Carlos Giménez, among first to learn about Nicolas Maduro’s capture, predicts ramifications for Cuba and elsewhere

U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez was among the first calls made by Secretary Marco Rubio about Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s capture and removal. Now he wonders what the news means for Cuba.

The Miami-Dade Republican, who chairs the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security, told The Wall Street Journal he learned around 4:27 a.m. that Maduro had been taken out of power. The Secretary of State called the fellow Miamian politician with a simple message: “We got him.”

That’s little surprise as South Florida’s lawmakers have been among Maduro’s most outspoken critics. Giménez personally attended the Nobel Peace Prize honoring Maria Corina Machado, a political opposition leader exiled by Maduro’s government. So this was news he was waiting for.

“I knew who he was talking about,” Giménez said of the call from Rubio.

Venezuelan politics for the past several years have been of critical importance in South Florida. According to the Migration Policy Institute, about 49% of Venezuelans currently in the U.S. live in Florida, most of them migrating since 2010.

That has put the issues in the oil-rich communist nation center stage in Florida for some time. And with Maduro apparently deposed, Giménez hopes other communist nations, like Cuba, consider the changing winds in the Western Hemisphere.

“This is a demonstration of American capacity, capability, and when you have a will to use that, you can get some really positive results,” he told the Journal.

He specifically noted Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, and told the Journal that Cuba was apparently providing security for Maduro when he was taken into custody by the U.S.

“I’m sure that Diaz-Canel is now rethinking about his situation,” Giménez said, though he stressed he was not predicting the U.S. would take similar action in Cuba.

The future of Venezuela remains uncertain at the moment, with Trump suggesting Rubio and others in the administration could be calling shots for some time.

Giménez, along with U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody and U.S. Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart and Maria Elvira Salazar, are expected to further discuss the situation in Venezuela at a press conference in Doral on Saturday evening.