Venezuelans chanted and waved their flag Sunday at Montreal’s Faubourgs Park in a show of support for their country as its former president Nicolás Maduro prepared to face criminal charges in the U.S.
For Marta Rincon, Maduro’s capture during a U.S. military raid in the early hours of Saturday in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, was cause for celebration.
“It’s a violent event, people died, there’s no question about it … but it’s an opportunity for us to start seeing democracy,” she said.
“We are here to make sure people know how we feel about the situation,” she said at the gathering.
Accompanied by her young daughter, Rincon said she left Venezuela in 2011 for economic and security reasons, adding she couldn’t imagine herself raising children there.
Born and raised under Chavismo – the political ideology of Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chávez – 25-year-old José Hidalgo had a similar message.
“Finally we can see a different outcome,” he said. “It’s difficult to live there. The repression from the government — they have taken over everything, there’s no separation of powers.”
As questions arise around the legality of Maduro’s arrest, Hidalgo says the U.S.’s actions were “required” and the outcome — Maduro’s ousting — is something Venezuelans had been asking for for a while.
“It’s funny because in the last decade we have been ignored by international law,” he said.
Montrealers condemn and celebrate removal of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro in separate rallies
Over the last 12 years, Venezuela has been at the heart of the largest displacement crisis in the Americas with nearly eight million people having left the country over that period, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
Venezuela’s last two presidential elections, which saw Maduro cling to power, have not been recognized as legitimate by Canada and the diplomatic relationship between the two countries ceased in 2019.
Several blocks east from Faubourgs Park, a separate rally was held outside the U.S. consulate, uniting people for whom the U.S.’ forced removal of Maduro raises alarm.
“[President Donald] Trump does not get to be the global police,” said the protest’s organizer Celeste Trianon.
She said Maduro’s arrest was a demonstration of U.S. imperialism that sets a dangerous precedent for what’s to come, pointing to threats Trump has made against other countries like Cuba, Colombia and Mexico.
“I just want people to be OK and for people to not have to fear that their country is going to be the one to be invaded next,” she said.
Charles-Philippe David, the Raoul-Dandurand Chair in strategic and diplomatic studies at UQAM, says condemning both Maduro and his kidnapping are not mutually exclusive.
“When you don’t have legitimacy for intervention and you don’t have a plan for stabilization, let alone democratization, then you risk more harm than benefits when you intervene,” he said.
David says he has a hunch that Trump will try to essentially privatize Venezuela’s return to stability. He hopes the incentives of good diplomatic relationships across the Americas will be enough to prevent Trump from intervening in the ways the U.S. did in Latin America for much of the 20th century.
Back in Montreal, some Venezuelans say they’re hoping for a peaceful transition since several of Maduro’s allies are still in positions of power. One Montrealer, Alexandra Suarez-Cariel, described Maduro’s ousting as just the “tip of the iceberg.”
Montreal’s Venezuelan community reacts to U.S. strikes, capture of Venezuelan president
“We’ll see how it goes. For now, we’re really happy and we’re celebrating this accomplishment,” she said.
Suarez-Cariel was among the first to celebrate the weekend’s events on Saturday in downtown Montreal with a group of Venezuelans that included David Rojas.
For him, the idea that he could potentially return home sooner rather than later, after nearly a decade away, has been the source of tears of joy.
“It’s very difficult being a migrant, having to leave not only your family, but your customs, your culture, leaving all of your nationality behind to go to a new country and start from zero,” he said.
