Even by his own standards, Trump’s actions in Venezuela have been dramatic. After a months-long campaign of bombing civilians in fishing boats, he brazenly invaded a sovereign country and abducted the sitting head-of-state. So what do Canada’s political leaders have to say about it?
Spineless simpering
Mark “Elbows Up” Carney’s response has been anything but confrontational. As one commentator put it, “He looked like he was trying to hold a Fabergé egg as he walked across ice.” His official statement is as vague as possible, and conveniently doesn’t mention Trump or the United States’ attacks on Venezuela.
Instead, he talks about how much Canada has opposed Maduro, and says, “The Canadian government therefore welcomes the opportunity for freedom, democracy, peace, and prosperity for the Venezuelan people.”
Wherever Carney is getting the idea that this is about democracy, it’s not from Trump, who hasn’t mentioned democracy once after deposing Maduro. In fact, he immediately went on to threaten the democratically elected presidents of Colombia and Mexico with the same fate if they don’t fall in line. He has talked a lot about oil, though.
It’s as if the Emperor has just acknowledged that he’s happy walking around naked, while Carney is still desperately trying to provide fashion commentary.
“In keeping with our long-standing commitment to upholding the rule of law, sovereignty, and human rights, Canada calls on all parties to respect international law,” he says, without so much as naming the only party that has breached international law here (it’s the United States).
Carney is clearly trying to avoid getting on Trump’s bad side ahead of the CUSMA renegotiations, while at the same time not looking like a doormat for Trump. He is not terribly successful.
And yet, Yves-François Blanchet of the Bloc Québécois demonstrates why Carney may have made the right call to not directly acknowledge Trump’s actions. In raising scant criticism Blanchet looks even weaker than Carney.
Blanchet doesn’t outright repeat the lie that Maduro was involved in drug trafficking, but he raises it without criticism. Trump’s actions only “appear” troubling. The United States isn’t acting illegally, but merely “positioning” itself as an enforcer of principles which, again, Trump has never professed to be fighting for. And Trump hasn’t broken international law, only “risked” “disregarding” it. Civilians haven’t been murdered, merely put in “peril”. The Bloc graciously “invites” the U.S. to respect state sovereignty. And, of course, according to Blanchet, Venezuela is the one that has been “presenting threats”, not the country bombing civilians and carrying out decapitation strikes.
If Blanchet’s statement had any more qualifications it could apply for a job. It reads like it should be spoken in a terrified stammer. It’s embarrassing.
Pierre Poilievre, on the other hand, goes full-cheerleader for Trump.
He congratulates Trump, and then repeats the ridiculous lie that Maduro is involved in drug trafficking. Venezuela is neither a producer nor a hub for either cocaine or fentanyl. Even the U.S. Justice Department has just backed off the claim that the “Cartel de los Soles” is an actual organization, rather than a mere Venezuelan slang phrase for official corruption.
Poilievre goes on to say, “The legitimate winner of the most recent Venezuelan elections, Edmundo González, should take office along with the courageous hero and voice of the Venezuelan people, María Corina Machado.”
The irony here is that Trump has snubbed Machado, and is instead working with Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez. “She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect within the country,” Trump said of Machado. And, again, no one in the Trump administration has said anything about elections.
Poilievre isn’t only a liar and a hypocrite, but also appears totally out-to-lunch.
Face up to the new reality
Interim NDP leader Don Davies’ response at least had some substance. He posted, “Trump’s declaration that U.S. oil companies are going to take over Venezuelan oil production reveals the true motive of this attack: seizure of the largest oil reserves in the world. Trump apologists can spin all they want – but this is clearly illegal, hypocritical and dangerous.” This is true.
But international law is clearly a sham which is only ever used against the enemies of the United States and is regularly violated by the U.S. and their allies. From Korea to Vietnam, Yugoslavia to Iraq, Afghanistan to Palestine, international law has been powerless to stop U.S. imperialism and its allies from pursing their interests.
Furthermore, the United Nations was initially created by the United States to legitimize its global dominance after WW2. The UN has sanctioned many of these U.S.-led wars and bombings. Even when the UN hasn’t sanctioned them, the United States has done whatever it wants.
Trump’s recently-released National Security Strategy simply dispenses with the old hypocritical window dressing and expresses things in brutally honest terms. The document states that the U.S.A. must focus on retrenching its control of the Americas (referred to as “our Hemisphere”). The attack on Venezuela puts this strategy into action.
And Trump is not likely to stop there. He has already said that carrying out a similar operation against Petro in Colombia “sounds good to me” and that “Cuba is ready to fall.” He has equally renewed his threats to annex Greenland, and the White House has repeated that it will not rule out the use of military force to do so.
Far from being just chaotic actions of a deranged man, there is a logic to this. With the dramatic rise of China as a formidable economic rival, Trump seeks to pull back to U.S. imperialism’s strategic sphere of influence in the Western Hemisphere and re-establish American dominance in order to counter China. The fact that Venezuelan oil destined for China has now been cut off, should therefore not be surprising.
The so-called Trump corollary to the Monroe Doctrine is a stark shift in world relations. The rules-based order is dead. We face a situation more akin to the period prior to WWI when multiple great powers fought over the division of the world.
Amid this shifting situation the Canadian ruling class is hopeless. Canadian capitalism exists as an adjunct to American capitalism and therefore cannot exist without it. As Lenin explained, politics is “concentrated economics”; and this is why the response from the Canadian government has been so cowardly and hypocritical. They cannot risk pissing off their biggest, most important trading partner, especially when CUSMA trade renegotiations are shortly under way.
As capitalism decays, imperialist violence, war, and conquest will become more prevalent and no appeals to international law, the United Nations, or the international rules-based order will stop that.
The workers of Canada and the United States have zero interest in oppressing Venezuela, violating its national sovereignty and exploiting its natural resources. In fact, these very same imperialists who attack Latin America are driving the living conditions of workers in Canada and the U.S. into the dirt. Therefore, the only force that can truly fight against imperialism is the working class.
The only way to fight against this new form of naked U.S. imperialist aggression is an international, united struggle of the working class in Latin America, the United States and Canada against imperialism.
But imperialism is simply an outgrowth of capitalism at a certain stage of development. Trump has made it crystal clear that this is about the interests of U.S. capitalism. We therefore must link this struggle to the fight to abolish the capitalist system as a whole. This is the only way we can guarantee a world of peace and prosperity.
