make a few remarks to recognize ileana. Somebody can help me with the podium. Oh, my. What . Were going to give you something. Okay. Oh, my goodness. Okay. Dont fall off. Dont fall. Ill hold this. Thank you. Twice this morning, ileana has gotten Standing Ovations of being honored. This is a little bit formal to honor her. She is somebody, by the way, and shes done it this morning, when she enters a room she lights it up and provides it with energy. Its amazing. I want to say, one fundamental things about ileana, i want to go back to a book that was written by her father enrique oh, thank you. He wrote 20 books. Yes, he did. This one book was called cuba born in other countries. That is the cubans, the cuban guerrillas who fought against spanish rule in the 19th century, in the ten years from 1868 to 1887 and the war of independence 95 to 98 and he wrote about the u. S. Citizens, the dominican, venezuelans, mexican, puerto rican, colombians, peruvians and people from france and spain and italy and china who came to cuba to fight against the Spanish Colonial rule in cuba. Thats what ileana is. Shes a kind of born born in cuba, but she is a person that is supporting democracy all over the world. In may we were together in the at the ceremony for israel on the 70th anniversary of israel. Israel honored 70 people who over 70 years helped israel. One of them was Leonard Bernstein and famous people like that. There was one member of congress out of 535 who were honored by the Israeli Embassy on that day and it was ileana. She told me i cant talk about that. Ill talk about it and mention it. Earlier this year, she went to show her solidarity with the people of tibet and then after lodi died one month ago, she was the only other person if the congress who issued a message of passionate solidarity with lodi and the mem morium with nancy pelosi and then she went to taiwan earlier this year and the president of taiwan presented ileana with a special medal that was called the order of propitious clouds. That is a remarkable thing. It is so appropriate for ileana. Better than promiscuous. What does propitious mean . I looked up various synonyms. One of them is auspicious and one is optimistic, bright, rosy, hopeful, and heaven sent. Heaven sent. Wow. Okay. Its because shes heaven sent and because of what she has done for democracy in the congress and throughout her life and is going to continue to do, that we want to be. Here it is, carl. What this is, this is a wood cut of the goddess of democracy which was the statute that was raised in tiananmen square. Were coming upon the 30th anniversary on june 4th of tiananmen square. This is the statute that was raised. It is modeled on our statute of liberty and has become a global symbol for freedom and democracy. I want to give that to ileana. Thank you so much. Oh, my gosh. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you. I accept this on behalf of so many people. Thank you, carl. Dan, thank you. Mark, thank you. This is unbelievable. Now i just need an office in which to hang it. I think ill just put it on my back and carry it. Do you want to Say Something . Please, please, please. Thank you so much. This is beyond embarrassing. [ speaking Foreign Language ] when we fight for human rights and fight for democracy and when we speak about the need for freedom, we are speaking on behalf of so many oppressed people. We need to be that voice and that instrument of change and we need to remind everyone who is in leadership and everybody, that the United States must always be that shining city on the hill. We must always value our principles of freedom and democracy. We must never lose sight of that. We cannot be ruled by any other principle than be guided by the truth and the light and that is freedom and democracy and human rights. That is what all of these fine gentlemen and each and every one of you stands for. Carl, that is so meaningful. I dont have an office to hang it on, but i will put it on my back. [ applause ] please join me in thanking ileana. Please join me in thanking ileana. [ applause ] give her a round of applause. [ applause ] okay. All right. Please stay for a second panel. Its very important. We really want to hear from the folks who are really leading this fight. Ileana has to go vote. Please stay. I will leave it in the able hands of my friend and colleague. Hello, everybody. Thank you so much for staying for the second panel. Rosa maria. We are going to talk about nicaragua, cuba and venezuela. Lets get started. We dont have much time left. Lets get started with the conversation. If everyone can get a seat, please, that would be great. Okay. That was an inspiring conversation that we just had. A fascinating panel with a lot of energy and optimism and were very honored to follow such an impressive panel and conversation. Thats the type of conversation that inspires the fight that we all have in this region against oppressive regimes. I really appreciate everything that has been said so far. I am the associate director and fellow of the Americas Program here. We have another fascinating panel coming up and its a combination of cuban, venezuelans, who are going to shed light on whats going on in this regime, how the three regimes are cooperating with each other, what are the roles in each others countries and talk about the similarities of the three regimes, what are the Lessons Learned, right. We heard in the Previous Panel some of those, but were going to dig deeper into some of them. Lastly, we want to talk about the role of three important people from these three countries that are doing work, but it needs to be more articulated and coordinated and we will talk about that too. Since we have only one hour left and i havent really put it on the table yet, but we appreciate the cooperation from our speakers, initially we were planning to talk about five to seven minutes, since we only have one hour, i will just recommend brief, very brief remarks. We will put some questions on the table. Lets have a conversation and so on. If thats okay. By the way, we tried to invite Nicaraguan Democratic leaders to this panel but due to circumstances out of our control they could not be here today. That does not mean we will not be talking about nicaragua. Nicaragua is facing an important crisis and we will be talking and covering nicaragua as well. Rosa maria, thank you for being here. Were going to be starting with you. Shes a Freedom Fighter from cuba, a cuban activist and human rights activist and the daughter, as carl mentioned in the Previous Panel, of an activist as well, the head of the christian liberation movement. She took up much of his activities work after he was killed by agents of the cuban government and now she fights for free and Fair Elections in cuba. In an interesting movement that is called cuba [ inaudible ]. I want you to talk a little bit about it and what are the immediate goals. It will be interesting for our audience and so on. Tell us about the cuban regime, what type of aspects you see in the cuban regime that are similar to the other two regimes and, you know, you have the oldest regime of the three, so tell us a little bit about how you see the situation evolving and where you are right now with the cuba oppression and tactics. Yes, thank you. Thank you so much for putting this together and for also making that beautiful homage to our congresswoman ileana roslehtinen. You ask about Lessons Learned and i think that one of the first ones that we should be repeating and repeating is that for the hemisphere to have [ inaudible ] 60 years old now on the island of cuba have brought very, very dire consequences, as the cos lapse of the venezuelan democracy, the implementation of the social