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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMiami congressman Carlos Gim\u00e9nez said Venezuela must hold new elections sooner rather than later.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMiami congressman Carlos Gim\u00e9nez said Venezuela must hold new elections sooner rather than later.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Screenshot via Forbes Breaking News\/YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n Since the United States bombed Venezuela and captured<\/a> dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in an overnight military action on Saturday, much has remained uncertain about the country\u2019s future.<\/p>\n While Maduro is gone, his top allies remain in power <\/a>in the oil-rich nation, with Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, formerly Venezuela\u2019s vice president and oil minister, being sworn in as the country\u2019s interim president<\/a> late Monday afternoon. President Donald Trump\u2019s administration continues to threaten further U.S. military action<\/a> in Venezuela (among other Latin American countries). And democracy appears to be sidelined<\/a> amid the chaos, with Trump telling reporters on Sunday evening<\/a> aboard Air Force One: \u201cWhat we want to do is fix up the oil, fix up the country, bring the country back, and then have elections.\u201d<\/p>\n But while those in Trump\u2019s inner circle, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have said that conversations about holding democratic elections in Venezuela are \u201cpremature,\u201d <\/a>not everyone agrees.<\/p>\n Miami congressman Carlos Gim\u00e9nez, who was reportedly among the first members of Congress to speak with Rubio following Maduro\u2019s capture, said the country must hold new elections sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can\u2019t be years, I\u2019ll tell you that right now,\u201d Rep. Gim\u00e9nez told Fox News<\/a>. \u201cThis is what these regimes do. They just negotiate for time, try to wait you out, so you weaken your will. So it can\u2019t be \u2014 I\u2019m talking months, I am not talking years.\u201d<\/p>\n Born in\u00a0Havana<\/a>, Cuba, Gim\u00e9nez\u2019s family immigrated to the U.S. in the wake of the\u00a01959 Cuban Revolution<\/a> and settled in what is now known as\u00a0Miami\u2019s\u00a0Little Havana<\/a> neighborhood. He attended<\/a>\u00a0the recent Nobel Peace Prize <\/a>ceremony in Norway honoring\u00a0Venezuelan political opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado \u2014 who was expected by many in Venezuela and abroad to assume leadership after Maduro\u2019s detention, but was ultimately sidelined when the U.S. backed Rodr\u00edguez.<\/p>\n Gim\u00e9nez, who chairs the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security, told\u00a0the Wall Street Journal<\/a>\u00a0 he learned around 4:27 a.m. that Maduro had been seized when Rubio called him with a few simple words: \u201cWe got him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI knew who he was talking about,\u201d Gim\u00e9nez said in the interview.<\/p>\n The U.S. seized Maduro and his wife in a military operation Saturday, capturing them in their home on a military base in Caracas and bringing them to New York via the warship\u00a0USS Iwo Jima<\/a>. In a press conference early Saturday morning, Trump said the U.S. would \u201crun\u201d Venezuela until a \u201csafe, proper, and judicious transition\u201d of power could take place. <\/p>\n