Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join this debate in support of the member for Thornhill on Venezuela, and I do have a Yiddish proverb, but I will say which one it is later. I want to start by establishing a couple of facts and very strong beliefs I have, having spoken a lot with the Venezuelan community in Calgary.
Hugo Chávez was a dictator. Nicolás Maduro was and continues to be a dictator. Hugo Chávez's rule was marked by the collapse of the private economy, from the nationalization of industries like cement, construction, a great deal of the food distribution system, wholesale markets, and the substitution of community groups for more central government, and we saw this throughout the Chávista rule. When Chávez was there, he started the slide of Venezuela from one of the richest countries, if not the richest country in South America, with the substitution of community groups by more centralized government, and the political party that he belonged to increasingly took over arms of the government. There was confusion between the two, just as there is today in the Russian Federation.
His rule was also marked by the erosion of the rule of law and of public institutions, which today has led to the collapse of public institutions, including the national assembly and the supreme court of Venezuela. People like Nicolás Maduro and people who support him look for opportunities like this to continue an autocratic socialist government. The fact is that, from Chávez to Maduro, Venezuela went from the richest country in South America to the poorest, most violent, and now the most autocratic and definitely the most dictatorial.
I want to dwell on the systematic abuses of human rights in Venezuela. Between April 1 and May 27 of just this year, we are talking about the arrest and detention of 2,950 peaceful opposition demonstrators, people who are tired of being abused, people who are tired of starving and being unable to provide for their families. Now, 1,329 of these people are still being detained today, 355 of them having received a trial and 189 being detained by military tribunals. These are civilians being tried before military tribunals. Some 60 people have been killed since April 19, and I want to update the numbers to the House because I spoke today with the executive director of the Canada Venezuela Democracy Forum, a Venezuelan expat who lives here in Canada, and he told me that, as of today, they are counting 78 people murdered by the Maduro regime. These are peaceful demonstrators who were simply going out into the streets to protest against a government they no longer trust, that they no longer believe in, and that they want out of power.
The coup d'état is what we hear from the Venezuelan opposition, but from many other groups too who have confirmed that the government of Nicolás Maduro now leads essentially an autocratic, dictatorial state with no basis whatsoever in Venezuelan law or international law. By decision 156, passed on March 29, the supreme court assumed the powers of the national assembly. These are the legislative powers that the national assembly had, so this violates the Venezuelan constitution. Recently Nicolás Maduro called to reform the constitution with a body of 500 members, so 50% will be appointed by Maduro himself—I can see a problem already emerging—and 50% from so-called grassroots organizations from government programs, which is all Chávista members; therefore all of them will be appointed directly by the government through whatever avenue he chooses. This violates electoral law in Venezuela as well as the constitution of Venezuela.
I and other members who have spoken have also had the pleasure of meeting with Lilian Tintori, who is the wife of a Venezuelan opposition leader who is illegally being detained in a military prison by the Maduro regime. I found her to be quite a fierce defender of human rights. She has become quite an activist for her husband, for the opposition parties, and also more broadly for the democratic push in Venezuela. She spoke of the hardships that people are experiencing there, such as the food shortages. Venezuela used to be a country where people could feed themselves. I know that the food shortages have been blamed by some on the collapse of the price of oil on international markets. However, Alberta experienced a collapse of the commodity market as well, and we are still able to feed ourselves. There is still food on the shelves. We can still go and purchase it. That is not the case in Venezuela.
There are drug shortages. Items like Tylenol are up 500%, a simple tablet of Tylenol, which can mean the difference between someone ending up in an emergency room and not.
In the case of those winding up in an emergency room in Venezuela, they are very likely not to get any treatment. There is simply no medication available at a reasonable price. People must go to the black market.
There have been month-long demonstrations where people have taken to the streets. It is easy to find out about these. They are on the news now. They started on Facebook and Twitter. People were posting about it and showing pictures of what is actually going on on the ground.
Lilian also spoke about the illegal detentions, the rounding up of members of the opposition parties. They are being arrested, randomly at times, detained for hours and days and sometimes weeks, and then released, only to be re-arrested. The regime is doing such things to spread fear. It is a reminder of the times that I still remember, when Poland and other ex-Soviet controlled republics in eastern Europe experienced exactly the same thing. Opposition members there have fought for their freedom and for democracy.
That Yiddish proverb I spoke about earlier relates deeply to Venezuela's conditions today. Peace is to man what yeast is to dough. The reason I want to talk about dough is that Maduro's regime is making this ridiculous, almost comedy-like attack on the private market, the private economy, where people find ways to fulfill each other's needs. The regime has actually attacked bakers, as of two weeks ago. It declared bakers to be special contributors. One Venezuelan baker translated the regimespeak for us, saying they have to pay double in taxes while facing shortages of milk, eggs, cheese, and deli products. In March, 80% of Venezuela's bakeries were reported to have no flour.
To dwell on bakeries and dough and yeast some more, in something referred to as the bread wars online now, Maduro's regime has accused bakers of hoarding and being allied to the imperialists. In fact, in a recent speech, Maduro accused them of waging a bread war against the Venezuelan people.
Now there are police operations ongoing still today, which are seizing owners of these bakeries and accusing them of hoarding flour. Now it is getting ridiculous. We know how serious the situation must be for the government of a country to be in the business of seizing bakeries and seizing bakery owners and sending them to jail for the simple crime of making cookies. One baker told NPR that they can only serve five customers per day. Effectively, that means they are only open 40 minutes after opening, every single day.
Now I'll turn to a personal story. This reminds me of the stories my parents used to share with me. Many members know that I immigrated to Canada from Poland, and I still remember the store shelves being empty in Poland in the early 1980s. I was only a little boy of four. The only thing people were certain to be able to buy in the stores was vinegar. There was ample, copious amounts of vinegar. The stores never ran out of it. We would go to a local cafeteria called, in Polish, bar mleczny, a milk bar, which does not mean there was actual milk because there was never any. However, people could get soup, a peach soup, and my dad would tell us stories about how people could buy this peach soup and all it really was was half a peach in a bowl of water. That was peach soup.
When I hear these stories about what Venezuelans are going through, I identify with it. I know what that looks like. That is why my family fled here to Canada.
The tragedy of Venezuela continues. Eight out of 10 Venezuelans are poor. There is a critical lack of medical supplies and money for health care that contributes to infant mortality rates that have soared 30% in one year. Maternal mortality is up 66%. Hyperinflation has vaporized the savings of an entire generation of people. One economist who tracks a common food staple, chicken, has calculated the annual inflation at 700%.
One other member did mention the president of the national assembly, Julio Borges, who said, after tearing up a copy of the supreme court ruling:
Nicolas Maduro has carried out a 'coup d'etat'...this is a dictatorship
This is from the man who would know best. This is from the person who is the head of the national assembly in Venezuela.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has also condemned the regime for the militarization of the management of the protests. It has detained members, like the Contreras, who are now subject to military justice in full violation of Venezuelan law. They have been held completely incommunicado from any human rights groups.
This is all being tracked by organizations like Human Rights Watch. It says that, according to its numbers, there is abuse of prosecutions going on of at least 275 civilians by military records alone, official records.
I would say that this motion is extremely timely. It is time for Canada to act. It is not enough to go to the OAS. It is not enough to put out a warm-hearted press release. It is time to act and call for everything inside this motion. I am asking the government to support it. I am asking all members of the opposition to support this motion as well.