region of the 21st century with all the direness, with all their steps to try to limit human rights, and the governments that also belongs [ inaudible ] this is not by chance. When we talk about 60 years of the cuban years we are talking about ma nnipulation in latin america. When the money appeared to end, the collapse of the of the of the sorry. The soviet union. They created with the help of da silva and the first president was chavez. Then with that platform, the platform of the security and with the money and the resources of the venezuelan people, well, we start to witness a hemisphere that not just start it it deteriorate in terms of democracy, but also, was very united in their silence about the cuban reality and their silence about the venezuelan reality, and the good point in all this is that that silence changed. That situation started to change and they what what the position of venezuela helped a lot, but when we are facing this troika in which i have to say the head of the octopus is in havana Everybody Knows that so we need to address the head in order to eliminate the threat. We are seeing a regime that is trying to present themselves as, well, almost as negotiators and mediators in the peace negotiations in columbia, almost as a mediator also in the crisis in venezuela and they have partners helping in selling that idea and a regime that is trying to sell to the International Community they are changing without actually changing. There is a there is a constitutional reform that has been implemented by the communist party that not just cancels all the human rights, first generation, that were mentioned by our by senator menendez, but also the ruling rule of the communist party forever as the unique and single party that had could be ruling the island and also established as a citizen right as a citizen right, the right to use weapons against anyone that wants to change that singleparty system. So everybody that is involved now could be subject to weapon usage against them. That is not that is all the cuban opposition and all the cuban Civil Society. The real challenge here is to address the regime and their threats in the roots, to start to support the citizen mobilization that is something that is also a Common Element among the three the three populations that have been affected, is the cuban citizenry, the venezuelan citizenry, the nicaraguan citizenry are the ones that are going to change the regimes. We have to start to talk about regime change that sometimes is kind of a kind of a ta bboo mention, but it seems to be our only path to follow. Of course the citizenry are going to be the key factor of change but they cannot do it alone. We are not in 89 anymore. A Million People work in the streets of caracas didnt change that regime and i think the other factor is the mobilization of the International Community ready to ready to present im going to use the war as a real threat for those criminals that are actually the prosperity of our congress. I think you mention a critical point and as part of the previous discussion, three regimes but really one system and we need to face it and address it in a comprehensive way. Theyre cooperating and helping with each other. You also mentioned the soviet union, now russia, which is also playing a role in venezuela. Its playing a role in nicaragua. And china. China and another actor in the region that is helping. Its a troika of tyranny that has support from outside actors that we need to keep in mind and needs to be addressed too. Thats a very important point that is crucial to keep on the table. David is a former mayor of a municipality in caracas. He is one of the most wellknown venezuelan leaders. Hes now in exile. Hes been a truly democratic leader, a fighter for freedom, not only in venezuela but in the region. I remember seeing you, david, in the halls of my university. Its great to see you here. Great to see how much progress you have made so far. Thank you for your leadership on that. David is also a victim of a system that were talking about, of communism. Not only david. That goes back to his roots. I remember david, your grandparents fled the soviet union your great grandparents fled the soviet union and your grandparents fled cuba to venezuela in 1970s and now youre fleeing venezuela. Youre now in exile. This is not new to you. This is in your blood basically. Tell us a little bit about the starting root issue here, communism. What is communism and how communism has affected the way your family has been shaped and then tell us a little bit about venezuela and where you see the venezuelan Development Going forward . Well, thank you for your kind words. Thank you, everyone, for inviting us. Its a real honor to be here. I think through my family i have understood what it is to live in a communist regime, a criminal regime. My grandfather used to have in the soviet union a lumber mill that was [ inaudible ] by the soviets and then he was illegally detained. After two years he was released and he died. My grandparents fled the soviet union, specifically kiev to cuba. Thats where they met. My grand father used to have a company that was expatriated by fidel castro in 1962. My father was born in havana and in 1970 my grandparents for the second time had to flee a communist regime. They left everything in cuba house, company, family and now in 2017, i had to flee venezuela after i was illegally removed as a mayor from the regime because i denied to repress last year and i am under arrest warrant and in hiding. I was able to flee venezuela through the jungle in brazil. So 100 years, three generations, three countries, but the same system. Its a cruel system. Perverse system. A system that does not respect our human rights. Its a system that does not respect the freedom of the press. Its a system that does not respect alternatives in power. Its a system that does not respect the private property. Its a system that does not respect family because i think the most cruel thing that a communist system has is that separation of family. I have family in venezuela, i have family also in the United States. When they fled cuba it was the first time when i was a little kid i came to miami they started to listen about ileana, because a cousin of mine that passed away supported ileana in the 1980s. Thats when my father took me to [ inaudible ] and i felt cuban because i mean everyone who is from cuba is cuban. When you see these and as rosa maria said well the soviet union failed and then you have the socialism of the 21st century. When you have countries like venezuela, nicaragua, bolivia, cuba, brazil that were involved in that 21st century, which is the same communism of the 20th century. Countries like brazil and ecuador or argentina were able to change that system that are going on, thats been going on in cuba, for more than for almost 60 years. What i want to say is fidel castro always wanted to expand the revolution to the whole latin america. It happened in chile, when he had links with armed groups in columbia, it happened when he literally invaded venezuela. It was stopped by the moment. I think that regarding venezuela, i think we did not value what was democracy previously in the past. Venezuela used to was was known as a country that supported oil and women to compete in miss universe. Probably the most important thing was when you had a lot of hyper inflation in the regime, dictatorships, in the 19 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s. That was not well exported in my opinion. By the 1960s, 7. 