Trump government's takeover of Venezuela
Pacifique Manirakiza (English and French)
Full Professor, Faculty of Law - Common Law Section
Pacifique.Manirakiza@uottawa.ca
Professor Manirakiza is an expert on international courts and tribunals (e.g. the International Criminal Court); the human rights protection system; and criminal law.
“The U.S. intervention in Venezuela is an act of aggression. It violates the fundamental principles of international law and undermines international public order. It risks strengthening China's position with regard to Taiwan and Russia's position with regard to Ukraine.”
Jabeur Fathally (English and French)
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law – Civil Law Section
Professor Fathally can provide analysis of the place of international law in the Venezuela conflict, including any potential use of the International Criminal Court.
Ferry de Kerckhove (English and French)
Senior fellow, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, Faculty of Social Sciences
ferry.de.kerckhove@uOttawa.ca
Professor De Kerckhove is a former diplomat who can analyze the impact on Canada's foreign policy and political impact globally.
Roland Paris (English only)
Full Professor and Director of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, Faculty of Social Sciences.
Professor Paris' can discuss the impact of the U.S.'s actions on Canada's foreign policy. His expertise also includes international security and global governance.
Benjamin Zyla (English only)
Full Professor, School of International Development and Global Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences.
Professor Zyla can provide analysis of how Canada and European leaders could respond as Mark Carney travels to Paris.
Jorge Lazdo Cividanes (English, French and Spanish)
Part-time professor, School of Political Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences
Professor Lazdo Cividanes' research interests focus on the comparative politics of Latin America, including populism, ideology and political violence.
Isaac Nahon-Serfaty (English, French and Spanish)
Full Professor, Department of Communication, Faculty of Arts
Professor Nahon-Serfaty can talk about this topic from a communications standpoint.
Salvador Herencia Carrasco (English, Spanish and Portuguese)
Part-Time Professor, Faculty of Law – Civil Law Section and Director, Human Rights Clinic of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre (HRREC).
Professor Herencia's expertise includes International Law, Inter-American Human Rights System and International Criminal Law and he can speak to the illegality of the U.S.'s military actions.
Marie-Christine Doran (French and Spanish)
Full Professor, School of Political Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Director, Observatory on Violence, Criminalization and Democracy.
Professor Doran's research focuses on South America including democracy and governance, violence, justice and human rights and political legitimacy.
Venezuela Crisis: Impact on oil/gas prices and the economy
Suhaib Riaz (English only)
Associate Professor of Management, Telfer School of Management
Professor Riaz's research focuses on international business, including challenges of global significance like political crises, new organizing and institutional changes.
"We can call this situation a complex causality with deeply intertwined political/economic angles. It is hard to understand the political and economic actions of the U.S. administration toward other economies without linking them to political stresses within the U.S., from the current Venezuela takeover to the trade/tariff conflicts and threats to take over Greenland and, even, Canada.
"It fits the actions by the administration against ‘outsiders’ or ‘others’ which fits the administration's overall agenda, both domestically and internationally, by deflecting blame from its own failures in addressing domestic structural issues. There will be multiple unintended consequences, which are always difficult to predict in advance."
Jean-Thomas Bernard (English and French)
Visiting Professor, Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences
jbernar3@uottawa.ca
Professor Bernard's expertise touches on the energy sector and includes the analysis of oil and gas prices. He can touch on the expected impact of the U.S.' invasion of Venezuela on the price of gas/oil in Canada.
David Gray (English and French)
Full Professor, Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences
Professor Gray’s expertise lies in the field of econometrics, macro and microeconomics. He can discuss the general economic ramifications of the Venezuela crisis on the Canadian and global economy.
Venezuela releases prisoners in ‘peace’ gesture as U.S. cancels new attack
Alex Neve, a visiting and adjunct professor of international human rights law in the Faculties of Law and Social Sciences and a Senior Fellow with the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) at the University of Ottawa, has been appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to serve as a member of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (FFM).
Alex.Neve@uottawa.ca and/or media@uOttawa.ca
Is Trump plotting a coup in Venezuela?
Jorge Lazdo Cividanes (English, French and Spanish)
Part-time professor, School of Political Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences
Professor Lazdo Cividanes' research interests focus on the comparative politics of Latin America, including populism, ideology and political violence.
Isaac Nahon-Serfaty (English, French and Spanish)
Full Professor, Department of Communication, Faculty of Arts
Professor Nahon-Serfaty can talk about this topic from a communication standpoint.
"Nicolas Maduro's regime is under pressure from the U.S. administration. We can assume the main objective of Trump's government is to promote regime change in Venezuela from within. But this goal remains elusive since the military is aligned with the Chavista regime. The population is being submitted to intimidation tactics through repression and arbitrary detentions and it is very unlikely the people will rebel against the regime, even if the economic situation is very difficult for most Venezuelans."
Salvador Herencia Carrasco (English, Spanish and Portuguese)
Part-Time Professor, Faculty of Law – Civil Law Section and Director, Human Rights Clinic of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre (HRREC).
Professor Herencia's expertise includes International Law, Inter-American Human Rights System and International Criminal Law. He can speak to the illegality of the U.S.'s military actions, which has killed unarmed civilians (fishermen) in the crossfire.
Errol Mendes (English only)
Full Professor, Faculty of Law - Common Law Section
Professor Mendes' research includes constitutional and human rights law, global governance, public international law.
"Trump is weaponizing the fentanyl crisis to reinforce his view that the killing of 90-plus people on the boats in the Caribbean was legal under U.S. law, which it is not; it is possibly an international war crime. His implementation considers it part of the western hemisphere, which also includes Canada as subject to U.S. power under the new Trump national security plan. Militarizing the drug as a weapon of war could also give Trump the verve to use the military to police within the U.S. and potentially threaten the viability of the upcoming midterms that seek to oust his power in Congress.
Finally, it can also be a ruse by Trump to seek control of the largest oil and gas reserves in the world in Venezuela which could then make less use of Canadian oil with trade agreements under review.
This is really bad news for the U.S. democracy and the rule of law, and for Canada, the western hemisphere and the world. It could be one of the last mad power triggers by Trump before even his own leadership and Republican Party finally realize what peril he is putting the world in."
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado wins Nobel Peace Prize
Marie-Christine Doran (English, French and Spanish)
Full Professor, School of Political Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences
Professor Doran's research focuses on South America including democracy and governance, violence, justice and human rights and political legitimacy.
"The Nobel Prize being awarded to Maria Corina Machado is very good news for the fight against dictatorship in Venezuela. But we cannot ignore the fact that Machado supports and has called for a U.S. military invasion of Venezuela and that she favors the European alliance of far-right parties alongside the Spanish extremist party Vox, the Austrian far right and other parties that favour authoritarianism, such as Javier Milei in Argentina. So, unfortunately, her image as a model of democracy is questionable."