Street painting of Nicolás Maduro in Caracas. Photo courtesy Orinoco Tribune.

Following last week’s American military operation in Venezuela that captured President Nicolás Maduro, Canada’s political parties offered a spectrum of responses.

At one end, interim NDP leader Don Davies said, “The U.S. attack on Venezuela is neither an act of self-defence nor does it have UN Security Council authorization. It is therefore totally illegal and a breach of the UN covenants the U.S. has agreed to uphold as a member state.”

Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet acknowledged US complaints against Maduro but said it was “troubling” that Washington was “risking violation of international law, particularly by resorting to military force at the peril of civilian lives and by detaining a head of state, even an illegitimate one.” Blanchet called on the United States to “respect the sovereignty of states” and to work through the United Nations.

The Green Party “strongly condemn[ed]… the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro” and denounced the operation “as a flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the fundamental principles of national sovereignty.”

At the other end of the spectrum, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre offered “congratulations to President Trump on successfully arresting narco-terrorist and socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro.” He then added, “Down with socialism,” strangely politicizing the operation while also acknowledging—however inadvertently—a long-standing truth about US regime-change politics that others preferred to ignore.

The most important statement, however, was the one issued by the Government of Canada. Prime Minister Mark Carney criticized not the US, but Maduro’s “brutally oppressive and criminal regime,” and........

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