Latino lawmakers introduce 'Combatting Communism Act'

Republican Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar joined Congressman Carlos Gimenez, Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis, and members of the South Florida community in Miami on Tuesday to introduce legislation that would establish a new State Department position tasked with combating communism and authoritarianism.  

The proposed “Special Envoy to Combat Global Rise of Authoritarian Socialism and Communism” – known simply as the “Combatting Communism Act — would be modeled after a similar State Department ambassador-level position that was created in 2004 to combat anti-Semitism around the world.

“One can never stop fighting against an evil as great as Communism or Socialism,” Salazar told ADN America. “As members of Congress, it is our responsibility to call on the administration to establish a watch dog within the State Department that can monitor where authoritarianism is growing in the Americans and throughout the world.”

Salazar added that she felt a historical duty to her family “and all of those who left Cuba with empty hands and broken hearts” and promised she would not stop “denouncing the atrocities of an ideology which only brings misery, oppression and exile.”

Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez, a former Miami-Dade mayor who was born in Cuba and whose family fled Cuba in 1960 after the Revolution, also believes it is the United States’ role to fight communism in the Western Hemisphere and throughout the world.

“It is time for the United States to reaffirm its commitment to combating communism and authoritarianism around the world. As the leader of the free world, we must continue to stand up for the universal values of freedom, liberty, democracy, and peace,” Gimenez told reporters.

“By retooling our foreign policy, we are sending a strong signal to the world that there is no room for oppressive governments who stifle free expression, who undermine democratic elections and institutions, and who unravel its people’s economic rights,” he added. “Communism kills. Authoritarianism kills. Free and liberty must prevail.”