The Canadian-led quest to protect US hegemony in Latin America: Chrystia Freeland and Canadian imperialism
Photo Credit: (CBC News / Google Images)
Written by: Bruce Katz
In 2017, Freeland played a key role in the creation of the Lima Group, an alliance between Canada, right-wing governments in Latin America that came together to push ‘regime change’ in Venezuela. Incidentally, Venezuela has the largest reserves of oil in the world. It nationalized its natural gas resources in 1971 and nationalized its oil industry in 1976. That is a mortal sin to oligarchs and multinational petroleum corporations, and explains why even if the US is not officially a member of the Lima Group, “Freeland has ensured that the Lima Group will act in Washington’s interests and advance North American imperial power in the region”. (24) But the US presence, if not official, is still full blown.
Justin Trudeau and his handler Freeland have made a habit of calling for the overthrow of Maduro. Trudeau has a warped sense of the ‘rule-of-law’ which he cites frequently while selectively discarding it when convenient. An example of this is his government’s total silence regarding the coup d’état in Bolivia (as referred to above) which removed Evo Morales, the only Indigenous leader in the Americas, from office. Then again, Trudeau’s championing of the rights of Indigenous peoples in Canada leaves something to be desired. (25)
In addition to imposing brutal sanctions on Venezuela, helping the US maintain a crippling economic blockade of the country, the Trudeau government has also sanctioned Nicaragua, whose democratically elected socialist government survived a violent right-wing onslaught in 2018. Freeland has echoed the Trump administration’s harsh rhetoric against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government. (26)
An Associated Press article dated Jan. 25, 2019 entitled, “Anti-Maduro coalition grew from secret talks,” quoting an anonymous Canadian official, pointed to the fact that Chrystia Freeland had played a ‘key role’ in organizing Juan Guaido’s so-called opposition forces and that Freeland “spoke to Guaido the night before Maduro’s swearing-in ceremony to offer her government’s support should he confront the socialist leader…” (27) This of course was done in the name of ‘democracy’ and the ‘rule-of-law.
Ben Roswell, a close colleague of Freeland from Oxford University and the Rhodes Institute days and former Canadian ambassador to Venezuela, worked hand-in-hand with Freeland in setting up the would-be coup d’état (which ultimately failed) against the elected government of Nicolas Maduro. Roswell described his most important achievement as Ambassador to Venezuela as “having advanced ‘direct democracy’ through social media tech and embassy events” and upon leaving his post on July 27, 2017 tweeted: "I don't think they (anti-Maduro forces) have anything to worry about because Minister Freeland has Venezuela way at the top of her priority list." (28)
In an opinion piece published in the Globe and Mail on January 28, 2019 entitled ‘In Venezuela Canada promotes democracy. The U.S. does not’ Roswell wrote: “In August 2017, Canada founded the Lima Group with 14 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean”. (29) What could have and should have been added is that Canada created the Lima Group on behalf of those oligarchs and U.S. multinational corporations which constitute the Deep State. It also aims to undercut China’s presence in Latin America as will be noted below. Chrystia Freeland is their agent operating deep within the government of Canada.
Having accused the Maduro government of staging a virtual coup d’état in the summer of 2017,
Roswell goes on to establish what he calls three ‘core principles.’
Principle no. 1: “Sovereignty rests with the citizens of a country, not the governments that rule them.”
That, of course, is a useful ‘principle’ when planning regime change for the benefit of direct democracy’ in Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Haiti, Iraq, Syria, Libya and other venues waiting to be ‘democratized.’ This, of course, ties into the policy of the ‘Right to Protect’ mentioned above.
Principle no. 2: “The initiative for restoring democracy must come from the people of that country.” (See the explanation of Principle no. 1.)
Think of using ISIS as the proxy for ‘restoring democracy’ in Syria and using neo-Nazis in Ukraine to bring about an independent ‘democratic’ regime there.)
Principle no. 3: “International support for democratic aspirations is best delivered collectively.”
The reference to collective responsibility and international support is ironic in that outside of Western imperial interests and Latin American vassal governments, there is no support for the staged and failed coup d’état in Venezuela, especially not on the part of China and Russia.
But then, in the Freeland-Roswell universe of Deep State technocratic planning and ‘social engineering’, China and Russia are ‘enemies’ and Putin plays Goldstein to the Deep State oligarchs’ Big Brother. As Orwell portrayed it in his novel 1984, Oceania cannot advance its own agenda and impose its surveillance system on its own population without instilling a foundation of hatred for Eurasia and East Asia. Instilling fear in a given population is the recipe for controlling that population.
What also feeds the US oligarchs’ need for the Lima Group is the presence of China in Latin America. That presence is not environmentally-friendly (China’s involvement in Latin America generally concerns the extraction of natural resources and building of infrastructure such as dams and hydroelectric power plants in the Amazon and also in Patagonia), but does build much needed infrastructure such as railway lines in Peru and Venezuela.
China has a long-term plan for strengthening economic ties with Latin America that promises to be more in the interests of Latin American countries than U.S domination on behalf of American multinationals. It is known as the Belt and Road Initiative. It “envisages the strengthening of infrastructure, trade and investment between the Asian giant and approximately 65 countries, comprising 62 per cent of the world’s population and 75 per cent of the world’s known energy reserves.” (30)
In 2018 during the meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Santiago, Chile (where the Chinese and Venezuelan Chancellors shook hands), China “formally invited Latin America to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).” (31)
As China stated the case at the CELAC meeting in 2018, “Latin America becomes a great transoceanic transport line on the Road because it shares the Pacific Ocean with China, the natural extension that connects the two economic zones…” (32)
Since then, 16 countries in the region have expressed their intention to be part of this trade connection project and have signed agreements to do so.
In addition to Venezuela, which is Beijing’s strategic ally in the construction of the multipolar world, Panama, Brazil, Mexico, Bolivia, Antigua and Barbuda, Costa Rica, Chile and Guyana have also signed trade agreements. (33)
The Chinese presence in Latin America is a direct challenge to US hegemony in the region. It’s a backhanded slap at the United States’ long-held Monroe Doctrine (1823) which has served as a warning to the outside world that the US considers itself hegemon in those geographical areas surrounding it. In terms of the Monroe Doctrine as it applies to Latin America, Washington views Latin America as its backyard. Freeland is its operative.
China has let Washington know that Latin America is no longer its backyard and that the doctrine of American ‘exceptionalism’ no longer holds true. The Lima Group is fundamentally the US/Oligarchs’ response to the Chinese presence in Latin America. Chrystia Freeland is a founding member, its chief administrator in Canada and also its pivotal agent for regime change in Latin America.
What this means for Canada is that it will be an outsider tied to a dying empire excluded from a world economy linked to the Belt and Road Initiative. Given the Trudeau government’s penchant to shape its foreign policy to the dictates of Washington and to alienate China and Russia, it will find itself holding the short end of the stick while Chinese initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative and BRICS (34) become the foundation of a new economic order. This points to Trudeau’s failure in foreign policy and the nefarious presence of Chrystia Freeland as Foreign Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, and maybe even the Prime Minister in-waiting?
More on that tomorrow.
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