Canada and the Venezuela crisis
| Autor | Yvon Grenier |
| Cargo | PhD Political Science. Professor of Political Science at St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, (Canada) |
| Páginas | 55-75 |
ABSTRACT
Over the past few years, Canada has stepped
out of its comfort zone in hemispheric af-
fairs, to speak and act forcefully, as Minister
of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland put it, in
solidarity with “the people of Venezuela and
their desire to restore democracy and human
rights in Venezuela.” With its partners of the
Lima Group, Canada imposed sanctions on
the Maduro regime, recognized Juan Guaidó
as interim president, and called for free and fair
elections as soon as possible. The article identi-
fies possible factors explaining Canada’s policy.
The main proposition is that the Venezuela
crisis features an extraordinary combination of
domestic and international factors that make
participation to a multilateral and diplomatic
push for restoration of democracy an ambi-
tious but judicious option for Canada. The
article also presents the criticism to this policy,
and discusses the issue of human rights and
democracy promotion in the broader context
of Canadian foreign policy.
Key words: Canada, Venezuela, foreign
policy, democracy, human rights.
Canada and the Venezuela crisis
Yvon Grenier*
* PhD Political Science. Professor of Political Science at St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia,
(Canada). [ygrenier@stfx.ca]; [https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0706-1503].
Recibido: 24 de marzo de 2019 / Modificado: 23 de abril de 2019 / Aceptado: 2 de mayo de 2019
Para citar este artículo:
Grenier, Y. (2019). Canada and the Venezuela crisis. oasis, 30, pp. 55-75.
doi: https://doi.org/10.18601/16577558.n30.04
Canadá y la crisis de Venezuela
RESUMEN
En los últimos años, Canadá ha salido de su
zona de confort en los asuntos hemisféricos
para hablar y actuar enérgicamente, como lo
expresó la ministra de relaciones exteriores,
Chrystia Freeland, en solidaridad con “el
pueblo de Venezuela y su deseo de restaurar la
democracia y los derechos humanos en Vene-
zuela”. Con sus socios del Grupo de Lima, Ca-
nadá impuso sanciones al régimen de Maduro,
reconoció a Juan Guaidó como presidente
interino y convocó a elecciones libres y justas
lo antes posible. El artículo identifica posibles
factores que explican la política de Canadá. La
propuesta principal es que la crisis de Venezue-
la presenta una combinación extraordinaria de
factores nacionales e internacionales que hacen
que la participación en un impulso multilate-
ral y diplomático para el restablecimiento de
la democracia sea una opción ambiciosa, pero
sensata para Canadá. El artículo también pre-
senta las críticas a esta política y analiza el tema
Yvon Grenier
56
OASIS, ISSN: 1657-7558, E-ISSN: 2346-2132, N° 30, Julio - Diciembre de 2019, pp. 55-75
de los derechos humanos y la promoción de
la democracia en el contexto más amplio de la
política exterior canadiense.
Palabras clave: Canadá, Venezuela, polí-
tica exterior, democracia, derechos humanos.
INTRODUCTION
Over the past few years, Canada has stepped
out of its comfort zone in hemispheric affairs, to
speak and act forcefully, as Minister of Foreign
Affairs Chrystia Freeland put it, in solidarity
with “the people of Venezuela and their desire
to restore democracy and human rights in Ven-
ezuela” (Government of Canada, 2019a). On
January 23rd, 2019, Minister Freeland issued
the statement that “Canada recognizes Juan
Guaidó, President of the National Assembly,
as the interim President of Venezuela.” On
that occasion she called the Nicolás Maduro
regime “despicable”: not a common adjective
in Ottawa’s diplomatic dialect (The Canadian
Press, 2019). On the day of Maduro’s second
inauguration as president of Venezuela (January
10), she issued a statement that summarizes the
Canadian government’s position on Venezuela:
Today, Nicolás Maduro’s regime loses any remai-
ning appearance of legitimacy. Having seized power
through fraudulent and anti-democratic elections
held on May 20, 2018, the Maduro regime is now
fully entrenched as a dictatorship. e suering of
Venezuelans will only worsen should he continue to
illegitimately cling to power. Together with other like-
minded countries in the Lima Group, Canada rejects
the legitimacy of the new presidential term of Nicolás
Maduro. We call on him to immediately cede power
to the democratically-elected National Assembly until
new elections are held, which must include the par-
ticipation of all political actors and follow the release
of all political prisoners in Venezuela. (Government
of Canada, 2019b)
Ottawa imposed targeted sanctions (under the
Special Economic Measures Act and the new Jus-
tice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act)
against 70 Maduro regime officials. Canada
has sanctions and related measures in place
against nineteen other countries in the world,
but only against Venezuela in our hemisphere.1
On February 4, 2019, the Government of
Canada announced close to $55 million in hu-
manitarian aid and development support, plus
an additional $4 million channelled through
implementing partners for regional humani-
tarian assistance in the region. This placed
Canada among the top donors responding to
address the humanitarian crisis (Government
of Canada, 2019a). To put this in perspective,
the total budget for humanitarian assistance by
Canada in 2016-2017 was $286.03 million,
including $14.61 million for the “Americas”
(Government of Canada, 2018a).
The Canadian government never provided
detailed explanations as to why it is so distinc-
tively concerned about human rights violations
in Venezuela. But over and over again, Prime
Minister Trudeau (and more frequently his min-
1 These countries are: Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya,
Mali, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Ukraine, Yemen and Zimbabwe.
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