venezuela

Wednesday March 9, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 9, 2022

U.S. and U.K. ban Russian oil imports in huge escalation of sanctions

December 24, 2018

President Joe Biden said the U.S. will ban imports of Russian fossil fuels including oil, a major escalation of Western efforts to hobble Russia’s economy that will further strain global crude markets.

“The United States is targeting the main artery of Russia’s economy,” Biden said Tuesday in Washington. “We will not be part of subsidizing Putin’s war.”

The U.S. move will be matched in part by the U.K., which announced a ban on Russian oil imports on Tuesday, though it will continue to allow natural gas and coal from the country. Other European nations that rely more heavily on Russian fuels will not participate.

Russian oil made up about 3 per cent of all the crude shipments that arrived in the U.S. last year. When other petroleum products are included, such as unfinished fuel oil that can be used to produce gasoline and diesel, Russia accounted for about 8 per cent of 2021 oil imports, though those shipments have also trended lower in recent months.

Saturday January 26, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday January 26, 2019

Canada ramps up pressure on Venezuela’s Maduro

Top federal officials, perhaps Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself, will be reaching out to key European allies to encourage them to put more pressure on Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, CTV News has learned.

August 28, 2018

The news comes as Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Belgium threatened to recognize Venezuelan National Assembly President Juan Guaido as the nation’s interim president if elections aren’t called within eight days.

Canada, the United States and 10 other countries in the Lima Group have already recognized Guaido, who declared himself interim president of the troubled South American country on Wednesday.

Canada played a key role in organizing that declaration. On Saturday, Trudeau spoke with Colombian Ivan Duque Marquez about the situation.

Canada’s representative to the UN, Marc-Andree Blanchard, told a special meeting of the UN Security Council that Canada has “firmly rejected Nicolas Maduro’s illegitimate claim to power,” citing “fraudulent” elections last year.

Russia, meanwhile, accused Canada and the U.S. of encouraging a coup.

For the estimated three million people who have fled Venezuela’s economic and political crisis in recent years, the growing support for Guaido gives them hope that they will one day be able to return home.

William Mesa is a medical student who was forced to leave Venezuela for Colombia four years ago.

“Many Venezuelans were eating on the streets from the garbage,” he told CTV’s Omar Sachedina in Bogota.

In addition to his studies, Mesa also volunteers at a clothing donation facility that helps Venezuelan newcomers, just as he was helped when he fled from neighbouring country. (CTV News)