5 of venezuelas population was immigrant. Now 10 of the population is in a refugee situation. Its the largest refugee population just behind syria, above south sudan, myanmar, afghanistan. You were just on the border. Last week. How many can you give us the fresh, most updated numbers, how many people are fleeing today . As we speak, 3 million venezuelans have fled the country since 2014. When you consider all, were talking 4 million venezuelans. 3 million is the largest ref few by population in the World Refugee population in the world behind syria, 3. 2, 3. 3 by the end of the year. Wow. Thats 5,000 venezuelans fleeing daily, 208 fleeing per hour, 70 of the women are giving birth in macau one of the cities on the border with venezuela. Between 20 and 30 are giving birth in the hospital are venezuelans. The increased of the hiv positive in macau is 375 . The catholic church, which is doing an amazing job, they were providing 2,000 meals. Now they are providing more than 10,000 meals. In just six months, five times more. Thats the biggest evidence of the demand of the humanitarian crisis. In my opinion, i know we have a short time, i think it is a very important moment to get united and to get better organized with cuban opposition, nicaragua opposition and venezuelan opposition. It just gets worse and worse. As rosa maria said, the head of the octopus, i dont have any doubt, is in havana. Cubans are running venezuela, specifically armed forces, on the security bodies and intelligence services. That is going on also in nicaragua. Any country in the region, as long as cuba and venezuela are at risk to have the same problem of democracy. They are connected. They cooperate between them. Its important for us to be united, to do actions together, to like nicaragua, were protesting and some of us were with them, to do a statement together, and that they see that our dissents of those regimes are united and working together and are pressuring to restore democracy on those countries. Just to end, venezuela has become a criminal hub. Its a safe haven for anyone that is criminal. Elan is in venezuela. Drug traffickers are in venezuela. Illegals are in venezuela. Human traffickers are in venezuela. Gangsters are in venezuela. Whoever you think venezuela is probably the safest haven in the world to do criminal activities. Weve got help from the International Community to restore democracy, to recover freedom and i am convinced if we are able to tackle maduro in venezuela, that he doesnt give a darn on the oil right now. He gets more money from the criminal economy. That will have an effect on nicaragua and cuba. To achieve that, the ones now in the resistance in exile and still fighting in our countries have to be united in one front. Thank you. Yeah. On that note, we think its important to highlight what happened earlier this week. There was a 1 billion bribery money scheme case against a former treasury of venezuela, just earlier this week. Those were money and assets from the south florida area that were stolen from the venezuelan people. The question now is how to put those assets and that money into use, into a good cause, to support democratic leadership, to support democratic groups, to support a fight in for freedom in this country, in these three countries, and i know its going on, but its important to shed light on that issue and to work out the best way to move forward on that regard. Thank you so much for being here. A senior director from the latin america endowment for democracy. As the Previous Panel mentioned specifically on latin america, theyre a lifeline. You are hope. You always bring hope. I think the way that congresswoman ileana put it, you are putting flowers in the region, flowers of freedom and democracy. Thank you for your leadership on this issue. Its crucial the work that youre doing and inning that i ho i think that i hope it continues and strength in the coming time. Tell us about nicaragua and, you know, you also have the big picture, so what Lessons Learned do you see from the three regimes, what are the key similarities we need to keep in mind, and tell us your thoughts on how you see how can we best prepare to articulate better the response. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for carrying out this event. I really feel very honored and humbled to share this panel with such prominent and bright and brave leaders, rosa maria and david. Unfortunately we dont have any nicaraguan here. We invited several, but unfortunately the situation in the country has deteriorated in a very acute fashion in the last month but including this last week, so those who were willing to come couldnt because of police repression, intimidation, surveillance. So unfortunately, as was said, our intention was to have a real voice of nicaragua here present. Well many much has been made about nicaragua. I just want to stress the fact that nicaragua is a 6. 2 million country 6. 2 Million People in nicaragua however the intensity of repression in the past month has been just just terrible. In comparative terms in nicaragua reports vary between 350 and 500 people that have been murdered. There are 600 Political Prisoners. A small country such as nicaragua has already has 40,000 people fleeing the country. The Economic Situation is has deteriorated in a very fast pace. So in terms of the consequences of recent repression, nicaragua is facing a very, very dire situation. However, as it has been also mentioned, nicaraguans are on the streets and organized and putting together sound, solid platforms and are reacting in an effective way and trying to not only articulate internal efforts but efforts with International Communities communities has been mentioned earlier, this week there is significant messages from the United States in regards to nicaragua. There is sanctions against murillo and a close ally to o ortega and the recently passed show a strong commitment from the u. S. And bipartisan commitment to address the nicaraguan situation. And i think that this shows us maybe shows some Lessons Learned. Unfortunately the International Community was extremely slow, extremely disengaged with ongoing crisis in venezuela. 20 years of deterioratation was from the International Community. So in the case of nicaragua, deterioration was taking place and ongoing and kind of overshadowed by the situation of venezuela. However, there wasnt enough attention but at least now that the crisis has exploded in such a dramatic fashion, there is much more there is higher awareness and there is also a more immediate reaction. I would like to kind of continue your comments, david, in regards to the democratic players. What can what can we learned and what can be done and what are common trends or threats, also threats but common trends that we identify in regards to actions. Because the first thing we need to think about is how to be effective. We know that these three regimes or this single regime with three different governments interact among themselves, exchange worse practices, lets not call them best practices, they exchange worse practices, our connected share resources sharing intelligence, so how do we respond to this . And i think there are several aspects that need to be stressed. First of all, we flow that these three regimes and not only them but all of these regimes globally are very focused on destroying opposition, on dividing opposition, on creating internal division, strife, lack of trust, creating isolating opposition groups among themselves. So one first and i would say extremely important task almost responsibility of oppositions in these countries has to be to unite. It has to be to articulate their efforts, has to be to identify a common platform, define common strategies and act united, understand that any division and opposition is playing in favor of those regimes. I know it is difficult and we all know different situations, however