Maria Elvira Salazar

Mr. Speaker, I am here today because I oppose this resolution. It is fundamentally flawed. It is trying to invoke the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which doesn't even apply in the case of Venezuela.

The War Powers Resolution applies when there is active combat with the United States forces. It does not include law enforcement or counternarcotics operations against declared terrorists like Nicolas Maduro, who happens to be the head of a major drug cartel in the Western Hemisphere.

Therefore, we do not need this resolution because what the President is doing is well within the law. The President does not need congressional approval to protect Americans from terrorist attacks.

Let's see what the Constitution says. The Founding Fathers vested in Congress the power to declare war, but they were equally clear that the power to defend the homeland from foreign and domestic threats belongs to the President as Commander in Chief.

Therefore, President Trump does not need congressional permission to kill terrorists at sea who are bringing cocaine and fentanyl to the streets of Miami, New York, or Chicago.

Let's see what international law says. The United States is waging a noninternational armed conflict with Venezuela. What does that mean? Our issue is not with Venezuela as a country but with Nicolas Maduro, the narcotrafficker who hijacked that country after he stole the elections last year. Under the Law of Armed Conflict, we can use military force to stop his drug cartel from flooding the streets of the United States.

According to article 29 of the Charter of the Organization of American States, of which the United States is a member, it says that the countries of the Western Hemisphere may take military action against a threat that endangers the peace of the Americas.

The Maduro regime has destroyed the peace of the whole Western Hemisphere. If not, ask anyone who lives in my district, the city of Miami.

Now let's go back to American history, which says that Maduro is the world's largest drug trafficker. In 2020, he was indicted by a Federal grand jury in this country for pushing hundreds of thousands of tons of cocaine to the streets of the United States.

Back in 1989, we had a very similar experience in Panama with Manuel Noriega. At the time, President Bush took action in Panama to remove Noriega. There was no need for congressional approval, but as Commander in Chief, he did what he needed to do. Today, Panamanians are eternally grateful to the United States.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan ordered United States forces into the islands of Grenada to protect the lives of American citizens. Once again, the President did not ask approval from Congress. Reagan acted swiftly, lawfully, and decisively.

Today, the actions taken against the cartel of the los Soles, headed by Maduro, fall squarely into this same category--operations against nonstate actors and criminal organizations, not a war against a sovereign nation or a legitimate President.

This resolution presented by the Democratic Party would tie President Trump's hands in the fight against drug-trafficking terrorists. Every Venezuelan knows that Maduro is just a thug and a delinquent who has been in the drug-trafficking business for 27 years since he took over the country. They have totally destroyed the most prosperous country in Latin America, Venezuela.

Of course, Congress has the crucial role in authorizing wars, but the President has independent authority to defend the mainland. Panama is thriving. Grenada is thriving.

Once Maduro is gone and order is restored to the country, it will be the most prosperous country in Latin America, having the largest reserves of oil in the world, which will give them enough resources not to depend on the charity of the United States or any other country to fix the destruction that Maduro wrought.

Mr. Speaker, for those reasons, I strongly oppose this resolution, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the honorable gentleman from Arkansas, the distinguished French Hill, chairman of the Committee on Financial Services. It is a pleasure for me to be serving with him on this committee.

Mr. Speaker, I am going to say before I start, before I explain to this body why I am introducing this resolution, when I was a journalist covering stories for Univision Network, I interviewed many people who had lost their legs or lost their brothers or sisters in the middle of the ocean, trying to get to Miami, and the sharks ate them up. Some of them were eaten up alive. Others lost legs.

When they made it to Florida, I was able to interview them as a journalist and see the horrors of what they had to go through because they were escaping the paradise called socialism. I am going to start with that and maybe finish with another anecdote.

The reason we are introducing this resolution is to condemn the horrors of socialism, and I am presenting just the facts. I invite my colleagues on the other side to vote to condemn this nefarious ideology.

This has nothing to do with political parties. This is not a Democratic issue. This is not a Republican issue. This is a moral vote against an ideology that has destroyed millions and millions of families--many of those families I serve in District 27, the heart of the city of Miami, the heart of the Cuban exile community and now the Venezuelan community--and murdered more than 100 million lives besides crushing hundreds of thousands of other families and individuals.

Unfortunately, socialism and Marxism crush the human soul. It is not just in my community in Miami. Millions of Cubans had to flee. It is the rest of the hemisphere and the rest of the world. Just look at Russia, look at North Korea, and look at Iran.

What a coincidence that, today, President Trump is receiving in the White House the mayor-elect, Mr. Mamdani, from New York City. I salute the President for receiving Mr. Mamdani because he won fair and square, and that is the way democracy works.

Let me just tell you something. Knowing very well how Fidel worked, how Hugo Chavez works, and how socialism works, I want to put this in

perspective. If it were to be the other way around and Trump would have been the mayor-elect and Mamdani were to be the President of the United States, I assure you that there is no way that Mamdani is going to receive Trump at the White House, period.

How do I know that? Because I know exactly how they operate. Democracy is just a tool to get to power, period. People who love freedom, we are just useful fools to be used in order to get to the business of power, which is all socialist, communist, whatever you want to call it. If it is not democracy, freedom, and a free-market economy, it is just a bad ideology. Unfortunately, that is what they do to achieve power. They use us.

