The Venezuela Peace and Solidarity Committee of Vancouver (VPSC) calls for full diplomatic relations and privileges to be restored between Canada and Venezuela. We reject the propaganda against Venezuela, namely that the President was illegitimately elected and there is a “humanitarian crisis” in Venezuela. It is the imposition of economic restrictions on Venezuela that is really the major cause of shortages of goods in Venezuela. Dangerous lies are being used to drum up support for sanctions, interference and possibly military intervention against Bolivarian Venezuela.
No more lies! Respect the democratic process and sovereignty of Venezuela! Diplomacy, not war!
Hand in hand with the US, the Government of Canada is hitting diplomatic ties with Venezuela. Canada has kicked out the Venezuelan Ambassador to Canada, though the Chargé d’Affaires is still running the Venezuelan Embassy in Canada. Venezuela has been forced to close its consular services in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal because Canada is refusing to renew diplomatic visas to Venezuela’s consular staff in Canada.
Canada is a facilitator of building the Right-wing alliance of South America known as the Lima Group to oppose Bolivarian Venezuela; working in tandem with its US imperialist masters, it and other imperialist allies are spreading lies through corporate media and other channels about a false “humanitarian crisis” and vicious and illegitimate “dictatorship” while it supports the interference, coercive economic measures and destabilization efforts against Venezuela.
Despite an authorized people’s solidarity sit-in at the Venezuelan Embassy to the US in Washington, DC, the US again violated international law and protocols by raiding that Embassy, arresting its guests, and taking it over in early May. Because of the interference regarding aid culminating in the showdown on February 23, the Maduro government of Venezuela had to request that US diplomats leave Caracas. In solidarity with the US imperialists, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Christine Friedland, under the Trudeau leadership, voluntarily suspended its consular office in Caracas. This follows repeated cyberattacks, that were proven to have been launched from Texas, against the hydro-electric power network in Venezuela last February, which Canada and the US wrongly blamed on the Maduro government.
Canada is also serving US imperialism by chiseling away at diplomatic ties with Cuba and supporting US tactics to destroy the Cuban revolution. It and the US are trying to get between Cuba and Venezuela to discredit them both and thwart progress in both countries.
Canada voluntarily closed its consular office in Cuba. After doing so, the Canada’s Foreign Affairs Ministry headed by Christine Friedland has informed Cubans that they must apply for visas to enter Canada via some third country. By such measures, the Canadian Government is reversing and thereby damaging 60 years of diplomatic relations with revolutionary Cuba. The inhibited visa access is blocking and frustrating many exchanges between Cubans and Canadians.
Meanwhile, the Canadian government is supportive of the enactment of the Title 3 section of the Helmsburton Act of the US. The Helmsburton Act was passed in 1996 to allow sanctions. Never implemented until now, Title 3 of this Act undermines Cuban authority, sovereignty and law by declaring that Cuban property owners who fled Cuba at the time of the revolution can now reclaim property in Cuba. Also, the US has suspended the “People to People” program whereby US citizens were conditionally allowed to visit Cuba as individuals. By causing more economic constraints and loss of business, all these measures amount to an extension of the economic war against Cuba.
Much propaganda surrounds these measures. For example, the US is accusing Cuba of leading the revolution in Venezuela and running the Venezuelan Bolivarian armed forces. It says that the 20,000 Cubans in Venezuela at present are Cuban military personnel when they are, in fact, mostly women who are in Venezuela to carry out collaborative programs such as medical and educational services.
We call for an end to the repression and harassment against Venezuelan diplomats and diplomatic relations with Venezuela. We reject economic war, military planning and interference against Bolivarian Venezuela and all legitimate and democratic nations demonstrating alternatives to the imperialist model. We demand a return to diplomacy and negotiations. We want the Venezuelan Ambassador to Canada returned and diplomatic visas to Canada renewed. We want the legitimately elected and re-elected President Maduro and all his representatives abroad respected.
Stop the lies and interference in Venezuela and Cuba! Hands off Venezuela and Cuba!
We support the Venezuelan people, the peoples of Latin America and the Bolivarian movement by uniting in action to stop the imperialist interference, destabilization efforts, economic war including unilateral coercive measures, attacks on embassies and regime change schemes against Venezuela and its regional allies such as Cuba and Nicaragua.
Actions: initiate or join in solidarity actions in your region; carry petitions and make leaflets, post solidarity messages on the internet, write to Foreign Affairs and the PM, and share information. Celebrate Venezuela Independence Day on July 5 and Cuban independence on July 26. Join in the international mobilization for just peace on September 21, 2019.
Join the VPSC pickets:
at Joyce Skytrain Station on June 27 at 5:30; and at City Hall Station on July 18 at 5:30
JUST PEAce COMMITTEE 