A Venezuelan citizen who left the crisis-stricken country in his teens for America is speaking out against socialism and the Maduro regime -- and giving a warning to anyone who may support the Green New Deal backed by liberal Democrats including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
Daniel Di Martino, a college student who grew up in Venezuela before his family left the socialist country when he was 16, said Monday on “The Story with Martha MacCallum” that his family went from flourishing in the upper middle class to making just two dollars a day under now-disputed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and former President Hugo Chavez.
“By the time I left Venezuela in 2016 we had a blackout every week -- and I was privileged,” Di Martino told Martha MacCallum.
He said he saw parallels between what he experienced in Venezuela and the rise of socialism in America. “I hear what I heard from the socialist regime in Venezuela, ‘everything is alright.’”
He continued, “People are starving in Venezuela because policies such as the one that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [supported] in her Green New Deal, which in reality is just the ‘red new deal’ which is just a socialist wish list, would destroy the U.S. economy and lead us into the path of Venezuela.”
DEMOCRATS PRESS TRUMP TO GIVE VENEZUELANS IN U.S. REPRIEVE FROM DEPORTATION
President Trump on Monday spoke in Miami in front of a crowd comprised mostly of Venezuelan and Cuban Americans and asked military officials loyal to Maduro to abandon him and accept opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country's new president.
"We seek a peaceful transition of power, but all options are open," Trump said.
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Di Martino outlined his family's struggles in Venezuela in a USA Today op-ed.
“I watched what was once one of the richest countries in Latin America gradually fall apart under the weight of big government,” Di Martino wrote.
Fox News' Martha MacCallum contributed to this report.
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