Top Venezuelan Official Diosdado Cabello accused Secretary of State Marco Rubio and two Latino lawmakers of being behind the removal of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, claiming they requested it through the South American country's opposition leaders.
Cabello, Minister of Interior and Justice in the Maduro regime, said Florida Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar and Mario Diaz-Balart also played a role in the alleged request. "They are the ones who asked for the end of TPS, but now ask Latinos to vote them because they need them to be reelected," Cabello said. "They did it through the extremist opposition here in Venezuela."
Salazar promptly reacted on social media, not only rejecting the claim but doubling down: "Yes, Venezuelans need TPS because they fled your brutal, corrupt and murderous narco-regime. While this criminal dictatorship remains in power, there won't be freedom or justice in Venezuela, and Venezuelans must be protected," the lawmaker said.
"Dictator Maduro's puppet, Diosdado Cabello, does not have any moral authority to discuss human rights when he is one of the most dangerous criminals in the hemisphere," Salazar added in another passage of the publication..
"Your regime days are about to end. We will continue denouncing and facing you from the U.S.," she concluded.
Salazar has, however, called on the Trump administration to not deport Venezuelan Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders after the Supreme Court again allowed the administration to more forward with their removal.
The high court determined on Friday that the administration could move forward with the decision to strip hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans from the protection, making them move vulnerable to deportation.
In this context, Salazar said that while she applauds the Trump administration for going against authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro, "the end of TPS has created deep anxiety for thousands of Venezuelan families in Miami, hardworking taxpaying members of our community, now living in fear of being forced back to Maduro's narco-dictatorship."
"We must not send a single law-abiding Venezuelan back until conditions change, and right now they are only getting worse," she added.
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