Hypocrisy features in Canada’s Venezuela policy
Trudeau and Freeland seem content to pick and choose which tyrants they will tolerate and which tyrants they will not tolerate
What’s that crisis in Venezuela about — in which Canada has meddled so unbecomingly? Technically, it’s Yanqui imperialism — less a political cliché than an empirical reality imprinted over centuries on Latin American territories and bodies. It’s not about human misery — which is now widespread there — since the U.S. has been out to crush that regime since it was first elected in 1998, when the economy was thriving.
It’s not about democracy — though there are issues of repression — since members of the Lima Group, which Canada convened in Ottawa this week, could also be decried for undemocratic faults: Guatemala, Honduras, Brazil.
U.S. imperialism is always a mix of lust for resources with ideology. In 1954 Guatemala, it was bananas and mild nationalism that led to a U.S.-backed coup. In Venezuela today, it’s oil and socialism. There’ve been U.S. invasions: Dominican Republic (1965), Panama (1989), tiny Grenada (1983); U.S.-incited coups: Chile (1973), Argentina (1976); insurrections fed by special American schools for torturers: El Salvador, Nicaragua (1980s); and welcome to Venezuela today.
As for our role: Justin Trudeau says we’re involved due to “a dictatorship willing to use force, fear and coercion to retain power,” which is “inexcusable and unacceptable” — an awesome level of Canadian cant, considering the coups and tyrants we’ve accepted and excused there — like Honduras recently.
Chrystia Freeland topped him on the hypocrisy chart by saying she opposed a coup but wanted the Venezuelan military to depose current president Maduro and install the unelected U.S. dauphin, Juan Guaido. He hasn’t even run for president.
This is Trumpian in its ability to blithely combine opposites, but perhaps she took notes during the time she spent in D.C. for NAFTA negotiations. She’s literally asking Latin Americans to embrace their worst demons and nightmares.