Former ambassador blames "overdependence on oil” for Venezuela’s instability
Canada’s former ambassador to Venezuela blamed the country’s “overdependence on oil” as the root of its instability, saying that most nations that “depend heavily on oil tend to be dictatorships.”
Canada’s former ambassador to Venezuela blamed the country’s “overdependence on oil” as the root of its instability, saying that most nations that “depend heavily on oil tend to be dictatorships.”
Ben Rowswell, who served as Canada’s Ambassador to Venezuela from 2014 to 2017, told CBC during a recent interview that oil was a “bad product to base your economy on if you want to be a democracy.”
His comments were in response to being asked how Venezuela went from being “arguably the wealthiest” country in Latin America with “tremendous oil reserves, so progressive, so forward moving, to where it is right now.”
According to Rowswell, much of Venezuela’s downfall can be attributed to its overdependence on oil due to its “wildly fluctuating price on the international markets.”
“It’s always a bad idea,” he said on Saturday.
Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was taken into U.S. custody over the weekend and is now facing multiple criminal charges in New York, including drug trafficking and weapons offences. The move follows years of U.S. allegations that Maduro oversaw a narco-state tied to cocaine trafficking into North America.
Prime Minister Mark Carney released a statement condemning Maduro’s “criminal and illegitimate” regime, pointing to systematic human rights abuses, corruption, and the disputed 2018 election.
While welcoming an opportunity for democracy and stability in Venezuela, the statement avoided any direct endorsement or criticism of the action that led to Maduro’s removal.
“It creates the possibility for democratic transition in Venezuela,” Carney told reporters on Tuesday. “We very much support that. We’re available to support that. And we urge that to happen in a peaceful transition.”
However, Rowswell accused Ottawa of “parroting” U.S. President Donald Trump’s “anti-democratic” line by supporting the idea of Venezuela holding new elections.
The former ambassador said that the Carney government should instead support the steps necessary to install the leaders who’d initially been elected in the 2024 election, which was quashed by the now-captured Maduro.
Rowswell, who is now a consultant with Catalyze4, a strategic advisory and leadership development firm, said that Ottawa wasn’t helping the people of Venezuela by supporting fresh elections, particularly at a time when Washington was acting as “a hostile force to democracy in our hemisphere.”
Several governments that depend heavily on the oil sector have managed to create ways to ensure their economies won’t fall prey to fluctuating international markets.
For example, Alberta, Alaska, and Norway have all created successful heritage funds using money acquired through profits gained from oil reserves as a means to secure long-term stability.
Alberta’s Heritage Savings Trust Fund hit a record high of $30 billion last July after a $2.8-billion deposit from the province’s 2024–25 surplus.
Meanwhile, eligible Alaskans were paid $1,704 in dividends from their fund last year.
Norway’s heritage fund is currently valued at more than $2.5 trillion, and money generated from the fund covers about 20 per cent of the budget annually.
OMG, so that's why Canada won't build pipelines -- it's because we'd risk becoming a dictatorship! And here I thought it was because of the climate change scam. We certainly wouldn't want to take advantage of our natural resources to enrich the population, right? Let's just become more and more socialist so we can morph into Venezuela with terrible weather. In a decade or less we'll be begging to become the 51st state, unless Greenland beats us to it.
Who is this person? Why does he have, according to CBC have anything of value to contribute to this situation in Venezuela? Oh yeah, it’s CBC. Who have nothing of value to share to anyone!