that has to prevail as a very Important Message because any divided opposition will just play in favor of the regime and will diminish their ability of the peoples that they represent to get rid of oppressive governments. This united oppositions have to be strategic and also have to have a clear diagnostic and clear understanding of the kinds of regimes theyre facing because a good understanding would provide a good strategy. It is also important to build pure illistic and diverse platforms, not exclusively political or society or artist, it has to be a broad and diverse and puralistic approach. Because that is strengthening the call. And it is also very important to establish clear, effective and significant communication with the people, with the population. These regimes are very astute and very capable in dividing and isolating leadership from the people. So thats also something that needs to be addressed in a very strategic effective fashion. And also in a very sympathetic fashion in terms of understanding what are the needs and what are the the needs and the dire situation that all of these these populations are feeling. Then there is the issue of the International Community. We have mentioned this systematically and we have all discovered that these regimes cannot be addressed in an isolated fashion because they have international ties, links, they have international relations. So the International Community has a very Important Role and we know that that role could be even critical or crucial or at some point can really turn events in a in a certain dimension. So in this regards, there are several lessons that weve learned throughout the years. One lesson is there needs to be a good and strategic relationship between what the International Community is doing, thinking, deciding and what internal domestic forces are also doing, thinking and deciding. There has to be communication because International Community on the one side and domestic forces on the other, without communication not only is at best could be just ineffective at worst could be counter productive. So that is important to mention. And also the International Community needs to think in a very creative way as carl mentioned earlier. They are the existing convention and instruments but also emerging instruments. The mag nisky act used for nicaragua and a new instruction targeted sanctions, using in the case of this, we need to recognize first the secretary general amargro who is creative in trying to address the calamity of the venezuela situation first by activating the idea of the alteration of the democratic order. The Interamerican Charter includes looking at the interruption of democratic order in the countries and the alteration of the democratic order. And in both occasions the countries have the responsibility and to intervene, to oversee what is going on in each one of the countries. They had only used the the interruption of the democratic order to address but had not used and had not defined how to address the alteration of the democratic order which is what happened in venezuela throughout the 20 years and had happened in nicaragua throughout the ten years and identified a way of doing it. And they have identified a way of connecting the interamerican system with the universal system through channeling the case against human rights abuses and crimes against humanity in venezuela through presenting the case at the International Criminal courts. So it is the convention and instruments but also going beyond them which is very important. And always tied to the internal forces. And finally, as we have all mentioned, there is an emerging actor, player which is not so emerging in the case of cuba because it is six decades, it is a new actor in the case of venezuela. Nicaragua had a previous dais perra and it is now again becoming a forest. The connection between international and the community and the Domestic Community in many cases is this disconnection is facilitated by dais pers and they could create problems but be a useful player and it is very important for democratic forces, both inside of the country and outside of the country to identify the potential to make use of the daispeous to promote and trigger transitions and changes in the three countries but also as a constructive force to recover and to to transform each one of the countries once a new situation arises. So the main message here is to identify each one of these actors consistently and take into account the connections of the three of them and not systematic and targeted and strategic fashion. Definitely. The role of the dais perra is crucial and they have Lessons Learned to teach to venezuelans. They are not used to be dais perra. This is a new this is new to venezuelans, so cubans have the spirit. So i would love to hear your thoughts on that rosa maria but i want to put on the table is a crucial issue. I know it is probably tough but i want to make sure to hear thoughts and, yes, the role of the International Community is crucial, no question. No doubt. That is why we are seeing more involvement from so many countries of the three countries. But the internal pressure is also very important. We cannot just rely on International Community. We need to keep a light on inside of those three countries and to increase our internal pressure. And one of the tools that the three cytsociety society mechanism to elect officials and to be a democratic society. But the problem is that when you have such a repressive regime in these three countries that are not allowing having free and Fair Elections, and i know cuba is trying to push that so i want to hear from you rosa maria, what is cuba decide and do you see a scenario where cuba could have free and Fair Elections in shortterm and could they be a tool in cuba and i think nicaragua is facing the same dilemma. We just had a group in csis not too long ago and the main mission is to increase pressure on the ortega regime and sit down on a negotiation table for elections but can elections be free and unfair on the ortega regime and the same dilemma with venezuela, right. And that is been the issue. So i want to hear your thoughts. Is election an effective tool within these three environments and tell us a little bit about cuba as well. Thank you so much. Very, very good question. And i think that im going to answer it right now, but we have to also understand that we are not any more facing soviet union kind of regimes. We are facing mafias in power. These are criminals in power, very well connected and very well organized. They are they are cultivating now what they already started 20 years ago. And now we are starting to face that and we awake to the reality in which we are just suffering this these criminals empowerment so the unity is important and of course the diverse and among the opposition is important and it is a resource. But we but we should be careful in putting conditions to the freedom of our citizenry. Because it is very, very easy for the cuban g2 to spread division among the opposition. It has been easy to do it also in the case of the opposition that i respect and admire so much, but we my humble opinion is that it is much more difficult for these criminals to fight the proposal than to fight the people. We have issues and they can address them. But they cannot answer the question why the cuban people havent been able to go to free, fair and multiparty elections in 70 years because the last ones wereig were in 1950. 