Time to free David Sawatzky

By: Mac Horsburgh Posted: 2:00 AM CST Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026

Unless you grew up in the Morden/Winkler area you wouldn’t have heard of the former wheat farmer, David William Sawatzky. He first came to my attention a few years ago when a businessman from Morden mentioned his name to me.

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He described David as a maverick who in the 1990s battled the Canadian Wheat Board over their grain monopoly. He went on to say that since 2013 David had been languishing in a Venezuelan prison.

How does a Manitoban wheat farmer end up in prison in one of the most dangerous countries in the world?

How Mr. Sawatzky has managed to stay alive and survive for 13 years in a Venezuelan prison is a testament to his resilience and the people who are supporting him.

To make a long story short you must understand that in Venezuela, it has been common practice to incarcerate foreigners on trumped-up charges for a couple of different reasons.

Traditionally foreigners are imprisoned so that Venezuela can use them as negotiating pawns with other countries. As well, these prisoners are money makers for corrupt Venezuelan officials.

According to a recent Globe and Mail article, while in prison Sawatzky has been supported by a small group of Manitobans who have transferred tens of thousands of dollars to buy food and cover payments demanded by judges.

How Sawatzky has managed to stay alive and survive for 13 years in a Venezuelan prison is a testament to his resilience and the people who are supporting him.

Venezuela is not a country in which you want to spend any time in prison. Conditions in prison there are beyond deplorable.

Overcrowding is a vast understatement. If you are lucky enough to get a mattress you will probably have to share it with two other people. Many prisoners sleep in hammocks in the hallway.

Prisons there are often run by gangs. Prisoners openly carry weapons. Guards are nowhere to be seen.

In one report I read, there are an average of four murders a week in Venezuelan prisons. These prisons are described as hellholes of depravity and starvation.

Life in Venezuela is not much better. The poverty rate is now around 80 per cent, with 50 per cent of the people living in extreme poverty.

Eight million people have left Venezuela in the past few years. Living conditions are intolerable.

While the average person has struggled to survive in Venezuela, recently arrested President Nicolás Maduro and his cronies have shipped US$5 billion worth of gold out of Venezuela into safe keeping in Switzerland. Swiss authorities have frozen the accounts and assets of Maduro and 37 of his acolytes. It is estimated that there is about US$10 billion in these accounts.

Since Maduro’s arrest, Venezuela has begun a slow process of releasing political prisoners. Unfortunately, David Sawatzky doesn’t qualify as a political prisoner.

But let’s be clear about this. Sawatzky, for all intents and purposes, is a political prisoner. He was held with political prisoners; a powerful Venezuelan figure intervened to ensure he remained behind bars and his conviction corresponded with new Canadian government sanctions against Venezuela.

It goes without saying that he didn’t get a fair trial when he was charged with drug smuggling. Rules of evidence were not followed and the punishment for his alleged crimes far exceeded anything that could be considered reasonable.

If Venezuela wants to emerge from its status as a pariah, it is time to release David Sawatzky.

If Global Affairs Canada wants to have any credibility with Canadian taxpayers and voters, it is time for them to expedite negotiations for David Sawatzky’s release.

Sawatzky is now 64 years old. He stands 6-1 and weighs 140 starving pounds. He has family and friends in Canada.

Releasing him is the humane thing to do.

Thirteen years in a Venezuelan prison is unconscionable.

Mac Horsburgh writes from Winnipeg.