Canada mobilizes support for US coup in Venezuela
By
Keith Jones
8 February 2019
Canada’s Liberal government is front and center in Washington’s drive to overthrow Venezuela’s elected president, Nicolas Maduro, and install a virulent right-wing regime that will throw open the country—site of the world’s largest oil reserves—to unbridled imperialist exploitation.
Earlier this week, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland hosted a meeting in Ottawa of members of the so-called “Lima Group” of states. It called on Venezuela’s military to complete the US-orchestrated coup that was initiated Jan. 23, when the speaker of the Venezuelan legislature, Juan Guaidó, proclaimed himself the country’s “interim president” and US President Donald Trump tweeted that Washington recognized him as Venezuela’s “legitimate” ruler.
The statement issued by the Ottawa meeting, from which only Mexico dissented, makes clear that the Lima Group and its member states are now acting as full-fledged coup partners, closely coordinating theirs actions and funneling resources behind the regime-change operation fronted by Guaidó. The statement announced that Guaidó’s request that his “government” be incorporated in the Lima Group had been accepted “with great pleasure.” The Group’s members, it added, will “recognize and work with the representatives designated by the interim government of Juan Guaidó in their respective countries.”
The Lima Group was established in 2017 with the ostensible purpose of brokering a peaceful resolution to the growing social-political crisis in Venezuela. Comprised of Washington’s principal allies in the Americas, it has functioned as a chorus for the Trump administration in its increasingly bellicose campaign for regime…