Roberto Lovato: Elliott Abrams Is Bringing Violence of 1980s U.S. Latin America Policy to Venezuela
Roberto Lovato: Elliott Abrams Is Bringing Violence of 1980s U.S. Latin America Policy to Venezuela
FEBRUARY 14, 2019
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: During Wednesday’s House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Venezuela, the new U.S. special envoy to Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, faced intense questioning from Democratic New York Congressmember Adriano Espaillat.
REP. ADRIANO ESPAILLAT: Allies have expressed concern of your appointment to deal with this problem. Some have characterized it as being perhaps like appointing Exxon to lead a discussion on the Green New Deal, or maybe even appointing MBS to lead a discussion on fairness in journalism and accessibility to journalists. Do you feel that your past actions in Iran-Contra have permanently impaired your ability to fairly and transparently deal in the region, since we all know the outcome of what happened then? Do you feel that that’s a major problem, baggage that you bring to the table?
ELLIOTT ABRAMS: I don’t. And I’ve—now, I’ve been doing this job for two whole weeks. And I can tell you that members of Congress have raised it; no Latin American of any nationality with whom I have dealt has raised it. And we’ve had lots and lots of discussions about how we’re going to promote democracy in Venezuela. I guess I should say, since I’ve been attacked now three times, in my own defense, if you look at the Reagan record, of eight years, when we came in, there were military dictatorships—
REP. ADRIANO ESPAILLAT: Mr. Abrams, that’s not an attack.
ELLIOTT ABRAMS: —all over Latin America.
REP. ADRIANO ESPAILLAT: That’s a fact of history.
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