Just look at Venezuela. Oh, my God, Venezuela is in the news. Everyone is talking about Venezuela, my God, the Caribbean.

Let me just give you the facts. Maria Corina Machado, who is the legitimate President of Venezuela, who won 80-20 after President Biden gave the opportunity to Maduro to do fair and square elections and transparent elections, 2 years ago Maduro signs a document by the name of the Barbados Agreement, and he agrees to the Biden administration and to Juan Gonzalez, who used to be the National Security Advisor for Latin America, that he was going to leave if he did not win the elections. He signed that document with the Biden administration.

What did he do? He just spit on Biden's face because we believed that, oh, my God, Biden, look what he is doing. It is good. It is a good idea to give the opportunity to Maduro to just create and conduct free, fair, and transparent elections with international observers, and he was going to go. Look at where he is at now.

Maduro is not only the head of the Suns Cartel, one of the most important drug trafficking cartels in the world, but he was also indicted in 2020 by a Federal grand jury in this country for being one of the major drug traffickers in the world. Not only that, he is now on the transnational criminal organization list. Not only that, he is the head of the Suns Cartel.

As you can see, I can speak until tomorrow about socialism.

The problem is that Venezuela is the perfect example, and the Venezuelans would make fun of the Cubans 25 years ago, saying that it was impossible for that to happen in Venezuela. They had the largest reserves of oil in the world. They were a brave and strong democracy. They were not an island. It was impossible. They have such a strong economy.

Look, right now, the average Venezuelan weighs 15 pounds less because of a lack of food, and the Trump administration has to come to rescue them from what they have turned that country into.

We are at a crossroads in this country. Young Americans, 70 percent believe that socialism is good. One in three believes that government should control major industries. One in four says that we should abolish private property.

It is my duty as a Representative of District 27, the heart of the Cuban exile community, to tell this body it is time to denounce socialism in this country because, just like it happened to the Venezuelans, it could happen to the Americans.

Mr. Speaker, if there is someone who has seen the horrors of socialism up close within the Democratic Party, and is in the House, it is the Honorable Congresswoman Maxine Waters. And I would love for you to support this resolution specifically because, Madam Waters, for decades, you traveled to Cuba dozens of times to visit Fidel Castro personally, whom you considered your friend.

Congresswoman Waters was in Havana, and she saw the destruction of Biblical proportions that Castro caused on that island, who, at the time, in 1960, had the highest per capita income in the Western Hemisphere.

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Mr. Speaker, I am asking for unanimous consent to withdraw the violations of the rules and continue with my speech, which is that there are many people on this floor that have--

Mr. Speaker, there are many people on this floor who have seen the horrors of communism. They have been to Cuba. They have been friends with Fidel Castro. They have seen the jails full of Cuban prisoners. They have seen people preparing rafts to die in the middle of the ocean, eaten by sharks.

There are many people in the Democratic Party who have witnessed that and have not said anything.

For this reason, Mr. Speaker, I am asking some of my colleagues on that side of the aisle, many of them who are very good friends of mine, to understand that denouncing communism and socialism is the right thing to do for the Democratic Party.

If some of the highest, most important Members of the Democratic Party on that side of the aisle want to vote with us, they would be doing a favor to their Republic. Not only that, the Democratic Party will become the new champions for freedom in the Western Hemisphere.

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to commemorate the 120th Anniversary of the National Audubon Society, one of our Nation's oldest and most enduring conservation organizations. For over a century, Audubon has been driven by a simple but profound truth: what is good for birds is good for people and the planet.

Audubon was founded in 1905 in response to the destruction of birds for the feather trade. Since then, Audubon has helped secure landmark conservation protections, from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Endangered Species Act to the ban on DDT. These achievements reflect a legacy of science-based advocacy and bipartisan action that has safeguarded countless species and habitats.

They also understand that it all begins with birds, because if birds are in trouble, it's a sign our environment is too. By centering conservation efforts on birds, Audubon has been a leader in smarter, more sustainable solutions that help both wildlife and people. These efforts in turn have helped species such as the Bald Eagle, Brown Pelican, and Whooping Crane, all once on the brink of extinction, make remarkable recoveries.

Our Nation's 26th President, Teddy Roosevelt, was a passionate conservationist and from an early age, had a deep appreciation for birds. In writing to renowned ornithologist Frank Chapman, President Roosevelt remarked, ``Spring would not be spring without bird songs, any more than it would be spring without buds and flowers, and . . . . besides protecting the songsters, the birds of the grove, the orchard, the garden and the meadow, we could also protect the birds of the seashore and of the wilderness.''

Both my constituents and I agree with President Roosevelt--we must make serious efforts to protect as many birds as possible. That is why I led the introduction of the Neotropical Migratory Birds of the Americas Conservation Enhancements Act during the 118th Congress. Signed into law in April 2024, this bill reauthorized the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act, which provides financial assistance for projects to promote the conservation of neotropical migratory birds. By protecting birds, we can protect our environment and the natural beauty that surrounds us.

As Audubon marks 120 years, its mission remains as vital as ever to protect birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow. The legacy of the women and men who built this organization continues in the conservationists, volunteers, and community leaders who carry its work forward.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing the National Audubon Society for 120 years of unwavering leadership, innovation, and impact. Audubon is not just part of conservation history; it is a leading champion for the future of our Nation and planet.