1950 was the last time the cuban people went to free and fair and multiparty election. So, yes, we need to strength in the opposition and we need unity and in that unity i encourage to be a unity of purposes, a unity of objective of a common goal and try to work for that common goal. Because the monolithic table of the opposition is an easier it is an easier easier adversary. More than the table, we need to work on the political eternity that will implement the transition process. We need to do that of course. But first we need to designate the political scenery. That one in which david could be actually a candidate and win the elections. So what is [ inaudible ]. It is trying to provide a platform in which we can altogether work on toward that minimum goal which is to detonate that political scenery, which is to actually change the system. Because the other thing is here we cant have fee and Fair Elections in cuban because the constitution forbid them and you cannot have elections. It is not it is not a possibility. So you first have to change that system. And the other side is that the unique tool that could help us to change the system in an institutional organized way. But it is not going to happen instantaneously. It is the tool that is going to it is going to provide citizenry with a tool, sorry, to edgi edge to legitimately change the International Community and something that is measurable. But that is not even the point now. The point is how are we going to force these criminals in powers in the three countries to submit themselves to the will of the people. And i think that as i said, we feed to be creative. I think that the answer passed by the citizenry by the nonviolent struggle, by the peaceful movement, the gandhi style and all of the styles that came after and it also needs to be coincidental in time and space with the efforts of the International Community with all of the creativity that you could think better than i. That goes with targeted sanctions and also with political pressure with economic pressure, trying to corner this regime that the other face of the country because they all have faces, is that they are right now in a much vulnerable situation than we can realize. Why the cuban regime is making a constitutional reform if the cuban constitution said that the common practice is there forever. But they are making a constitutional reform because they have been there have been a lot of people inside and out of the island telling them you are not legitimate. There is not a general that came down to put in power and they need a referendum that actually is not a political side or not asking the people, you want free and fair and multiparty elections or you want this. No, no, between the Cuban Communist Party and both institutions say the same thing. So they are trying to give the International Community the perception that something has changed and they somehow have the consent of the people by actually leaving the people without choices. So without having the absolute truth, we could make work to fi truth, but it passes by supporting the citizenry and making the position and the Cuban Society work with the citizenry that is very good, that you mentioned, is at the end of the day is the people that will save the people. And we as opposition or as a society we can just work with them to the final word to define the citizenry and not by any other party. Because no one has the cuban people have never decided for them or anyone in the cuban opposition, in the venezuela opposition it is different. But in the cuban opposition, we have never chosen by the cuban people either. What we want is to have the scenery in which the cuban people could have a voice and not to be the voice of anyone. We want everybody to have their own voice. I am just going to leave one idea that we have published in csis before. The role of technology. This little device can do so much. So especially in repressive environments like the one that we see in venezuela, cuba. With Technology Like blog chain and the cryptocurrency, they have a role in how to organize people. How to make people vote without outside of the control of the government or the regime. So i think it is worthwhile thinking out of the box. We are in a time where we need to do were forced to d f to do it and that is crucial in the cuban environment and in the venezuela environment for sure and in nicaragua as well. David, we dont have much time. I want to make sure that we get to the audience for q a. Just take two or three minutes and then you as well, youre facing a very important venezuela is a complex problem as well. Were not talking about dictatorship only. You mentioned it. It is beyond dictatorship. It is a criminal state. It is a state and i think ambassador brown put it in a way that makes sense, it is a state that goes beyond trafficking and it goes beyond the normal activities that a organization does. So what type of response do you think should be should be seen from the International Community, not a dictatorship, but to the mafia state. Emilia you were the former member and the the border of the Electoral Council in venezuela, not cnn but cne, you were also Vice President of cna when venezuela was a democracy and you have firsthand experience of the power of elections, right. And that is one of the dilemmas were talking about here. So how do you see those democratic tools be in play both in nicaragua and venezuela and also in cuba. I would love to get your thoughts on that, too. But again, two or three minutes and then we go to the audience. Well someone was elected five years ago to be mayor. Right now there is no conditions for free and Fair Elections in venezuela. Anyone who is thinking on that, some councilman or wanting for i dont know why they are running in the next week is just playing with toys. It is not understanding the real problem. Having said that, i know someone who is against free and Fair Elections. I hope we could have free and Fair Elections to solve the problem in venezuela but i think it is beyond that. Venezuela is a case story of the 21st century on the refugee crisis and the Immigration Crisis and the common dictatorship. A lot of the dictatorships in the past came the soldiers and take power and that is it. How was challis elected in 1998, Political Parties and any candidate that wanted to run, could run. Free media and he won and 20 years after you have any options to have a free and Fair Elections, opposition leaders are in jail or exile and Political Parties have been idealized and media is instational and it is beyond dictatorship it is a criminal state, a mafia state. But i think in the next weeks are critical in venezuela. Because on this unique case you have a dictatorship, a criminal and mafia state that doesnt run the parliament. Which is run by the [ technical difficulties ] for important aspects. The first aspect is the International Community. We need to keep the pressure on the regime, sanctions against the one involved in human rights violation and illicit activities, corruption and Money Laundering and the ones responsible, the ones that are surrounding them, family and friends and front men. Second, even though we havent had the same problems that we had last year in venezuela, we have 25 day protests in venezuela with 200 and 300 people participating every day. I think it is not the quantity of people, but the quality of the protest. Someone that started in politics as a protest leader, right now for maduro it is worse to have 400 people blocks away and 10,000 people kilometers away and we have to support them and be with them because it is happening every day. And think it is a huge political opportunity in venezuela. Third, as i said, we need to preserve the National Assembly, especially having a new directive on january 5th that just five days before january 10th of maduro, in my opinion this is a very personal opinion, i think after january 10th National Assembly should