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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A chief strategist of Venezuela's government-backed cryptocurrency is a former U.S. congressional intern who once organized protests against the same socialist administration he's now helping to circumvent U.S. financial sanctions.Gabriel Jimenez, 27, was catapulted to something of tech stardom in Venezuela last month when he stood alongside President Nicolas Maduro and two Russian businessmen on national TV signing a contract to position the petro, as the fledgling currency is known, among international investors."It's a company founded and led by young Venezuelan geniuses, boys and girls of Venezuela, who have one of the most technologically advanced blockchain...

A group of Republicans who have decided not to run for re-election told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the Republican Party has changed, and not for the better. Reps. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), and Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) and Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) complained about the GOP’s narrowing focus and the perception that the Republicans must pledge loyalty to the president instead of to GOP principles. […] Royce said he always considered the Republican Party to be “a big tent party” with room “for a lot of different viewpoints.” He said part of the answer is for...

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the dean of the Florida legislative delegation and the first Cuban American elected to Congress, is retiring at the end of her term next year, saying it’s time to move on after 38 years in elected office. “It's been such a delight and a high honor to serve our community for so many years and help constituents every day of the week,” the Miami Republican told the Miami Herald in an exclusive telephone interview Sunday. “We just said, ‘It's time to take a new step.’” Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article147718764.html#storylink=cpy

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) said Tuesday that she will write in Jeb Bush’s name when voting for president in November, according to ABC News. "I think I'll write in the name Jeb Bush," she told the Miami Herald editorial board. "A candidate should espouse optimism." Ros-Lehtinen had endorsed the former Florida governor’s primary campaign before he dropped out of the race in February.

One Republican has joined eight Democrats in creating the first Transgender Equality Task Force in Congress. Created by the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus and chaired by Rep. Mike Honda, D-CA, the task force held a hearing yesterday to discuss challenges, especially violence, that transgender advocates say are prevalent among transgendered Americans. According to the description below the Human Rights Campaign's video of the two-hour forum, the event consisted of two panels. The first was about "the lived experience of transgender victims and educating on the scope of violence experienced by transgender people." The second panel included "HRC President Chad Griffin...

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) was traveling back and forth to Cuba in secret negotiations to try and secure a release for American prisoner Alan Gross when a woman approached him with an impassioned plea: she wanted a child and she needed his help. The woman, the wife of one of the Cuban spies imprisoned in the U.S. on espionage charges, was in her early 40s and said she was almost out of time. According to Tim Rieser, Leahy’s foreign policy aide, she was “clearly desperate.” That began an unusual effort on the part the senator, who is chairman of the...

One of the 11 House Republicans La Raza praised for not voting to end President Barack Obama's temporary amnesty program for illegal immigrants revealed that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) has been working "every day" behind the scenes on an amnesty bill. In a Friday appearance on MSNBC's Jose Diaz-Balart, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) predicted that Congress is "going to be passing an immigration bill" in the future, "thanks to your brother, Mario Diaz-Balart." "Mario and Paul Ryan and good leaders are working every day toward that, and we hope that it will happen," she said. Ros-Lehtinen and other members of...

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) this week called on President Obama to release the text of the Iran nuclear agreement. That agreement, which took effect in January, requires Iran to reduce its uranium enrichment activities in return for a loosening of international sanctions. But Ros-Lehtinen, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, said Congress has no way to judge its implementation, unless it has a copy of the agreement. "In order for Congress to properly perform its oversight functions and for the American people and our allies to have a full and open debate...

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), speaking at a forum on women leadership on Wednesday, said immigration is a woman issue, because the male has either been deported or the father “is not present.” “I think that folks who have dealt with refugees and immigrant families see how much it impacts women, because so often many times, the male is not there. Either he’s been deported or the dad is not present. And immigration is really a woman issue. It’s a family-centered issue,” Ros-Lehtinen said at the forum sponsored by Politico. …

Terrorist groups that attempt to undermine the U.S. and its national security will always have some connection to Iran, Florida Republican Rep. Ros-Lehtinen charged Wednesday. Ros-Lehtinen, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Newsmax TV in an exclusive interview that it was especially “disheartening” the U.S. has yet to hold Iran accountable as the nation marks the 30th anniversary of an Iranian suicide bombing that killed 241 servicemen at a Marine Corps barracks in Beirut. “We need to follow the money in every one of these terrorist attacks and you will see that the money always links back...

A group members of the U.S. House of Representatives have sent Secretary of the Department of Human and Health Services, Kathleen Sebelius, a letter questioning her reported actions of soliciting donations from non-profit organizations that are “directly implementing” Obamacare. Florida’s Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Jeff Miller, Bill Posey and Trey Radel are among the 26 members of Congress who penned their signatures on the letter to Sebelius. The letter asks Secretary Sebelius if she indeed made the calls,how many did she make? In addition, Sebelius was asked if Department resources were used, and how much money was raised?

Congresswomen Lehtinen attacks the administration and State Dept.

Ros-Lehtinen calls out Chinese government in Seoul Posted By Josh Rogin Thursday, May 24, 2012 - 4:15 PM House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) participated in a candlelight vigil outside the Chinese Embassy in Seoul Thursday and chastised the Chinese government for forcibly repatriating North Korean refugees who flee to China. "I too was a refugee," she said, standing beside Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) and South Korea Assemblywoman Park Sun Young. "Having fled communist totalitarianism in Cuba, I have walked their lonely road and have experienced both the fears and the hopes that combine to motivate their arduous...

Castro should go: Clinton WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday the United States remained firm that the Castro regime should end in Cuba, despite overtures seeking reform on the communist island. Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban American...

An agreement signed in Colombia this week allowing the ousted former Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, to return home and resume political activity without fear of prosecution marks “a great day” for the Honduran people, according to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But in the view of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the accord sets the stage for Zelaya and his leftist ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, to further damage democracy in the small Central American country. “Hugo Chavez’s handprints are all over this deal,” Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement. “He can’t wait to have Zelaya...

SNIP The other lawmakers in attendance (beside Sen. Richard Lugar R-IN) were Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-TX), Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ), Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Rep. Buck McKeon (R-NY), Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA). Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough held a conference call with...

J Street is calling on Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to return campaign contributions that she received from Irving Moskowitz, the financier behind the new construction at the Shepherd’s Hotel site. Yes, the George Soros–funded J Street is criticizing someone for taking money from a controversial philanthropist. This is too easy: With the two-state solution hanging by a thread, what a terrible signal it sends for an American political leader to be so cozy with a far-right political funder whose actions undermine the foreign policy of the United States and makes a two-state solution harder to achieve. Ros-Lehtinen, the new Republican chair...

North Korea blasts incoming Foreign Affairs chairwoman as 'human scum' By Bridget Johnson - 12/24/10 10:40 AM ET North Korea's official news agency blasted the incoming chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee -- while mistaking her for a chairman. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), a Cuban immigrant, has been a regular target of dictator Fidel Castro and his Latin American allies Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales. But the Korean Central News Agency, the mouthpiece of Pyongyang in a country with no free media, said Wednesday that Ros-Lehtinen's calls for North Korea to be relisted as a...

Obama tried to reach across the partisan divide twice yesterday with a phone call to Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican from Florida, our colleague Anne E. Kornblut reports. And twice, according to her office, she hung up on him. She "thought it was a hoax," an aide to the congresswoman said.