[rad-green] Trudeau’s extraordinary campaign to overthrow Maduro

*https://yvesengler.com/2020/02/26/trudeaus-extraordinary-campaign-to-overthrow-maduro/
<https://yvesengler.com/2020/02/26/trudeaus-extraordinary-campaign-to-overthrow-maduro/>FEBRUARY
26, 2020*

*Trudeau’s extraordinary campaign to overthrow Maduro*

*By Yves Engler*

[image: 200127-Ottawa-GuaidoVisit-CanadianGovernment]

The effort Justin Trudeau’s government is putting into removing Venezuela’s
President is remarkable. So is the utter hypocrisy of their campaign.

On Thursday Ottawa hosted the Lima Group, a coalition of countries
supporting Washington’s bid to overthrow the Venezuelan government. A CBC
headline noted, “Ottawa
<https://thetop10news.com/2020/02/21/ottawa-attempts-to-reboot-campaign-to-remove-maduro-from-power-in-venezuela/>
attempts
to reboot campaign to remove Maduro from power in Venezuela.” For more than
a year the Lima Group has openly pushed Venezuela’s military to overthrow
the government. Thursday’s summit was the third held in Canada of a
coalition instigated by Canada and Peru in mid 2017.

During the recent Munich Security Conference Trudeau discussed the South
American country with a US Senate and House of Representatives delegation
led by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. The Prime Minister’s release
noted, “the Congressional
<https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/readouts/2020/02/14/prime-minister-justin-trudeau-meets-united-states-congressional-delegation>
delegation
thanked Canada for its leadership on the Lima Group and for supporting
Interim President Juan Guaidó and the Venezuelan National Assembly in their
efforts to achieve a peaceful democratic transition in Venezuela.”

Similarly, the Prime Minister discussed Venezuela at a meeting with
Austria’s Chancellor on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
According to Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Canada and Austria “have many
shared goals such as the empowerment of women and our support for free &
fair elections in Venezuela.” According to this formulation, the
empowerment of half the world’s population is of similar import to
purported electoral discrepancies in Venezuela.

Foreign minister François-Philippe Champagne also discussed
<https://twitter.com/Rob_Malley/status/1228560561895596033> Venezuela with
International Crisis Group President Robert Malley at the Munich Security
Conference.

Last month Venezuelan politician Juan Guaidó was fêted in Ottawa. The
self-declared president met the Prime Minister, deputy PM, international
development minister and foreign minister. Trudeau called him “Interim
President Guaidó” and Champagne sometimes referred to him simply as
“President”.

Over the past couple of years, the government has put out hundreds of press
releases, tweets and public statements critical of the Venezuelan
government. They hired a Special Advisor
<https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/meet-the-hired-gun-ottawa-is-using-to-overthrow-the-venezuelan-government>
on
Venezuela to oversee the government’s coup efforts and the Professional
Association of Foreign Service Officers gave
<https://pafso.com/canadas-foreign-service-awards-celebrate-their-30th-year/>
Patricia
Atkinson, Head of the Venezuela Task Force at Global Affairs, its Foreign
Service Officers award in June 2019 for her role in overseeing a team of
diplomats that organized Lima Group meetings, sanctions, etc. The
government has implemented four rounds of sanctions against Venezuelan
officials and it’s brought that country to the International Criminal
Court, shuttered its Embassy in Caracas, funded opposition groups and
decided a marginal opposition politician was the legitimate president.

A look at Canada’s Lima Group allies highlights the hypocrisy of their
campaign against Venezuela. The constitutional legitimacy
<https://yvesengler.com/2019/03/14/trudeaus-position-on-honduras-reveals-hypocrisy-about-venezuela/>
of
Honduras’ President is far weaker than Maduro’s; Far more dissidents were
assassinated
<https://www.wola.org/2018/12/december-update-least-120-activists-killed-colombia-far-year/>
in
Colombia last year; the government of Chile is facing greater popular
contestation; the electoral legitimacy of Haiti’s President is much weaker;
Honduras’ president has clearer links
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/world/americas/honduras-drug-trafficking-trial.html>
to
drug runners; violence is worse in numerous countries in the Hemisphere.

It is true that Venezuela’s economic downturn – and concurrent outward
migration – is substantially worse than other Lima Group members. But, the
sanctions imposed by the US and Canada have contributed to Venezuela’s
economic collapse as much as any action of the government.

Canada is engaged in an extraordinary effort to overthrow President Nicolas
Maduro. But, it isn’t designed to advance democracy or human rights in
Venezuela.

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