have government functions and be the head of the state of venezuela. That is my personal opinion. And it is legal and constitutional and we could have the support of the people and International Community. You dont need the intervention, just the National Assembly to do what people are waiting to do. And the constitution doesnt say when you dont have the president or the Vice President , who runs the country. A lot of constitutional lawyers have said the National Assembly could run the country and that National Assembly should apoint new a new director of the Electoral Court council and call for a free and Fair Elections. But the fourth aspect, im sorry if i took a little bit more of time, is the armed forces. Venezuela has 2,000 generals and that is more than the whole nato and that is incredible and those are the ones that protect maduro and have the political and economic privilege and the ones who are involved in the criminal activities and because of them and the regular groups, it is why maturo is still in power. Arms and fear of the people. But the armed forces are suffering, lack of food and medicine and in the last four years there is an average of 300 soldiers and police that have been killed because of crime. So they are suffering the same problem. Ive been at the border six times in the last five months and im amazed of how many police and soldiers i have seen in the border of brazil and colombia reflecting and at the same time organizing to say we want something institutional. So the in the last year there have been five military police dismantled by the g2, by venezuelan forces. Almost 50 of the Political Prisoners, almost 200, are soldiers. So if we are able to have armed forces institutional with the National Assembly and the protest, i think we have a chance to talkle to tackle the dictatorship and try to restore democracy and as we said before this is a mafia that would need more than that. We need International Corporati cooperation with United States, brazil and france and israel and helping venezuela to have governance and restore institutions to have security and having democracy and freedom again. For those of you who are now watching this closely, january 10th is an important issue. It was mentioned by saying we need to boycott the january 10th issue. Almost 50 countries Democratic Free countries like the u. S. , canada, european union, australia, even japan, did not recognize the latest president ial elections in may 20th of this year. So the new president ial period begins on january 10th of 2019. The big question right now is how these 50 countries or even beyond those countries are going to respond post january 10th and this has very important implications legally and politically both. So that is something that is a tool, that is an event and a deadline that International Community can use to increase pressure and i think if we Work Together towards that goal, i think it is going to create some important impact. Marion, you have maybe two or three minutes to wrap up the conversation and were going to open it up. Thank you very much. Yeah, as a former member of the former Vice President of the elector council with a dubious having been the Vice President when chavez was elected the first time, i obviously have a very im very i value elections very much. If you think about it, in any democratic country voters comprised between 70 and 75 of the population. That is every adult above 18 years in case of nicaragua they can vote even at 16 years old. So elections are the main modelizing process in a democracy that involves twothirds of the population directly and has implications for 100 . So indeeds that a critical preeminent process institution for democracy and that is why dictators try to use elections on their for their own benefit. Because it provides a very strong legitimacy and legality to emerging government and they have intervened in elections to the extent that elections in venezuela, in nicaragua are unrecognizable as such and elections just dont exist in cuba, despite the fact that they talk about votes, which is only basically an endorsement of a list of candidat the candidat present and the party endorse them. And that is not an election. So for democrats in these elections dealing with elections is a dilemma and it is a dilemma that the governments put in place in order to also create internal divisions, options, concerns and dilemma true dilemma for opposition because oppositions have always have in these kind of countries and situation always have to ask, is it worthwhile, is it not. Will this election really become a tool for political struggle to advance democracy, will these elections be a tool against democracy. And that is and it is a real and critical decision that oppositions have to address in each moment. If we had if the venezuelan opposition had not participated in the elections in 2015, and many i mean rightfully discussed whether it was a good or bad idea to participate in those elections, because elections in venezuela have been totally distorted and transformed in terms of what are real, free, fair transparent election is, the opposition had not decided to go to elections on 2015, had not decided to present a unified list of candidates for the National Assembly. We would not have that very strong powerful instrument nowadays. But on the other hand, the opposition decided not to participate in the elections last year because they this year actually. They were so distorted and they were so denaturalized in terms of what an election can be and we already knew that the government and the opposition already knew that the government would not respect the outcome of those elections, that the same opposition that decided to participate in elections in 2015 decided not to participate in elections in 2018. So oppositions and democratic players and these kind of situations have always had to weigh and have to confront whether it is worthwhile exercise to participate or not to participate in elections. But as david said and also it is implied in what rosa maria said, democratic oppositions prefer elections and democratic for the democratic oppositions and elections is a matter of principle, a matter of bringing the voice of the people, the massive voice of the people, the 70plus percent of the population expressing themselves directly with implication for 100 . So it is a most valued institution for democrats. But democrats in each in these kind of situations are forced by the circumstances to have to assess and in each case whether participating or not will be a contribution or not to strengthening democracy and expanding the possibilities of democracy in each case. Thank you so much. And you have all been very patient. Thank you so much. Just say your name and your affiliation and go straight to the question, please. We have three aisles so lets take one from each aisle. Lets start from the left. Here we have one. Then two. Good morning. It is wonderful debate. My name is walter jurassic. I am an American Congress, you asked a question about the community, i escaped the community when i was 19 so i understand quite well. Now from that point, i go on to other things. The democracy, and i hear this, the democracy and human rights never can be accomplished until your panel and expert and the evil and the human factor. Let me put it this way very quickly and then one last question, no panel no panel over here ever discuss how important is education. Lets face it. Question from gentleman from venezuela, from cuba, from all of the countries, south america and Central America and since i come over here i travel all of it and i speak spanish too. Let me put it this way, i observe and i see it. Where the venezuelans 20 