TALLAHASSEE — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and South Florida Democrats plan to meet with Venezuelan exiles this week amid an ongoing stalemate in Congress over whether or not to offer protections to those who fled the South American country.
Democrats have scheduled a forum on Thursday in Weston, a town that has seen an influx of Venezuelans fleeing their country during an economic collapse that began under former President Hugo Chávez and has continued under President Nicolás Maduro.
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The Trump administration has taken a hard line against the Maduro regime and backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó, but Maduro has remained in power.
Florida is home to at least 190,000 Venezuelans and the economic crisis in that country reverberates loudly in South Florida. Cuban Americans see parallels between what has happened under socialist rule in Venezuela and under communism in Cuba.
“In South Florida, democracy in Venezuela is a local issue,” said Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a South Florida Democrat who plans to attend the forum with Pelosi.
