OTTAWA, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) — Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre happily welcomed the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro by the United States on Saturday and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney seemed to approve 0as well.
In a statement posted to X over the weekend, Poilievre, whose wife is from Venezuela, thanked U.S. President Donald Trump for the capture of Maduro.
“Congratulations to President Trump on successfully arresting narco-terrorist and socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro, who should live out his days in prison,” Poilievre wrote.
Poilievre said that the “legitimate winner of the most recent Venezuelan elections, Edmundo González,” should take office, along with the courageous hero and voice of the Venezuelan people, María Corina Machado.”
“Down with socialism. Long live freedom,” he added.
As for Carney, in a social media statement Saturday, he noted how Canada had imposed sanctions on Maduro’s “brutally oppressive and criminal regime – unequivocally condemning his grave breaches of international peace and security, gross and systematic human rights violations, and corruption.”
“Canada has not recognised the illegitimate regime of Maduro since it stole the 2018 election,” he wrote.
“The Canadian government therefore welcomes the opportunity for freedom, democracy, peace, and prosperity for the Venezuelan people.”
As reported by LifeSiteNews, on January 3, U.S. special forces captured Maduro and flew him out of Venezuela in a sophisticated military operation. Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, was captured as well, and both were taken to New York, where they have been charged with drug trafficking.
While Canada’s two main political parties celebrated Maduro’s capture, the interim leader of the socialist New Democratic Party condemned actions by the Trump administration.
Don Davies said on social media that the “attack on Venezuela is neither an act of self defence nor does it have U.N. Security Council authorization.”
“It is therefore totally illegal and a breach of the U.N. covenants the U.S. has agreed to uphold as a Member State,” he claimed.
He also said, “The U.S. can have no credibility upholding international law and the rights of nations when it blatantly violates those principles itself.”
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s indictment of Maduro’s regime accuses it of working to transport “thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States” and says that he “partnered with some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world” to flood the U.S. with the deadly drug.
Trump has said that the United States will now have access to oil that belongs to them, and that the United States will “run” Venezuela temporarily to provide for a “safe transition.”
As for Maduro, he rose to power in 2013 after the death of far-left president Hugo Chávez.
Venezuelan special forces committed more than 5,000 extrajudicial killings in 2018 alone, according to a United Nations report.
The Maduro regime was also responsible for jailing thousands of protesters and other people classified as political opponents and frequently tortured and abused prisoners, human rights groups have attested.
Also, the Maduro regime has engaged in anti-Catholic persecutions. In December, Venezuelan authorities blocked Cardinal Baltazar Porras, the 81-year-old former archbishop of Caracas, from boarding a flight out of the country, detaining him, confiscating his Venezuelan passport, and rejecting his Vatican passport.
Under Maduro’s leadership, Venezuela has suffered a catastrophic economic collapse due to his and Chavez’s socialist policies, including price controls, massive public spending, and the nationalization of major industries.