Welcome to this meeting of the Subcommittee on International Human Rights. We're dealing today with a very serious issue, an issue that has seized this committee on several occasions. Most recent events have also given us pause for reflection on the serious human rights situation that exists in Venezuela, and hence the reason for this emergency briefing as a follow-up to the briefing that we did last year.
I would like to welcome our two witnesses here today. We have Mr. Orlando Viera-Blanco. Mr. Viera-Blanco is a Venezuelan lawyer and external adviser to the permanent foreign policy committee of the National Assembly of Venezuela. In addition to being a human rights activist, he's also a professor of political culture and democratic values, and he is a political campaign and communication adviser.
Mr. Viera-Blanco has published numerous columns in Venezuelan and international newspapers over the last 24 years. He is also president of the Canadian Venezuelan Engagement Foundation, a group created by Venezuelans in exile committed to defending the human rights of Venezuelans still living in the country via engagement with the Government of Canada.
I would also like to welcome Maria Margarita Torres. Ms. Torres has served as a councillor on the Montreal West municipal council since her election in November 2013. She was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and moved to Canada at age 20 in 1977.
Although she has lived most of her life in Montreal, she has kept close ties with her native country and the Venezuelan diaspora in Montreal, including in her role as honorary member of the Canadian Venezuelan Engagement Foundation.
Witnesses, if you can please take about 10 to 12 minutes to provide us with some introductory remarks, we will then open up the floor for questions from the members of this subcommittee.
Thank you very much.