Mouth Agape

"We know that thousands leave every day, so if you do the math, I think if we're not there [yet], we'll be at the same scale of the Syrian displacement quite soon."
"We're talking about forced displacement. These people leave Venezuela because if they do not leave, they don't survive."
Feline Freier, professor, researcher, Universidad del Pacífico, Peru

"The region had to respond to an emergency that in some areas of concern was almost similar to a massive earthquake. We are indeed facing a humanitarian earthquake."
"The reasons these people left are ranging from pure hunger to violence and lack of security ... We at UNHCR believe many have valid reasons to seek international protection." 
Eduardo Stein, joint special representative, UN refugee agency UNHCR, International Organization for Migration (IOM)

"We witnessed a transparent, secure, democratic and orderly electoral and voting process."
"Our delegation was impressed by the electoral process and felt confident that the results of the elections represent the will of the majority of Venezuelans who voted."
Common Frontiers report, May 2018 


"The notion that free and fair elections could possibly be taking place when you not only criminalize those who are on the opposition ... but when you don't have any allowances for expressions of freedom of speech, assembly, association and the like, simply is a non-sequitur."
"I think part of the problem with the labour groups who went down there is that they seem to be acting reflexively out of a political agenda rather than a human rights agenda. Out of a left-right agenda rather than a right-wrong approach."
Irwin Cotler, former Canadian Justice Minister

"While groups such as the Lima Group [led] by Canada are screaming fraud and government interference in the election process, not one shred of evidence has been produced to back up such claims."
Don Foreman, spokesman, Common Frontiers

Protests, Venezuela in Crisis   CNN

Once a wealthy country, endowed with the kind of natural resources in petroleum products the world was clamouring for, Venezuela is now riven with poverty, with a massive inflation rate, a scarcity of food and medicines, collapsed employment, social violence and a desperate population that sees no chance for survival other than to leave in massive numbers to seek haven and aid in neighbouring countries that are themselves now struggling to accommodate the flood of refugees.

Hugo Chavez's socialist-inspired Bolivarian revolution squats now, a malevolent splotch of deadly failure, over the country, as his protege, Nicolas Maduro allows his supporters to do as he does, in a corrupt skein of malice, to absorb whatever profit they can to their personal credit in a country they have ransacked and enfeebled through a death blow of totalitarian misrule. For years Venezuelans have been assembling in protest marches against the poverty and hopelessness that have been imposed upon them.

Comfort is hard to find anywhere. The United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many European nations, alongside most of Venezuela's Latin American neighbours are condemning Maduro and his supporters wholesale, recognizing his re-election as an outright fraud leaving him free to continue his focus on dismantling whatever is left of the state apparatus as the country continues to descend into chaos, violence and malfunction.

On the opposite side, encouraging Maduro there is Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and many others both dictatorial and socialist in politics and ideology. And then there are the trade unions, who espouse undying solidarity for a movement they recognize as one of their very own and which as a result can do no wrong, yet is being slandered by the very nations those unions ply their trade within. In Canada, one of the leading nations attempting to persuade Maduro to step down, quick to acknowledge the legitimacy of Venezuela's legislative assembly's leader Juan Guaido as temporary president, an unholy alliance has taken place.

Unifor, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, the United Church of Canada, and the Internet group Rabble.ca speak admiringly and supportively of Venezuela's "strong and vibrant democracy". They formed a common group to represent their interests in the support of Venezuela's socialist dictatorship; Common Frontiers. Post-election, the United Steelworkers and a law firm in Toronto were also acknowledged as having provided "delegation support" as election monitors during the May election.

This is the same Venezuela that an Organization of American States panel of human rights experts having concluded hearings and deciding that on the evidence Maduro's regime should be referred to the International Criminal Court to stand trial for crimes against humanity, cited thousands of murders, torture and imprisonment against political opposition. The same country that Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay and Peru along with Canada decided to refer to the International Criminal Court and for the same reasons.

On the website of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, supporters are invited to petition the government of Canada against its leadership of the Lima Group hose foreign ministers met Monday to discuss support for interim President Guaido. Common Frontiers has been funded by among others, the Canadian Union of Public Employees reflecting their "global justice work". CUPE claims that Maduro was "duly elected", criticizing the Canadian government for aiding a "coup d'etat". 

As for the United Church of Canada, it generously parted with $1,500 to help defray costs associated with their umbrella group Common Frontiers sending its election monitors to Venezuela to validate the legitimacy of the May election returning Maduro to power. Their Latin America program's Jim Hodgson, with the delegation, wrote for Rabble.ca after the trip questioning why Canada chose not to defend Venezuelan sovereignty against "U.S. aggression."

Staggeringly, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation representative claims Canadian could "learn a lot" from elections conducted in Venezuela, while the representative for Rabble.ca stated the Venezuelan elections should be an "international gold standard". These reprehensible social lunatics have much in common; they also, all together, support BDS and the defamation of the State of Israel.