Why does Carney support US imperial hubris?

Well, at least Mark Carney didn’t send troops. That may be a Haitian’s reaction to Canada’s support for the US kidnapping of Venezuela’s president.

On Saturday Carney “welcomed” the US presidential seizure and bombings that reportedly killed 80. In his opening paragraph the prime minister boasted that Canada had “sanctions on Nicolás Maduro’s brutally oppressive and criminal regime” and “has not recognised the illegitimate regime of Maduro since it stole the 2018 election.”

On Sunday the PM spoke with far-right opposition leader María Corina Machado who openly backed the US bombing and blockading her country as well as calling to sell off the country’s assets to foreign capitalists. Carney’s statement Sunday “condemned Nicolás Maduro’s brutally oppressive, criminal, and illegitimate regime, which repressed the Venezuelan people and persecuted dissenters. Prime Minister Carney thanked Ms. Machado for her resolute voice on behalf of the Venezuelan people.”

Reportedly, the US kidnapping operation included 150 US aircraft. US airstrikes blew up multiple facilities and disabled the country’s air defences, killing dozens (soldiers as well as some civilians). The successful raid was the culmination of a long CIA operation and US military build-up as well as bombing campaign and economic blockade. The US code named their seizure of Maduro Operation Absolute Resolve and their bombing campaign in the Caribbean Operation Southern Spear.

Military observer Steffan Watkins asked “how many Canadian Armed Forces officers on exchange with the U.S. Military have participated in US Operation Absolute Resolve and Operation Southern Spear”? In another post Watkins noted, “there are some RCAF [Royal Canadian Air Force] pilots flying USAF aircraft, including aircraft that are present in the theater of operations and used to identify targets for extrajudicial killings.” Watkins also reported, “Canadian Armed Forces GOFO [General and Flag Officers] embedded with the U.S. Military have been getting briefed on US operations targeting Venezuela since at least August. It’s not realistic to think that the Canadian government hasn’t been fully briefed on those operations for the entire time.”

Through NORAD and Operation Carribbe, as well as ties to the US Southern Command and US Space Command, Canada’s military likely assisted the US bombings and maybe even the raid to kidnap Maduro. Canada’s bid to isolate Caracas diplomatically and through sanctions has been well reported for many years.

The closest parallel I can think of to the US kidnapping of Maduro was the second coup against Jean Bertrand Aristide.US Marines forced the Haitian president onto a plane in the middle of the night in 2004 and deposed him 8,000 km away in the Central African Republic. Canada’s JTF2 elite commandos secured the airport in Port-au-Prince from where Aristide was forced out.

The coup was the culmination of a multi-year foreign-backed campaign to destabilize Haiti’s elected government. It included a multi month paramilitary assault that was backed by sectors of the Haitian elite and foreign countries.

Thirteen months before Aristide was kidnapped the Canadian government brought top US, French and OAS officials together for a private two-day gathering to discuss Haiti’s future. No Haitian officials were invited to the “Ottawa Initiative on Haiti” conference where they reportedly discussed ousting the elected president and putting the country under UN trusteeship. Ottawa’s role in overthrowing Haiti’s most popular ever government is the penultimate case of 20 coups detailed in my and Owen Schalk’s Canada’s Long Fight Against Democracy.

What’s somewhat unique about the Maduro kidnapping/coup is that the rest of the Venezuelan governing structure remains intact. Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in Monday as interim president and the other ministers remain in place. Orinoco Tribune reported, “Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets nationwide to demand the return of their president.

Simultaneously, all levels of the state issued pronouncements in support of the Constitutional order and respect for the nation’s institutions. Governors and mayors from the majority of the country recorded and spread videos online reaffirming their allegiance to President Maduro and Constitutional legality; they were joined in these efforts by the people and leaders of the military, including General Vladimir Padrino López, Strategic Operations Commander of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) and Minister of Defence. Meanwhile, the Public Ministry, National Assembly, and Supreme Court of Justice passed resolutions or issued statements in the same vein.”

In Canada millions are outraged at Trump’s brazen imperialism in Venezuela. Many thousands have emailed Canadian officials to criticize Ottawa’s support for the US kidnapping and there have been emergency protests in a dozen cities. More protests and actions are planned. We need to pressure Mark Carney’s to break all support for US imperial belligerence in the region.