Cuban-born GOP lawmaker warns Venezuela elections must happen in 'months,' not 'years' after Maduro downfall

By Fox News · Fox News

A Miami-area congressman whose district is home to a significant number of Venezuelan refugees says the failed communist state should hold new elections sooner rather than later. "It can't be years, I'll tell you that right now," said Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla. "This is what these regimes do, they just negotiate for time, try to wait you out, so you weaken your will. So it can't be — I'm talking months, I am not talking years." Gimenez is the sole Cuban-born member of Congress, having fled the communist dictatorship as a child and settled in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. He was also among the first members of Congress to speak with Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the U.S. government executed strikes on Caracas before capturing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife Celia Flores. RUBIO DEFENDS VENEZUELA OPERATION AFTER NBC QUESTIONS LACK OF CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL FOR MADURO CAPTURE Maduro was flown to the U.S. by the military to face trial on terrorism charges at the hands of federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said the U.S. would "run" Venezuela until the country could hold fair democratic elections — which Gimenez warned its people needed to see in the relatively near future. "Now the number of months, you know, I don't know what the number would be, but certainly not years," the Florida Republican said. "And the people inside Venezuela need to see changes happening pretty quickly. People out here that live in the diaspora need to see that also." MADURO'S CAPTURE IS 'BEGINNING OF THE END' FOR CUBA'S REGIME, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE CHAIR SAYS Gimenez said there were "millions of Venezuelans" outside the country "that are waiting to go back home." "The faster that we can transition to democracy and freedom, the faster they can go back," he said. The former Miami-Dade County mayor is a supporter of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who Trump recently said, "doesn't have the suppor…