
© APForeign Minister Chrystia Freeland announcing closure of Canadian embassy in Caracas.
The modern way to overthrow a government the capitalist world doesn't like is by claiming to do it in the name of supporting 'human rights'.
This requires that the target be portrayed as a rights violator.As part of their effort to overthrow Nicolas Maduro's government, Ottawa has funded and promoted a slew of groups and individuals critical of human rights in Venezuela. And a recent report by the
UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) gave a boost to Canada's faltering coup bid in that South American country. Overseen by former social democratic Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, the report paints Venezuelan security forces as extremely violent and the government as politically repressive.
While the Hugo Chavez/Maduro government's failure to address insecurity/police violence in the country is condemnable, some context is required.
Neighbours Colombia and Brazil also have significant problems with police and other forms of violence. As do countries such as Mexico, El Salvador, Jamaica, Honduras, etc.Instead of offering a roadmap for remedying the scourge of violence and divisions in the country,
the one-sided OHCHR report offers a public relations triumph to those pursuing regime change, which would likely plunge the country into greater violence. As former OHCHR Independent Expert Alfred de Zayas pointed out,
Bachelet "should have clearly condemned the violence by extreme right opposition leaders and the calls for foreign intervention in Venezuela." The human rights law expert, who produced a report on Venezuela last year, added that
the "report should also have focussed on the criminality of the repeated attempts at a coup d'etat [because] there is nothing more undemocratic than a coup."
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