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Sen. Rubio Compares Crisis In Venezuela To Cuba

MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Amid anti-government protests in Venezuela and local rallies to show solidarity with protesters, Senator Marco Rubio spoke on the crisis in the country on Monday.

Senator Rubio compared the country in crisis to Cuba while on the Senate floor Monday.

What's the first thing the Venezuelan government did when these broke out? They cut off access to Twitter and Facebook and the Internet. They ran CNN out of there. They closed down the only Colombian station," said Rubio. "Years before, they had closed down all the independent media outlets that criticized the government. Where did they learn that from? From Cuba."

He even referred to Venezuela as the, "puppets of Cuba."

The senator went on to show pictures of the protests in Venezuela and casualties of them including Genesis Carmona, a beauty queen and student killed in the clashes.

He also spoke about  Leopoldo Lopez, the former mayor of a municipality in Caracas who was arrested for protesting against the government.

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