The devastation in Venezuela is horrific. Canada should offer disaster and reconstruction assistance but also change its policy towards that country by removing Canada’s sanctions and normalizing diplomatic relations.
On Wednesday Venezuela was hit by two devastating back-to-back earthquakes. Over 1,400 have been confirmed dead in the magnitude 7.5 and 7.2 quakes, which were centered in the country’s northern coast 160 kilometres from the capital of Caracas. Several thousand have also been injured. Tens of thousands remain unaccounted for and more are without housing. The scope of property destruction is massive with the UN estimating USD $6.7 billion in damage.
Ottawa has been slow to offer disaster relief in Venezuela. It should offer the government at least $100 million in direct financial assistance for the reconstruction.
More fundamentally, Ottawa should remove its sanctions and normalise diplomatic relations with Venezuela. As part of shifting policy, there should also be a formal look at Canada’s support for the US kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro and previous efforts to overthrow the government.
Between 2017 and 2020 the Justin Trudeau government engaged in a brazen effort to overthrow Venezuela’s government. In a bid to elicit “regime change”, Ottawa worked to isolate Caracas, imposed illegal sanctions, took that government to the International Criminal Court, financed an often-unsavoury opposition and decided a marginal opposition politician was the legitimate president.
Over a two-year period, Ottawa severed diplomatic relations with Caracas. In December 2017 Venezuela declared Canada’s chargé d’affaires in Caracas, Craib Kowalik, persona non grata. In making the announcement, the president of the National Constituent Assembly, Delcy Rodriguez, denounced Kowalik’s “permanent and insistent, rude and vulgar interference in the internal affairs of Venezuela.” Ottawa declared Venezuela’s top diplomat persona non grata in response. In June 2019 Canada’s resident embassy in Caracas was closed.
Alongside severing diplomatic relations, Ottawa imposed a half dozen rounds of sanctions on Venezuelan officials. In September 2017, the elected president, vice president, head of the electoral board, and 37 other officials had their assets in Canada frozen and Canadians were barred from having financial relations with these individuals. Forty-three individuals were added to a list of 70 leaders Canada had already sanctioned in April 2019, including judges and lower-ranking police officials. In 2025 Ottawa instituted two new rounds of sanctions targeting about two dozen more Venezuelan officials.
While ostensibly targeted at individuals, Canadian sanctions deterred companies from doing business in Venezuela. In contravention of the UN charter, the sanctions also helped legitimate more devastating US actions. A Center for Economic and Policy Research report written by Jeffrey Sachs and Mark Weisbrot concluded that 40,000 Venezuelans may have died in 2017 and 2018 because of US sanctions.
The sanctions were part of a regime change bid that included Canada and Peru setting up the Lima Group of countries seeking to oust Venezuela’s government. The Lima Group backed marginal opposition politician Juan Guaidó declaring himself president in January 2019.
The Lima Group/Guaidó/sanctions/severing diplomatic ties helped lay the ground for Donald Trump’s crass imperial aggression at the start of this year. Mark Carney justified US forces kidnapping President Nicolas Maduro in a night-time raid that left 83 dead. The prime minister called it “welcome news”.
As part of changing Canadian policy, there should be a formal assessment of the legality and morality of seeking to oust Venezuela’s government. More immediately, Canada should offer the government in Caracas support with disaster relief and reconstruction. An important part of any assistance to Venezuela should be to immediately remove sanctions and normalise diplomatic relations.
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