The military attack on Venezuela, the kidnapping of its president, the missiles in various
\nparts of Caracas, the aftermath of deaths and injuries caused, have nothing to do with the
\nfight against drug trafficking, nor with the fight for democracy as some Venezuelan migrant
\nworkers think. While we understand and share the righteous hatred towards the capitalist
\ndictatorship headed by Maduro, we cannot fail to point out that, in our opinion, they are
\nmistaken to believe the arguments that justify the Yankee military intervention and
\ncelebrating Trump’s actions on Saturday, January 3.
\nTrump’s strategic objective is to transform Venezuela, which has the largest oil reserves in
\nthe world, into a colony, as was done with Panama after the 1989 invasion, using similar
\narguments of fighting against drug trafficking and for democracy.
\nTrump’s recolonizing objective, similar to the one in Palestine, is clearly shown when he
\nstates that he is going to control the Venezuelan government, oil and decide who should
\ngovern Venezuela.
\nThe statements of the Secretary of State, Marcos Rubio, have the same clarity: “We have a
\ntriple process in Venezuela: The first step is the stabilization of the country, we will take
\nbetween 30 and 50 million barrels of oil, sell it on the market at market prices. We will
\ncontrol how that money is distributed. The second phase will be recovery, ensuring that the
\nUnited States, the West and other countries have access to Venezuelan markets. The third
\nphase will be the transition.”
\nIn Panama, the kidnapping of its president also took place on January 3 and, due to the
\nstrong resistance it generated, it was not until 1999 that the last Yankee soldier left. In
\nVenezuela there was no resistance (we will see the reasons later), the internal U.S. military
\npresence lasted for hours. That does not mean the threat has disappeared as the blockade
\nof oil tankers is not carried out with declarations but with heavily armed ships.
\nThe existence of this imperialist attack and the recolonization project that motivates it is
\nunquestionable. Therefore, there can be no doubt that the main task of Venezuelan
\nworkers, as well as of the workers and peoples of Latin America and the world, must
\nbe the rejection and confrontation of Trump and his recolonization plan. This task is
\nnot opposed to the fight against the dictatorial regime, on the contrary, with the
\ndevelopment of the anti-imperialist confrontation, the Chavista regime must also be<\/p>\n
fought, due to being increasingly incapable of leading that battle, and submissively
\naccepts Trump’s impositions.
\nAs part of this confrontation against the imperialist attack, the kidnapping of Maduro and
\nCilia Flores must be rejected, and their return to the country must be demanded. Maduro’s
\ncrimes must be judged by the Venezuelan people. Trump, who finances Netanyahu’s
\ngenocidal attacks on Gaza, has no right or morality to judge him.
\nBut while we defend their liberation from the hands of imperialism, we must clarify that<\/p>\n
Maduro and the Chavista regime are the main obstacle to carry out the massive anti-
\nimperialist mobilization that the current situation demands.<\/p>\n
Proof of what we say is the large number of Venezuelan workers who, out of hatred for the
\ndictatorship that repressed them and plunged them into misery by forcing them to
\neconomic emigration, celebrate the kidnapping of Maduro around the world.
\nBut perhaps the main proof of the existence of this obstacle, of the palpable sign that the
\nregime is useless to confront imperialism is that, unlike what happened in 2002, when
\nthe workers and poor people spontaneously came out and defeated the coup promoted by
\nthe United States against Chavez, there was no resistance to Maduro’s kidnapping, and
\nthat is due to the growing opposition of Venezuelan workers to that dictatorial regime.
\nIt is not the first time in history that this has happened. In 1976, when the military coup
\nagainst Isabel Per\u00f3n took place in Argentina, there was no workers’ and people’s
\nresistance. Most workers thought they couldn\u2019t be worse than with Isabel’s government. Of
\ncourse they were wrong, it was much worse with the genocidal dictatorship and the 30
\nthousand disappeared. Venezuelan workers who think something similar are also wrong.
\nVenezuela\u2019s conditions will be far worse under complete imperialist control.
\nThe Chavista regime.
