Motion to Discharge

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRUZ. Madam President, I rise today to discuss the acute dangers to American national security that have formed and are deepening across the Western Hemisphere.

These dangers have coalesced because of the comprehensive and catastrophic policies pursued by President Biden and his administration. Already, nine governments across South America, Central America, and the Caribbean are controlled by socialists. All of these governments, with only one exception, are also overtly and ideologically anti-American. They are committed to undermining American security and to endangering Americans.

This weekend, on Sunday, Colombia will become the 10th government in the region controlled by the hard left when the country's new President, Gustavo Petro, will take office. I am deeply worried that once he does, Colombia will also join the ranks of anti-American forces in Latin America.

Petro is the first openly Marxist to be elected President of Colombia. He was brought to power by Colombia's leftist fringe, including guerrillas and terrorist groups.

Colombians had rightly and for decades resisted Marxism and rejected the hard left. The first reason for this is that Marxists have long been violent guerrillas who have wreaked havoc in Colombia. The second reason is that Colombians are well aware of what has happened in other Latin American countries that have elected or have seen leftists seize power. Cuba and Venezuela, for example, have endured socialist and communist regimes that have tortured, killed, silenced dissidents, have denied freedom and driven countless people into exile, forcing many to flee or be murdered.

People are rightly asking: What happened? The answer, unfortunately, is as straightforward as it is worrying. Joe Biden and his policies happened. The Biden administration seems ideologically committed to systematically alienating our allies and empowering our enemies. In this goal--and perhaps only this goal--they have been wildly successful.

Since Joe Biden has been in office, we have seen forces for evil in Iran, in Afghanistan, in Russia, in China, in Venezuela, and in Cuba gain strength while our friends and allies in Israel, Ukraine, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have felt abandoned and alone. And this pattern has been repeated in the Western Hemisphere.

In Mexico, we are seeing deepening civil unrest and the erosion of civil society. The breakdown of the rule of law across our southern border--a crisis directly caused by Joe Biden's policies and political decisions--poses acute national security challenges and dangers to the United States.

Mexican President Lopez Obrador seems intent on making these trends worse, and when I questioned a Biden State Department official on Obrador's targeting of American companies and the nationalization of energy in Mexico, he wouldn't even admit that those were bad things. And if he is not willing to admit to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the leftist President of Mexico's targeting of American companies and the nationalization of energy in Mexico are bad things, then we can be certain the Biden administration is also unwilling to convey that to Mexico.

When we saw Cubans flood the streets last summer, yelling ``Libertad'' and waving American flags, the Biden administration couldn't even bring itself to come out with a strong support and statement for the people marching in the streets of Cuba. In statement after statement, as protesters swept into the streets, administration officials failed to unequivocally support the protesters and critically failed to condemn the brutal thugs that the communist regime was sending to assault, brutalize, and silence the speech of Cuban citizens seeking freedom.

When it came to Colombia, the Biden administration went out of its way to undermine and to alienate the pro-American government of Colombian President Duque. President Biden denied Duque a call for the first 5 months of the administration, providing morale and momentum for Duque's domestic enemies. Biden did finally call Duque at the end of June that year--after his helicopter came under attack by anti- government terrorists.

And what was the reward Biden had for the terrorists?

Well, just a few months later, Biden removed the FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, from the list of terrorist organizations. He also dismantled terrorism sanctions on individual FARC members. FARC is an organization of Marxist-Leninist narcoterrorists who, for decades, have killed, kidnapped, and extorted Colombians and seized and murdered American citizens.

FARC continues to pose an acute threat to Colombian security and to American interests in the region, but the Biden administration has treated it like other terrorist groups, with weakness and appeasement and worse. Just last week, House Republicans announced that the administration may well be distributing assistance to former FARC terrorists. So the inevitable occurred; the Colombian far left gained momentum, and Petro was elected.

This is what happens--this is what always happens--when America abandons our friends. Colombia has been an indispensable ally to the United States. Our relationship stems back 200 years. We have deep economic and security ties. We provide Colombia with almost a half a billion dollars in aid every single year--a testament to the breadth and depth of our ties.

Petro says he will work hand in hand with Nicolas Maduro's oppressive regime in Venezuela. He is looking to work with the National Liberation Army, a terrorist organization in Colombia. He will embrace the FARC. He says he wants to stop oil production and to roll back cooperation with the United States on stopping drug trafficking. In fact, Petro seems deeply committed to weakening and undermining the United States- Colombian relationship.

