Canada’s top diplomat is headed to Cuba in an attempt to drive a wedge between Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro and his closest ally.
“It is important to explore all possible paths to a resolution of the situation,” Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters Thursday during a joint press conference with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Freeland is a natural intermediary between Cuba and the democratic powers that have backed top opposition lawmaker Juan Guaidó as the legitimate interim president of Venezuela. Canada plays a leading role in the Lima Group, the bloc of Western Hemisphere nations that organized against Maduro as Venezuela’s political and human rights crisis worsened in recent years. But Canada also has a friendly relationship with Cuba, in stark contrast to the adversarial posture of the U.S. toward the Communist regime.
“Canada has a longstanding and good relationship with Cuba,” Freeland said. “We work with Cuba on many levels, and one of the issues that we have been discussing with Cuba is Venezuela.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has maintained a warm relationship with the Cuban government, following the example set by his father, the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who counted Cuban dictator Fidel Castro among his friends. Castro was an official pallbearer at the elder Trudeau’s state funeral in 2000.
President Trump’s team nevertheless doubts that Canada’s outreach to Havana will succeed, given how Cuba has deployed military and intelligence officials to help Maduro keep control of the Venezuelan armed forces.
“It seems to us the Cubans are just going to hold on tight and try to prolong the life of the Maduro regime,” Special Representative Elliott Abrams, the State Department’s lead official for the Venezuela crisis, said earlier this month. “We wish you luck, but we’re pessimistic.”
Freeland met with Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodríguez in May and June. The announcement that she will head once again to Havana comes as Maduro has been touting private back channels with the U.S., which he claimed have taken place “with my express and direct permission.”
But U.S. officials maintain that the only talks underway involve Maduro regime officials who are interested in betraying the socialist leader.
“There’s been no change in U.S. policy,” Pompeo said. “We have consistently said that there cannot be free and fair elections so long as Maduro is on the scene, and we continue to work towards achieving that end on behalf of the Venezuelan people.”
National security adviser John Bolton praised Brazil’s anti-communist government on Wednesday for banning “approximately 100 illegitimate Maduro regime officials from entering” the country. President Trump froze all Venezuelan government assets in the U.S. earlier this month, through an executive order that Bolton touted at a Lima Group meeting in Peru.
Freeland hinted that Canada will not follow Trump’s lead in imposing a similar asset freeze — “We have very strong sanctions in place against the Maduro regime,” she said, without making a direct comment on the idea — but also invoked a recent U.N. report on Maduro’s human rights to underscore Ottawa’s opposition to the regime.
“Canada recognizes Juan Guaidó as the interim president of Venezuela, and it is clear to us that Maduro and his regime are illegitimate,” Freeland said. “I would urge people to take a look at Michelle Bachelet’s excellent report on the abuses being committed by the Maduro regime against the people of Venezuela, and it’s really important to support their absolutely legitimate desire for democracy and human rights in their own country.”
