The following brief intervention on June 14, 2017 by Cuban-American Rep. Ros-Lehtinen reveals clearly what formula the U.S. is using to intervene flagrantly in Venezuela. Both the representative and the secretary have been attempting to overthrow, first Pres. Hugo Chavez and now Pres. Maduro for a while now. Unlike so-called Obama Care, the sanctions on Venezuela is an Obama legacy they cherish, and are happy to continue and to improve. The U.S. believes it has the right to be Venezuelan constitutional guards, and in the words of Sec. Tillerson himself, notice that on that basis they decided to place six supreme justices of Venezuela in the list of U.S. sanctions. Notice that Rep. Ros-Lehtinen wants even more people in that list. Also notice how blatantly Rep. Ros-Lehtinen lies. She speaks of Maduro’s thugs killing people. It is right-wing thugs who have been killing people, including lynching an afro-venezuelan man without political affiliation, and killing the Chief of Police in Merida.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-FL : “In the last 2 months nearly 3,000 Venezuelans have been jailed, over a thousand have been injured and nearly 70 people have been killed by Maduro’s thugs. So, I ask to please place more human rights violator on our sanctions list.”

Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson: “We are working with treasury to develop a very robust list of individuals. Most recently you saw sanctions imposed on six members of the Venezuelan Supreme Court in response to their decision handed down, which we thought was certainly not in keeping with the constitution. We are going to continue being very engaged with the situation in Venezuela. But, you know the challenge with the U.S. is to do this in a way that is productive and constructive as opposed to the U.S. then being used by the Maduro regime as a tool to justify their actions. But, rest assure we have active efforts underway working with others in the OAS in particular.”

Source: C-Span, June 14, 2017, clip of Fiscal Year 2018 State Department Budget
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4673721/tillerson-venezuela