A few days ago, U.S. troops attacked and hijacked a Venezuelan oil tanker in caribbean waters
\nnear Grenada island. This measure is added to a long list of imperialist aggressions against
\nVenezuela in recent decades, which escalated a few months ago, with the United States
\nbombings of alleged “narco-boats”, leaving more than 95 people dead. In recent days, Trump
\nhas threatened to carry out direct military interventions, including ground invasion, “special
\noperations” (assassinations) or bombings within the country.
\nTo attack Venezuela, the U.S. government, led by Trump, argues that Maduro is the leader of an
\ninternational drug cartel that would operate both internationally and within the United States,
\ninformation that was dismissed even by the U.S. own security agencies.
\nThe reality is that the United States uses the “war on drugs” as a justification to attack a country
\nthat does not fully align itself with its interests, in the same way it did when it invaded Panama
\nin 1989, accusing then-President Manuel Noriega of being a drug trafficker.
\nSome analysts argue that Trump’s goal is to implement a regime change in Venezuela, starting
\nwith the removal of Maduro and possibly other important regime figures. This analysis is very
\nplausible, since for decades the United States has maintained a conflictive relationship with the
\nVenezuelan regime, at times tougher and at others more negotiable. The United States cannot
\naccept regimes that are not fully aligned with its interests, particularly in Latin America, its
\n“backyard,” and in a country that possesses the world’s largest oil reserves. The Venezuelan
\nmigration crisis is another factor that drives imperialism to try to intervene in the country, with
\nthe aim of containing the migration of millions of refugees to the United States.
\nU.S. imperialist aggression must be completely rejected by the world\u2019s working class and youth.
\nU.S. imperialism is the greatest enemy of the working class and the peoples. An imperialist
\nintervention in Venezuela would mean the first step in intervening in any other country that
\ndoes not immediately submit to U.S. interests.
\nVenezuela\u2019s working class, which is mostly fed up with Chavismo, should not believe that a U.S.
\nintervention would benefit the working people. On the contrary, Venezuela’s history is marked
\nby pro-U.S. governments that completely looted the country, that looting was so profound that
\nit gave rise to a great popular rebellion, the Caracazo, in 1989, later channeled by Chavismo.
\nTherefore, in the event of a U.S. invasion of Venezuela, military unity with the Maduro
\ngovernment and all the Venezuelan people will be essential to expel the invaders. However, that
\ncannot mean any political support or alliance with Maduro.
\nNo political support for Maduro’s regime!<\/p>\n
Opposing imperialist intervention in Venezuela does not mean supporting the Maduro regime.
\nChavismo, which has been in power for almost 30 years, has transformed Venezuela into
\nwasteland. There are almost eight million Venezuelans refugees around the world. Those who
\nremained in the country live, for the most part, in deep misery.
\nThe “left” which defends the Maduro regime argues that the crisis in Venezuela is the result of
\nU.S. sanctions; that argument, however, is totally false. The economic and social crisis in
\nVenezuela began with the fall in the price of oil in 2013-2014. While the price of oil was at an
\nall-time high, Chavismo, led by Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, managed to finance a series of social programs
\nthat kept the poorest population “pacified” and with a basic quality of life. These programs,
\nhowever, did not change the country’s dependence on oil.
\nWhile this process of “pacification” of the masses was taking place, Chavismo co-opted social
\nand workers’ leaders into the bourgeois state apparatus, offering them power, positions and
\nprivileges. In this way, the military, Chavista businessmen and a new union and state
\nbureaucracy began to govern the country according to their own interests, often in association
\nwith foreign capital, including North American capital. Cases of corruption multiplied and
\nChavista leaders began to enrich themselves, a phenomenon that gave rise to the so-called
\n“bolibourgeoisie”. One clear example of this process is Diosdado Cabello (military officer and
\ncurrent Minister of the Interior of Venezuela), considered the number two of the Chavista
\npower, only behind Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and one of the biggest businessmen in the country.
\nThis decline of Chavismo \u2013 also expressed in the deterioration of PDVSA, the state oil company \u2013
\ntogether with the country’s dependence on oil exports, generated the current economic crisis.
\nThe imperialist sanctions came after the beginning of the crisis, due to the inability of the
\nVenezuelan state to pay the enormous debt it owed to U.S. creditors. For this reason, U.S.
