Canada. O Canada.

In his presentation of evidence of the plot coup the government claims to have foiled, the president of the National Assembly Diosdado Cabello included the Canadian and U.K. governments in the plot.

According to Telesur, Cabello said “that members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and members of the U.K. diplomatic core in Venezuela, had been involved in [the] plans, including seeking information on airport capacity in case of emergencies.”

Cabello did not explain, if indeed Canadian and U.K. diplomats asked for such information, why that would constitute evidence that they have links to a coup plot.

It is not the first time Canada has been accused of conspiring against the Venezuelan government.

I came across this open forum commenting on the Telesur news clip. It is interesting in that it illustrates some the most common conspiracy theory supporting arguments.

For example, the “historic corroboration” argument -they did it before, they are doing it now, they will do it again in the future-: “Yet since our government was involved in helping oust a democratically elected leader in Haiti, logic demands that this is not an impossibility.”

There are also good examples of the “evidence by association” with another conspiracy theory: “We know that Saudi Arabia is actually manipulating oil prices to hurt Russia so that’s totally credible.”

Some of the commentators however also ask for evidence: “I’d like to see the evidence also;” “I would like to see more information on this;” “Cough up some evidence the rest of the world can verify.”

Some also appeal to a common sense explanation to counter the conspiracy theory: the information supposedly gathered by Canadian officials “would be needed to evacuate Canadian expats, nothing else;” “If there were indeed Canadian agents (RCMP or otherwise) in-country who were quietly gathering info about airport capacities, it is entirely likely that it was in the context of developing a contingency plan to quickly evacuate Canadian expatriates and diplomatic staff from the country”

Finally, in an interesting twist, this blog is quoted in the discussion as supporting the argument that the Venezuelan government is delusional and paranoid. I protest. 

Canada in cahoots

Ex-government official and journalist José Vicente Rangel has accused Canada of being part of a conspiracy to attack the Venezuelan government and destabilize the country.

Rangel declared that “the government of Canada has increased its attacks against Venezuela,” by accusing the country of supporting drug trafficking and of handing out passports to terrorist suspects.

“This is part of a combined campaign with the North American [United States] government. In this campaign [the activities of] the Center for a Secure and Free Society and the Canadian Institute for Social and Economic Analysis stand out,” explained Rangel.

The reason for these recent “attacks” by the Canadian government, according to Rangel, is the need by the North American country to hide its links with “los mexicanos” and their role in the increase of drug trafficking to the United States via Canada.

The attacks by Canada also include the use of its embassy in Caracas to smuggle intelligence operatives into Venezuela. According to Rangel, in the last month, “approximately 30 agents specialized in destabilization activities,” have entered the country through the Canadian Embassy.

The Canadian Embassy in Caracas has denied the claims.