years ago and i study with venezuelans, where they were when they were so well economically and everything and abandon the kids. No education for the kids. Abandon the people. To the power, they never thought about the future of the next generation. It happened in Central America and it happened to many other countries in south america as well as all over the world and human rights has a been act for education, education, education. I repeat, poland is the grant education and because they are not communist but people educate themselves. So my question is, we have a solution but not the politician have a solution. I think the people have a solution. Thank you. Thank you for the question. Lets go to her. Im vanessa jimenez, political from venezuela. I have a question for rose a maria. We have now two leaderships that to recover the democracy in cuba and venezuela, what is the plan to action to spread the terrorist because this is the problem and cuba is the window of this and venezuela super is the terrorist. I have another question. [ inaudible ] in south america. The agreement to get to the democracy restitution which will be a solution to the human crisis. How to get that countries receiving the [ inaudible ] established economy. And you have to talk about an action, plan to what is the plan, the actual plan. I would like to press in you to eliminate the xenophobic that our brothers have been victims of Different Countries where this these massive exodus is taking place and this is [ inaudible ] and the George Washington university. Thank you. Thank you for the question. I just i dont have any comment but i have a question quick question. And perhaps marion could answer. Sure. Do we have an estimate of the amount of millions, whatever it is, that despite the great suffering and what is happening in venezuela, that mr. Maduro continues to send to raul castro, is there an estimate on that . Thank you. Thank you for the question. Well we have three very different questions. And feel free to i think rosa maria, you got a couple so lets start with you, if you dont mind. One of them said that i think it is a crucial question. The terrorist presence in cuba. Is there any terrorist presence, is isis in cuba, what type of collaboration do you see in the cuban environment when it comes to terrorism and beyond terrorism. Well, i dont have intel information because what were talking about is a very hermetic regime that do not have to explain themselves to the cuban people. They havent done that in 60 years but we knew yesterday in the morning, i think, that for instance davido the chief of the eln is in havana and he flew to havana from venezuela. So its a reality that many country has been a place for terrorists and in the last half of the century that was why cuba was on the list of countries sponsoring terrorists and according with a United States it was removed but the same remains of course that there is a huge threat not just to the cuban people, but a threat to the National Security even of these countries actually. And that if you combine that with the fact that that we are dealing with one of the if not the best, one of the best the best intelligence in the hemisphere. You have a very complicated threat. James keppler in 2016 was explaining in front of the American Congress that the four biggest threats in espionage to the United States were russia, china, iran and cuba. Cuba was the fourth biggest threat in espionage for the United States and the other three are bigger than cuba, but the other three understand very well with the cuban and with the cuban regime. So i dont have i dont have a call to action different from support democracy on the island. Because a democracy a democracy in cuba is the way to stop that threat. That is not going to stop because you start to make pacts or deals with dictators. That has been tried in the past, and havent worked. Why . Because they need each other. Because they Work Together. All of us have witnessed what took place with the sonic attacks in cuba, we still dont know which intelligence apparatus was the one perpetrating but we know that couldnt have happened without at least at least the toleration of cooperation of the community so it is a threat to the whole hemisphere, the way to eliminate that threat is to work with the cuban democrats and with the venezuelan democracies and the Civil Society in supporting the citizenry to change that regime. It is the only path that i see. And of course the location is very, very important. My father used to say that to educate is to liberate and it is not it is not a new idea. [ inaudible ] said the same thing. Of course that we need to educate but in the in progress. We need to change the system. We cannot stop and start to teach and then to start to promote change. We have to do both things at the same time and to learn our lesson. And after we recover democracy, to also teach next generations in what is wrong and what is right. And for prosperity and peace and democracy. Thank you. Let me echo that. Education in the day after scenario in each of the three countries is the mantle for the next generation to come. And david you have a couple of questions. Regional response, social backlash created by wave of migrants and you were also mayor of a municipality in caracas and in touch of the community. Tell us about the education role. Okay. Well regarding the education, i think it is one of the most important policies to implement when we restore democracy. We have one of the best Public Education systems in the region. When we have democracy. And as i said in my first words, i think that what happened is that we took democracy and freedom for granted and the generations before us did not maybe embrace that democracy and freedom too much and challenge speech against corruption and has become maduro the biggest corruption system by far in the region and probably one of the most in the modern one of the biggest in the modern history. So when you say the people, yeah, obviously, politicians and you say speak spanish. Were not [ inaudible ]. Were part of a Civil Society and started as a student leader and the Civil Society but if do you not get if you do not get involved on the Political Parties, if you dont get involved in the leadership, you have the challenge and the ortega and so you need to find inside of the Political Parties and refresh the idea and the vision and have a new and a new Public Policy that needs to be implemented and i have five schools that was one of the best experiences i had as a mayor with 1300 kids and they were they were starving because of the humanitarian crisis and we were able to feed them with private and public alliances to feed those kids on breakfast and lunch to improve their student and environmental improving infrastructure and transport, every year they had books and dictionaries and everything that they needed to study. It was a huge effort. Obviously because of the crisis, but it got more difficult. It was has always been a priority. Also i talk as a mayor to have to see the books and the laptops that were given by the regime with challis on the cover and everything that was said and were not using this. One of your two questions, i answered, i think. If you have any initiative on the xenophobia, i think the xenophobia rejection has to come from the Civil Society and local and regional governments, not only national governments. I think xenophobia is located it is not the majority of venezuelans that are suffering from xenophobia but when but when it is a act, there is a lot of in the news like what happened in brazil in august and i went there a week after that thing happened. But we need to eradicate any xenophobia manifestation so if there