\nsanctions and confiscations of the Maduro government have nothing to do with a dispute
\nbetween capitalism and socialism. In reality, these are inter-bourgeois disputes to define who
\nwill keep the country’s oil revenue.
\nWith Ch\u00e1vez’s death, the economic and social crisis in Venezuela deepened. Maduro, the new
\ndictator, together with the Armed Forces, began to repress demonstrations of social discontent
\nwith a heavy hand. Freedom of association, which was already very limited during the Ch\u00e1vez
\nperiod, became virtually non-existent, as the Chavista bureaucracy controls the main unions and
\npersecutes its opponents.
\nWe maintain that the Venezuelan regime is a bourgeois dictatorship because Maduro governs
\nsupported by the Armed Forces and all bourgeois-democratic institutions are under his direct
\ncontrol, without any autonomy, even by bourgeois own parameters. Opponents, both from the<\/p>\n
left and the right, are persecuted, arrested and\/or expelled from Venezuela, in addition to being
\ndisqualified from contesting elections. The last elections, completely fraudulent, were just a
\ntheater to grant some legitimacy to the Maduro government. Maduro’s speeches in defense of
\nsocialism or the “unity of the Latin American peoples” are nothing more than speeches, since in
\npractice it is a bourgeois government administering a capitalist state that represses any attempt
\nat popular organization that questions its interests.
\nWith the increase in conflicts with the United States, the dictatorship deepened its relations
\nwith China, contracting huge loans. Today China is one of the largest creditors of the Venezuelan
\nstate and also its main trading “partner”. This dependence on Chinese capitalism, however, does
\nnot imply a cooperative relationship. China has no interest in entering into a conflict with the
\nUnited States and is highly unlikely to defend Maduro against a U.S. attack. Its main interest is
\nthat Venezuela pays the enormous debt it has with Chinese capital, something that could
\nhappen even after a pro-imperialist military coup against Maduro.
\nTo try to reduce the pressure on the regime, Maduro has sought to negotiate with U.S.
\nimperialism. These negotiations, which advanced during the Biden administration in the United
\nStates, receded again with the arrival of Trump. During Biden’s presidency, Chevron oil company
\nexploited Venezuelan oil again, a relationship that continues to this day.
\nCurrently, Trump seeks to force Maduro’s departure and a transition to a government closer to
\nU.S. imperialism, which guarantees greater bourgeois stability in the country and curbs the
\npenetration of Chinese capital.
\nIt is necessary to build a political alternative of the workers in Venezuela
\nIt is more urgent than ever to build a revolutionary workers’ party in Venezuela, with complete
\nindependence from Chavismo. The future of the country should not be decided by the White
\nHouse, the Bolivarian bourgeoisie, nor by the pro-imperialist right. Mar\u00eda Corina Machado
\nrepresents a neoliberal bourgeoisie allied to Washington, willing to restore a privatizing and
\nsubordinate model. Both Chavismo and the right-wing opposition are expressions of the same
\nruling class, linked to different blocs of international capital.
\nTherefore, the real alternative is workers’ and people’s self-organization. Only the working class
\ncan recover the natural resources \u2013 oil, gas and mining \u2013 under workers’ control, expropriate the
\nbourgeoisie and rebuild the economy on socialist, democratic and internationalist foundations.
\n\u2022 No to U.S. imperialist interference in Venezuela and throughout Latin America!
\n\u2022 Down with the capitalist dictatorship of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and the bolibourgeoisie!
\n\u2022 For the nationalization of oil and all natural resources under workers’ control!<\/p>\n
\u2022 For a workers’ and people’s revolution that overthrows the Maduro dictatorship! For a
\ngovernment of the workers and the poor Venezuelan people!
\n\u2022 For the internationalist unity of the peoples of Latin America against all forms of imperialist
\ndomination!
\nIRC International Reconstruction Committee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A few days ago, U.S. troops attacked and hijacked a Venezuelan oil tanker in caribbean waters near Grenada island. This measure is added to a long list of imperialist aggressions against Venezuela in recent decades, which escalated a few months ago, with the United States bombings of alleged “narco-boats”, leaving more than 95 people dead. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[89],"coauthors":[96],"class_list":["post-280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-venezuela-en","tag-cirs-sections","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"\n