Toronto. The Embassy of Venezuela in Canada and the University of Toronto promoted the roundtable “Venezuela, Land of Peace” with graduate students to explain the reality of the country in light of the recent events that have occurred in the designation of Venezuela as a "threat” to the security of the United States.

In a friendly meeting with the best students at PhD and Masters levels in the area of political science and international studies, the Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Canada, Wilmer Barrientos, was the keynote speaker for the discussion of ideas on the political process led by Venezuela on the rescue and vindication by the Bolivarian Revolution of Latin America’s historical legacy.

Ottawa, April 13, 2015. The Embassy of Venezuela in Canada held a meeting of solidarity and fraternity with the Canadian Muslim community of the Islamic Society of York Region, part of the greater metropolitan area of Toronto, whose leader Zafar Bangash, expressed his full support to President Nicholas Maduro and the Bolivarian Government on behalf of their community.

Ambassador Wilmer Barrientos in his opening remarks expressed great emotion "We are jubilant. This visit is the continuation of a strategic partnership project, an alliance under construction between the Muslim people and the Venezuelan people". The Ambassador emphasized the role of the Muslim world and of Latin America in building a more just, humane world and that recognizes the dignity of its people.

Ohsweken, April 9, 2015. The Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Canada, represented by Ambassador Wilmer Barrientos Omar Fernández, attended last Wednesday April 8, a cultural meeting organized by the leaders of the Six Nations of the Grand River in honor of the memory of the Supreme Commander of the Bolivarian Revolution Hugo Chavez. The meeting entitled "Meeting of Friendship" was held at the Mohawk Longhouse, sacred center for the celebration of rituals and other traditional Canadian First Nations activities.

Toronto, April 10, 2015. The Embassy of Venezuela in Canada promoted the first meeting with the Latin American Studies program at the University of Toronto for the development of the second Latin American Studies Program of ALBA, which was developed in its first edition in 2014, with the graduation of its first cohort.

The main purpose of this effort is to update and create technical staff with a solid technical and methodological preparation, with specialized knowledge of Latin American affairs and its relation to Canada.

Amnesty International's latest report on Venezuela calls for justice for the dozens of people killed during the unrest that shook the country a year ago, while using sleight of hand to deflect attention away from those responsible.

 “The Amnesty International report documents events of February 2014 when thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets, resulting in the death of 43 people, including eight law enforcement officials,” Amnesty said in a press release accompanying the release of the report's executive summary. While the full report was unavailable online at the time of writing, the executive summary unequivocally laid the blame for 2014's violence at the feet of state security forces, but ironically chose to shy away from actually admitting how those 43 people died.

To the extent Forero’s claims in the Wall Street Journal can be checked, it is easy to show that his reporting is often lousy and (probably by intent) extremely misleading. Juan Forero’s front page article for the Wall Street Journal (“Venezuelans Suffer Amid Crumbling Health System,” March 13) did not say that Venezuela’s health care system was amazingly efficient, quite the contrary, but if an outrageous claim he made about public health care spending were true, that is the only logical conclusion.

The campaign calls on the U.S. president to repeal the executive order declaring the South American country a national security threat. A new campaign, “Obama, Venezuela is not a threat!,” has gathered over 1 million signatures in less than a week. The campaign asks for people to sign up to an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama requesting that the White House repeals an executive order declaring the South American country a national security threat. The Venezuelan government will take the signatures to the Summit of the Americas in Panama, to be held in April.

Despite facing ongoing hardships, people in Gaza have rallied in support of Venezuela. As Palestinians continue to face economic hardships and services and housing shortagtes after the Israeli bombardments last year, dozens of Gazans joined a rally on Saturday morning in solidarity with Venezuela.