is any relief in the George Washington university, were more than welcome to receive it in the ois with working with local governments in colombia and ecuador and promote policies against xenophobia and convenience for decades opened its arms to many Latin Americans and now i think it is important that Latin Americans receive us because were not fleeing the country because we are one, we are doing it against our will. And you say about the terrorists, this is a topic that i always try to be very responsible when i talk to have evidence of that. But i wouldnt be surprised at the end of the day if venezuela supports terrorism. You have the herm ano and the meggal and the fma and the farc and so you dont need to have terrorists in venezuela to have regime that is linked or that is supporting terrorist groups because we have it in colombia. Thank you, david. Marion, have the last question. I think it is related to data but im not sure you have, how many millions of barrels are flowing into cuba right now. Of course as you perfectly know well, thank you for your question, there is a lot of information that is simply not available. But i think one thing that is very telling is that recently there was some scandalous information in the news that despite the desire situation in venezuela, despite the fact that venezuela is only 1. 1 Million Barrels of Oil Producing when challis arrived the production was around 3. 5 Million Barrels and venezuelas importing gasoline because the refineries in venezuela are in producing extremely low capacity and some of the finest refineries in latin america are just as i said in a minimum production. That despite the needs of the venezuelan people spending long hours, eight and ten hours to buy gasoline in a oilproducing country that venezuela is exporting the gasoline it is importing from the u. S. Or other places and it is exporting it back to cuba. So for the venezuelan government there is to differentiation between the cuban government and the convenien the venezuelan. For them the cuban government and the needs of the cuban government are as if they were the needs of the venezuelan government and some and in some instances even more the priority is higher in terms of taking care of the cuban government, the cuban regime nan to take care of their own people of venezuelans and the ties between both countries are very, very intense. They could have large sectors including mainly Security Intelligence but it is also the venezuelan government has taken on itself as a responsibility to support the Development Plans of the cuban government. However, as far as i understand, the cuban economy has suffered significantly from lack of this massivin flow massive massive inflow of resources from cuba and even in this dire situation, cuba remains a priority. Maybe in a lesser lesser capacity to provide the massive inflow, which i at some point it was 110 Million Barrels of oil per day, some figures i read recently are talking about 50 Million Barrels per day. I dont know how accurate those are. But just the message is that even in this very dire situation, cuba remains a priority for the venezuelan government. This is a fascinating panel. Thank you very much. One of the main conclusions here is doing nothing has tremendous consequences so we need to be all engaged in the crisis in the hemisphere as much as possible moving forward. So thank you for being here. Thank you to the three speakers and everybody. [ applause ] we have more Live Programming coming up today at the American Enterprise institute, discussion on the future of the republican study committee. The current chair, congressman mark walker and the incoming chair congressman mike johnson will take part. You could see live coverage starting at noon eastern on cspan 2. And President Trump is in buenos aries argentina for the g20 summit. Over the course of two days the president will be holding oneonone meetings with several World Leaders including shinzo abe and Angela Merkel today and then today he has a dinner scheduled with chinese president xi jinping. Yesterday President Trump canceled his planned meeting in argentina with russian president vladimir putin. Well continue to update you on his trip as news becomes available. Join American History tv this weekend for live all day coverage of the International Conference on world war ii from the National World War Ii Museum in new orleans starting saturday at 9 00 a. M. With authors and historians discussing dday. June 6th, 1944, the war with japan and world war ii greatest commanders and Lessons Learned from the war. Watch the International Conference on world war ii saturday starting at 9 00 a. M. Eastern on American History tv on cspan 3. Coming up this weekend on book tv, sunday at 7 30 p. M. Eastern senator Bernie Sanders talks about his book where we go from here, two years in the resistance. Now you can watch you can watch television from morning until night for years. That question will not come up. Is it appropriate that the top onetenth of 1 owns more wealth than the bottom 90 . Is it appropriate that in the wealthiest country in the history of the world we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any other major country on earth. Are we concerned that a handful of media conglomerates control what we see, hear and read. Then on sunday at 9 00 p. M. Eastern, on afterwards, National Review executive editor heyhan salon discusses his book, a son of migrants makes the case against open borders interviewed by the former commissioner of the immigration and nationalization service. When you think about the next several decades, partly because of falling birthrate as mong native born americans, immigration is really a big diver, a composition is important not just as a discrete matter of immigration policy, but in terms of Human Capital policy that the character of our schools and our future workforce and much else, it is a very important issue touching on many different sectors. Watch this weekend on cspan 2 book tv. This weekend cspan cities tour takes you to riverside, california. With the help of our spectrum cable partner well discover the scene and history. Do at noon eastern on book tv. We visit the university of California Riverside citrus vary ate collection which houses a thousand variety of citrus and at the forefront of u. S. Agricultural search since the 1900s. This is a relative doesnt look like citrus but they are micro citrus ostra and when i cut it in half with my knife and open it up and the juice comes out like little bubbles and so then and you could see the seeds as well. But they look like caviar. On sunday at 2 00 p. M. Eastern on the American History tv, we explore the Historic Mission inn, host to u. S. President s, celebrities and major social gatherings. Including the wedding of pat and richard nixon. In may of 1903, just about three or four months after the mission had opened, president Teddy Roosevelt was here in southern california. And frank miller, the man who built the mission inn, invited him to come here and he spent the night here in that room. At that time then it gave the epity at of the president ial suite and that is how it was known for many years. Watch cspan cities tour of riverside, california, saturday at noon eastern on cspan book tv and sunday at 2 00 p. M. On American History tv on cspan 3. Working with our cable affiliates as we explore america. And now a discussion on how hate is promulgated online and how it can be stopped. Panelists discuss a series of recommendations for Internet Companies to adopt in order to more effectively combat online hate speech and misinformation. The center for American Progress is the host of the discussion. It is an hour and ten minutes