Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada strongly condemns the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores by the United States on January 3, an inexcusable breach of international law. We mourn the 100 or so people who reportedly lost their lives as a result of the attacks. The abduction follows months of illegal U.S. strikes on fishing boats in the region that killed dozens of civilians.
This disrespect of Venezuela’s sovereignty raises more general concerns about an increasing imperialist appetite on the part of the U.S., which has also recently threatened or already used military force on other countries, including Colombia, Cuba, Iran, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Panama and Syria, and has talked seriously about its intentions to annex Greenland and Canada.
As an international solidarity movement in Canada rooted in Catholic Social Teaching, we affirm the rights of nations to self-determination and independence, outlined in §157 of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. These rights are the foundation of international law. No country has the right to appoint itself as the unilateral police force of the world, nor the right to command the economic resources of another country.
As partners like the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Latin America (CELAM; see Spanish original or English translation) and the Instituto Bartolomé de las Casas (see Spanish original or English translation) have underscored, the actions of the U.S. in Venezuela are the latest grave violation of national sovereignty in a long history of interventions prioritizing U.S. American economic interests over the dignity of peoples. These actions must be unequivocally rejected.
Given our own history of solidarity with people and partners in the Global South, we are familiar with the consequences of imperialist interventions, knowing that they bring further abuse, violence and repression under the false banner of liberty. Only through dialogue, citizen participation and the empowerment of the poor can societies renew themselves for peace and prosperity.
As Pope Leo XIV put it in a speech on January 9 to ambassadors to the Vatican, “In our time, the weakness of multilateralism is a particular cause for concern at the international level. A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force, by either individuals or groups of allies. War is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading.”
We call on the Canadian government to clearly denounce U.S. violence against Venezuelans and the abduction of Maduro and Flores, and to pursue an independent foreign policy based on peace, mutuality and international law. Doing so is Canada’s obligation as a state and is in the interest of Canadians, who are likewise threatened by increasingly belligerent U.S. rhetoric. Canada must stand up for international law and clearly condemn all, not merely some, violations of it. Rather than ignoring these violations and investing in armed solutions in an increasingly dangerous world, Canada must contribute to what Pope Leo XIV has called an “unarmed and disarming peace.”