Sun Sentinel
Op-Ed: Sen. Rick Scott
July 25, 2022

In March, I wrote in these pages that President Joe Biden had completely abandoned Latin America. The president’s recent Summit of the Americas proved this to be true. Joe Biden claims to promote human rights, freedom and democracy in Latin America, but his failure to invite the legitimate President of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, to the Summit showed that Biden’s claims are hollow.

Since my last submission to the Sun Sentinel, the Biden administration has doubled down on its failed appeasement policies toward the illegitimate regimes in Cuba and Venezuela even as these brutal dictatorships viciously oppress their people. Appeasement failed under Obama and has consistently failed under Biden. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results has exposed Joe Biden and his policies for who and what they truly are: insane.

The Summit of the Americas was Biden’s perfect opportunity to firmly stand with our democratic allies and express America’s unwavering support for freedom and democracy across the Western Hemisphere. The event came just weeks after the Biden administration shocked millions in the U.S. and across Latin America by announcing a massive easing of sanctions against the illegitimate Maduro regime in Venezuela and Castro/Diaz-Canel regime in Cuba.

Biden could have used the summit to denounce the horrific human rights abuses in Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba and to demand the release of political prisoners. In Cuba, more than a thousand democracy activists, some as young as 14 years old, have been unjustly imprisoned for nearly a year. Activists like José Daniel Ferrer are being physically and psychologically tortured. Their families are being denied visits. All of this is the regime’s work to silence the movement for freedom and democracy on the island. In Venezuela, thousands face starvation — the results of Maduro’s failed socialist policies. Sadly, but predictably, the summit came and went without even an attempt from the administration to denounce these regimes. The Cuban and Venezuelan people desperately need the United States to be their champion, but the president has instead been an accomplice to the regimes that oppress them.

Biden’s failed summit is the perfect encapsulation of his administration’s terrible approach to foreign policy. This was Biden’s chance to step up to the challenges facing the people of Latin America and confront the attacks on freedom and democracy that we have seen there. As the leader of the free world, the U.S. president must promote democracy everywhere. It’s a role in which Biden and his administration have failed horrifically.

It is absolutely unacceptable that Joe Biden stayed silent on the recent anniversary of the July 11 democracy demonstrations, and I won’t let him continue to ignore the suffering of the Cuban people. The president must immediately demand the release of political prisoners. Biden must denounce the evil regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba and reverse his abandonment of Latin America. It’s time for Joe Biden to stand against the thugs who are oppressing the people of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. This is the only way to clearly show the world that the United States under Joe Biden unapologetically promotes freedom and democracy across the Western Hemisphere.