Marco Rubio calls Venezuela travel ban a badge of honor
As violence and unrest continues to worsen in Venezuela, numbers of U.S. citizens traveling to the country has continued to decrease dramatically, and now that…
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, center, waves a national flag during a rally in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2015. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
As violence and unrest continues to worsen in Venezuela, numbers of U.S. citizens traveling to the country has continued to decrease dramatically, and now that number is likely to become even smaller.
Venezuelas President Nicolas Maduro just announced that U.S. citizens wishing to visit Venezuela would face the same restrictions that Venezuelans traveling to the U.S. face: the purchase of a tourist visa, which is to be paid in American dollars.
SEE ALSO: Venezuela announces arrest of pilot, other citizens; tightens US travel rules
These travel restrictions come at a time when U.S. travel to Venezuela is already low. In the first nine months of 2014, just 36,000 U.S. citizens visited Venezuela, according to the Venezuela Tourism Ministry. Two years prior, that number was twice as high.
In addition to placing travel restrictions on U.S. citizens, Maduro also released the names of politicians banned from traveling to Venezuela. The list includes Sen. Marco Rubio, former President George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Sen. Robert Menendez.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) addresses the 42nd annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) February 27, 2015 in National Harbor, Maryland. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Rubio claimed that being banned from Venezuela was a badge of honor.
The Florida senator, who has openly criticized Maduros extreme-left government and has called the country a human rights catastrophe, explained to Fox News why he is proud of the travel ban.
I love the people of Venezuela, Rubio said. I want that country to have freedom. I want it to have human rights and to be banned by a dictator like Nicolas Maduro is, to me, a badge of honor.
The travel restrictions on U.S. citizens come after the U.S. recently imposed a travel ban on high-profile Venezuelan officials for violating human rights.
Marco Rubio views the ban as a badge of honor rather than an insult. (Screenshot from Fox News)
Maduro has claimed that the U.S. is avidly plotting against the Venezuelan government, and tensions between the two countries worsened after Maduros government recently arrested an American pilot and other U.S. citizens suspected of espionage in Venezuela.
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The U.S. State Department has not yet commented on the recent updates about restricted travel to Venezuela, but it did release a statement regarding Maduros claims about the U.S. trying to topple his government.
We are aware of reports that President Maduro repeated a number of inflammatory statements about the United States during a televised political rally today, the statement said. The continued allegations that the United States is involved in efforts to destabilize the Venezuelan government are baseless and false.
