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Excerpt: Remarks for Hearings on State Corruption and the Humanitarian Crisis in Venezuela
2 MINUTE READ
March 6, 2019

Remarks
Michael G. Kozak
Senior Bureau Official, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor

The Organization of American States

Washington, DC

March 1, 2019

Here in the Hall of the Americas, our objective is peace. And peace is our objective in Venezuela. But this past Saturday Nicolas Maduro ordered armed criminals to attack his own people at Venezuela’s borders as they sought to receive desperately needed humanitarian aid. And he ordered the country’s once proud security forces to aid and abet this criminality.

The United States will continue to investigate, prosecute, and sanction officials who rob their own people. Other countries are undertaking similar efforts. I have seen examples of gross corruption during my years in government, but never anything of this scale.