I hope and pray that he doesn't weaken it. I hope and pray that his rhetoric and language in the past is not carried forward in policies when his administration begins. I want to see Colombia remain a close U.S. ally. I don't want to see Colombia follow the example of other socialist governments in the Western Hemisphere. We know where that leads.

Both Cuba and Venezuela used to be prosperous countries until leftists came to power. Venezuela, in 1950, was the fourth wealthiest country on the face of the Earth. The United States was first. Switzerland was second. New Zealand was third. Venezuela was No. 4. Then socialist dictators came to power, including Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro, and they destroyed much of that mighty nation. The quality of life deteriorated so much in Venezuela that people are literally eating out of trash cans in alleyways as they flee the country by the millions.

In Cuba, when Fulgencio Batista staged a coup and became a brutal dictator in the 1950s, my father was a teenager in Cuba, and he fought against Batista's cruel regime. My father was imprisoned and tortured. He was beaten in a Cuban jail. He had his nose broken. He had his teeth broken out of his mouth. My father fled Cuba in 1957. He came to America--he came to Texas--seeking freedom. He had $100 in his underwear. He didn't speak English. He washed dishes while making 50 cents an hour.

In 1959, Castro and the communist revolution succeeded there. Shortly thereafter, my father returned to Cuba only to be horrified at the evil and oppression that Castro had brought--at the murder, at the torture, at the suffering, at the poverty. My aunt, my Tia Sonia--his kid sister--was still in Cuba. My Tia Sonia fought in the counterrevolution against Castro, and my Tia Sonia was imprisoned and tortured by Castro's thugs.

This is the future that may well be awaiting Latin American countries that embrace socialism. This is the pattern we have seen over and over and over again. Petro was elected, but if he follows the pattern of other leftist dictators, it may prove to be the last free election in Colombia.

So how has the Biden administration handled Petro's rise to power, which their own weakness and their own appeasement facilitated? With yet more weakness and appeasement.

Both Joe Biden and Secretary of State Blinken effusively congratulated Petro: How great, an anti-American Marxist and a close ally of ours in Latin America.

They said they looked forward to working with him on shared interests. I hope those shared interests don't include undermining the United States of America.

There is value in clarity. There is value in telling the truth about what socialism does to a country from the bully pulpit of the United States.

If the Biden administration won't support American allies, if they will actively undermine American allies like they did the pro-American government of President Duque's, and if the President won't check our adversaries and stand up to our enemies, then Congress must.

Last month, I introduced legislation that would reimpose terrorism sanctions on the FARC and on FARC-related terrorists. Those sanctions should never have been removed, and doing so highlighted the lack of respect and support for our friends and allies in Colombia. Mere months before the Colombian election, Joe Biden's delisting of the FARC contributed to the election of an anti-American Marxist. My bill is a commonsense first step to restoring America's policy toward Colombia. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted on my bill, and, sadly, every Senate Democrat voted no.

However, much of the damage has already been done, and this weekend, Petro will take office. American policy, I believe, must be recalibrated to acknowledge that reality. Again, I hope and pray that Petro does not lead his country into the camp of anti-American socialists who have become ascendent during the Biden administration, but we would be reckless and maybe even delusional not to take him at his word because that is what he has said he intends to do.

So I will shortly be introducing another bill--the CAUTION Act--the Colombia Assistance Used Transparently by Institutionalizing Oversight Now.

This bill will comprehensively condition all of our aid to Colombia based on what path Petro will choose. If he cuts back defense coordination with the United States, my bill will ensure that he gets no more money for security coordination. If he cuts back cooperation on drug trafficking, my bill will ensure he gets no more money for counternarcotics. If he refuses to help dampen illegal immigration, my bill will ensure he gets no more money for development assistance.

I am not interested in giving anti-American leftists American tax dollars as aid. I believe our foreign policy should use carrots and sticks in order to incentivize other countries to behave in a way that benefits American interests and strengthens our friendships and in a way that discourages countries from seeking to harm and undermine the United States of America.

This is an inflection point, and America must be clear: We don't support Marxists in Latin America. Any leftist leader who chooses socialism will be held accountable by the United States and, at a minimum, will no longer be funded by the U.S. taxpayers to undermine our great Nation.

I hope this bill earns bipartisan support because standing up for the interests of America and standing up to save the United States- Colombian friendship and alliance is a national interest that transcends partisan lines. If President Biden won't stand up for America, then I hope and pray that the Congress will.

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