Wednesday’s events had the look of a well-rehearsed plan.

First, Venezuela’s opposition parties organized massive street demonstrations against President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government.

Then Juan Guaido, a little-known politician recently chosen to head up the country’s National Assembly, declared himself the real president of Venezuela.

Finally, in an effort to persuade the country’s armed forces to overthrow Maduro, the United States and eight other nations — including Canada — immediately announced that they recognized Guaido’s non-existent regime as Venezuela’s only legitimate government.

It read like the beginning of a classic American coup plot. The only odd part was that Canada was involved.

The U.S. has a long history of intervening in Latin America to depose governments it doesn’t like. Canada usually stands apart.

Canada didn’t support Dwight Eisenhower in 1954 when he had his Central Intelligence Agency overthrow the government of Guatemala. Nor did it support John F. Kennedy when he launched the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961.

Ottawa didn’t join Washington when it helped organize a military coup in Brazil in 1964. It didn’t back Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 invasion of the Dominican Republic, nor did it support Ronald Reagan’s contra war in Nicaragua during the 1980s.

It steered clear of Chile when Richard Nixon’s administration organized a military coup against that country’s leftist government in 1973. It even declined to get involved in America’s two comic-opera invasions — of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1989.

But in Donald Trump’s Venezuelan coup plot, Canada has been front and centre. Almost Immediately after Guaido anointed himself president, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland announced that he was Canada’s guy and that Maduro should cede power to him.

Maduro won’t do that without a fight. So what Freeland was really saying was that Canada would support anything, including an armed coup, to remove Maduro.

The U.S. was a little blunter. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement calling on “the Venezuelan military and security forces to support democracy.”

Would-be president Guaido is best known for being unknown. He’s a 35-year-old engineer who was elected to the National Assembly in 2015 as a member of the Popular Will party.

Popular Will describes itself as a centrist party that adheres to what former British Prime Minister Tony Blair called the third way. But in Venezuela it is best known for the street protests it organizes against the Maduro regime. It is the third-biggest party in the opposition-dominated — and largely powerless — National Assembly.

Guaido was chosen assembly president this month by fellow legislators. That’s a position roughly equivalent to Nancy Pelosi’s job as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Does Guaido have more political legitimacy than Maduro? That depends on who you talk to. Guaido was elected four years ago, but only as a legislator. Maduro was re-elected president last May, but in a contest his detractors say was rigged.

Certainly, Maduro has played games — particularly by creating a new socialist-dominated Constituent Assembly to bypass the National Assembly. But his supporters argue that this was the only way to break a political deadlock and pass laws benefitting the country’s numerous poor.

Still, two things are clear.

First, Venezuela is an economic mess. The oil price collapse hit this petroleum-producing country hard. American economic sanctions made the situation considerably worse. The Maduro government’s policies, by encouraging runaway inflation, have been catastrophic.

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Second, something will have to give. There are now two competing presidents, one of which has full U.S. support. Coup attempts against Maduro have already been made. It is only a matter of time until one succeeds.

Coups in Latin America can be bloody. There are scores to be settled and class interests to play out. Wise countries, such as Mexico (which still recognizes Maduro as Venezuela’s president) avoid taking sides. Instead, they adopt the common-sense approach of dealing with whoever is in power.

That used to be Canada’s position too. Now we are, in effect, promoting a coup on behalf of Donald Trump. Is that what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau means when he says Canada abides by the rule of law?

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