{"id":770,"date":"2020-02-07T02:07:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T02:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cubausrelations.com\/Blog\/?p=770"},"modified":"2020-02-07T02:07:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T02:07:00","slug":"yves-engler-bankers-shape-canadian-foreign-policy-in-latin-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cubausrelations.com\/Blog\/yves-engler-bankers-shape-canadian-foreign-policy-in-latin-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Yves Engler BANKERS SHAPE CANADIAN FOREIGN POLICY IN LATIN AMERICA"},"content":{"rendered":"

VENEZUELA & CHILE Bankers Shape Canadian Policy in Latin America.
\nBy Yves Engler.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What\u2019s more likely to shape Canadian policy in the Hemisphere: human rights and democracy or bankers\u2019 bottom-line<\/p>\n

By Yves Engler<\/p>\n

Last week Venezuelan politician Juan Guaid\u00f3 was f\u00eated in Ottawa. The self-declared president met Canada\u2019s Prime Minister, international development minister and foreign minister. Trudeau said, \u201cI commend Interim President Guaid\u00f3 for the courage and leadership he has shown in his efforts to return democracy to\u00a0Venezuela, and offer\u00a0Canada\u2019s\u00a0continued support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month Guaid\u00f3 was dethroned as leader of Venezuela\u2019s national assembly. While the vote was contested, it represents a significant blow to Guaid\u00f3\u2019s year-old claim to be Venezuela\u2019s legitimate President. To shore up his position as opposition leader, Guaid\u00f3 travelled to a number of international capitals, the World Economic Forum in Switzerland and was a guest of Donald Trump at the US president\u2019s state of the union adress.<\/p>\n

The Ottawa stop on Guaid\u00f3\u2019s legitimacy seeking tour was the latest installment of the Trudeau government\u2019s multipronged effort to overthrow Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s government. In a bid to elicit \u201cregime change\u201d, Ottawa has worked to isolate Caracas, imposed illegal sanctions, took that government to the International Criminal Court, financed an often-unsavoury opposition and decided a marginal opposition politician was the legitimate president.<\/p>\n

On the same day Guaid\u00f3 was f\u00eated in Ottawa Scotiabank CEO Brian Porter penned \u201cA call to action on Venezuela\u201d in the National Post. The op-ed urged governments to \u201cseize assets of corrupt regime officials\u201d and to use the proceeds to give \u201csupport to the democratic movement in Venezuela.\u201d Porter also applauded the Liberal\u2019s \u201cmoral clarity by unambiguously condemning the Maduro regime\u2019s abuses\u201d and praised their \u201ctremendous courage and leadership in the hemisphere and on the world stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scotiabank has long had frosty relations with the Bolivarian government.\u00a0A few days after Hugo Chavez\u2019s 2013 death the\u00a0Globe & Mail\u00a0Report on Business published a front-page story about Scotiabank\u2019s interests in Venezuela, which were acquired just before his rise to power. It noted: \u201cBank of Nova Scotia [Scotiabank] is often lauded for its bold expansion into Latin America, having completed major acquisitions in Colombia and Peru. But when it comes to Venezuela, the bank has done little for the past 15 years \u2013 primarily because the government of President Hugo Chavez has been hostile to large-scale foreign investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The perspective of the world\u2019s 40th largest bank has shaped Ottawa\u2019s position towards Caracas. At the other end of the continent, its interests have contributed to the Trudeau government\u2019s support for embattled billionaire president Sebasti\u00e1n Pi\u00f1era. A number of stories have highlighted Scotiabank\u2019s concerns about recent protests against inequality in Chile. The Financial Post noted, \u201cScotiabank\u2019s strategic foray into Latin America hits a snag with Chile unrest\u201d and \u201cRiots, state of emergency in Chile force Scotiabank to postpone investor day.\u201d Last week Scotiabank\u2019s CEO blamed the protests that began in October on an \u201cintelligence breakdown\u201d with people outside Chile \u201cthat came in with an intention of creating havoc.\u201d In a story titled \u201cWhy Brian Porter is doubling down on Scotiabank\u2019s Latin American expansion\u201d, he told the Financial Post that Twitter accounts tied to Russia sparked the unrest!<\/p>\n

Two weeks into massive demonstrations against Pinera\u2019s government, Trudeau held a phone conversation with the Chilean president who had a 14% approval rating. According to Amnesty International, 19 people had already died and dozens more were seriously injured in protests that began against a hike in transit fares and morphed into a broader challenge to economic inequality. A couple thousand were also arrested by a government that declared martial law and sent the army onto the streets.<\/p>\n

According to the published report of the conversation, Trudeau and Pi\u00f1era discussed their joint campaign to remove Venezuela\u2019s president and the Prime Minister criticized \u201celection irregularities in Bolivia\u201d, which were disingenuously used to justify ousting leftist indigenous president Evo Morales. A Canadian Press story noted, \u201ca summary from the Prime Minister\u2019s Office of Trudeau\u2019s phone call with Pi\u00f1era made no direct mention of the ongoing turmoil in Chile, a thriving country with which Canada has negotiated a free trade agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite numerous appeals from Canada\u2019s Chilean community, the Trudeau government has stayed quiet concerning the fiercest repression in Chile since Augusto Pinochet\u2019s dictatorship. A delegation of Qu\u00e9bec parliamentarians, professors and union leaders that travelled to Chile in late January recently demanded Ottawa speak out against the abuses (four died in protest related violence last week). In a release about the delegation Mining Watch noted that over 50% of Chile\u2019s large mining industry is Canadian owned. Canadian firms are also major players in the country\u2019s infrastructure and Scotiabank is one of the country\u2019s biggest banks. Chile is the top destination for Canadian investment in Latin America at over $20 billion.<\/p>\n

As I detail in my forthcoming book House of Mirrors \u2014 Justin Trudeau\u2019s Foreign Policy (Black Rose), the Liberals have said little about hundreds of killings by regimes in Haiti, Honduras, Bolivia, Chile and Colombia. On the other hand, they\u2019ve aggressively condemned rights violations in Venezuela and Nicaragua. Many on the Left would say that is because those governments are aligned with Washington, which is true. But, it\u2019s also because they are friendly to corporate Canada. If you want to understand Ottawa\u2019s positions in Latin America look to what Canadian bankers have to say.<\/p>\n

House of Mirrors \u2014 Justin Trudeau\u2019s Foreign Policy will be released in March. To help organize an event for the Spring tour please email yvesengler (@) hotmail.com.<\/p>\n

Source:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VENEZUELA & CHILE Bankers Shape Canadian Policy in Latin America. By Yves Engler. 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