Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), chair of the House Homeland Security subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, issued a statement on Saturday morning comparing the U.S. arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro to the fall of the Berlin Wall in terms of its historic significance.
“President Trump has changed the course of history in our hemisphere. Our country, and the world, are safer for it,” Gimenez said on social media platform X.
“Today’s decisive action is this hemisphere’s equivalent to the Fall of the Berlin Wall,” he declared.
“It’s a big day in Florida, where the majority of Venezuelan, Cuban, and Nicaraguan exiles reside. This is the community I represent, and we are overwhelmed with emotion and hope,” said Gimenez, who was born in Cuba and represents southwestern Miami-Dade county.
“We are forever grateful to President Trump, and to our brave service members, for this stellar military operation. ¡Gracias!” Gimenez concluded.
Maduro, the illegitimate dictator of Venezuela and alleged boss of the Cartel of the Suns narco-terrorist gang, was taken into custody by U.S. forces in a daring and sudden operation early Saturday morning. President Donald Trump said a “large-scale strike against Venezuela” was launched to ensure the safety of the American troops who captured Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.
Maduro was a wanted criminal with a $50 million bounty from the U.S. State Department. He is the first suspect to be targeted with a reward of over $25 million by the Narcotics Rewards Program.
President Trump authorized kinetic action against drug smuggling boats off the coast of Venezuela beginning in September, and last week he said the U.S. had conducted the first ground-based covert action against a narco-terrorist facility in Venezuela.
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