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Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) issued the following statement today regarding Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s announcement to nominate an ambassador to the United States:

“Nicolás  Maduro doesn’t have a public relations problem that he can solve by simply sending one of his cronies to Washington to sell the lies their masters in Havana instruct them to sell. Maduro’s problem is that he’s repressing and killing innocent Venezuelan people, and they won’t stand for it.

“The American people are seeing the images out of Venezuela, and we stand in solidarity with people who simply want to be free and shape their own destinies.

“Maduro says he wants an ambassador here because the U.S. ‘needs to know the truth about Venezuela.’ There is a simple way to fix that problem. Allow more international media into the country to cover the reality as it is. Stop censoring media outlets that don’t toe the government line. Stop blocking access to the Internet. None of these things are U.S. directives; they are all obligations Venezuela’s government is failing to meet under the Inter-American Democratic Charter it has signed.

“He should stop trying so hard to please his masters in Havana by following their playbook of repression. That is how the truth will be told.”