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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, House Foreign Affairs Western Hemisphere Subcommittee Chairwoman Maria Elvira Salazar delivered opening remarks at a subcommittee hearing titled, “Spread Freedom, Not Woke Values: An American Agenda for Democracy and Human Rights.”


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-Remarks-

We’re here to examine the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. That has been a core mission of the United States since we became the modern world’s first true democracy in 1776. Our country was founded on inalienable rights—the ones that are fundamental like freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to own private property, and many others.

But unfortunately, this bureau has shifted its focus dangerously away from promoting these rights to promoting wokeness in the last few years. Here are some of the examples: In Mexico, for instance, $250,000 for an NGO that was promoting sex workers. In Costa Rica, $1.5 million for LGBTI elders. In Colombia, $47,000 for a transgender opera. In Peru, $32,000 supported a gay sex education comic book for children. And in Ireland, $70,000 for a musical promoting diversity.

What does that have to do with democracy? The irony is that these are progressive countries that already protect civil liberties already. They did not need any more funds to pursue that purpose.

As this wokeness crusade plays out in free countries like, I just mentioned, the real enemies of freedom—like Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela—go sometimes unchallenged. We ignore freedom of religion in Nicaragua, where over 150 Catholic priests were being arrested and some have disappeared. We ignore free speech in Cuba, where simply shouting “libertad” on the streets lands someone in jail. While we ignore freedom of the press in Venezuela, 12 journalists are imprisoned for exposing the truth about Maduro’s stolen election, what he signed with President Biden called the Barbados Accords.

Unfortunately, the Bureau of Democracy and Human Rights has been ignoring its mission. And it should be clear: defend freedom, support the oppressed, and stand up to tyrants.

The conversation we need to have today is how do we go back to basics and defend freedom and democracy in our backyard and around the world.

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