\nFrom the beginning we were always against that regime that had as its objective, with a
\ndiscourse in favor of the poor and socialism, to reconstitute the State and bourgeois regime
\nthat were in a deep crisis, as a result of corrupt governments and the great popular uprising
\nagainst hunger and corruption that had its highest point in the “Caracazo” of 1989.
\nIn 1992, bourgeois army colonel Hugo Ch\u00e1vez lead a coup attempt against the corrupt
\ngovernment of Carlos Andr\u00e9s P\u00e9rez, He is defeated and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
\nFrom prison he gained great popularity among the working class and popular sectors,
\nmainly among the most impoverished, for his anti-system discourse. Due to popular
\npressure he was pardoned in 1994 and triumphed in the 1998 presidential elections with
\n56% of the votes. Chavez government did not break any ties with imperialism, fulfilling all<\/p>\n
previous commitments. Despite high oil prices, it does not guarantee better wages to
\nworkers, nor does it solve the unemployment problem and forcefully represses workers’
\ndemands. His popularity is gained mainly with measures towards the most impoverished
\nsectors, such as subsidies, placing some products at low prices, guaranteeing greater
\naccess to education and with the contract with Cuba through which 10 thousand Cuban
\ndoctors went to regions that previously had no medical assistance.
\nDespite his speech, Ch\u00e1vez was no socialist of the 21st century or any other century. At the
\ntime we defined him as “a bourgeois nationalist in recolonization times”, who did not even
\ncarry out Per\u00f3n’s reforms in the 50s in Argentina(1).
\nHe established very good relations with Spanish imperialism, while always guaranteeing
\noil supply to the United States, he had contradictions with Yankee imperialism: He
\ncriticized Bush’s anti-terrorist law, he visited Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi, defended the
\ninviolability of airspace for U.S. military aircraft, opposed the FTAA and defended OPEC as
\na regulatory cartel for oil prices. That made a large part of the Latin American left and the
\n“progressive” sectors, such as Kirchnerism in Argentina, the PT in Brazil, the Broad Front in
\nUruguay, declare him as the great leader of the Second Independence. This was
\nstrengthened by the attacks he received from the US.
\nAs the Yankees did not like to have, in the largest oil reserve in the world, a government that
\nthey did not totally control, they organized the coup of 2002 and when it was defeated they
\nbegan to take a series of measures and pressures in order to defeat it at the electoral level.
\nAt the end of his government, with the change in the economic situation, Ch\u00e1vez was
\nwearing himself out and remained in power through electoral fraud and repression, relying
\non the Armed Forces that run PDVSA and are a central sector of the new bourgeoisie
\ngenerated by the State, the so-called “bolibourgeoisie”.
\nThis situation worsened with Chavez death and the Maduro governments that imposed a
\nbloody dictatorship, with electoral fraud, persecutions, imprisonment and torture of left
\nand right opponents, and led the country to an economic crisis, with generalized hunger,
\nwhich caused the average worker to lose between 9 and 12 kilos. Obviously, this weight
\nloss did not occur among government or military hierarchs.<\/p>\n
It is this reality that makes Venezuelan migrants, the vast majority of whom are not right-
\nwing or defenders of Trump, but workers who fled hunger and repression, celebrate the<\/p>\n
kidnapping of Maduro, effectively supporting the imperialist attack.
\nBut despite what these workers believe, Trump does not care in the least whether there is
\ndictatorship or bourgeois democracy. That is why, when he saw that the winner of the
\nNobel Peace Prize, Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, was of no use to him because she did not have<\/p>\n
popular or armed forces\u2019 support, he had no problem agreeing with Vice President Delcy
\nRodr\u00edguez on the continuity of the Chavista regime without Maduro. According to some
\nreports, this agreement would have caused division and confrontation within Chavismo.
\nDelcy Rodr\u00edguez, assumes a tough pose when she dismisses and imprisons the head of the
\nhonor guard that protected Maduro, General Javier Marcano T\u00e1bata, accusing him of having
\nfacilitated the entry of the kidnappers. It may be that this accusation is true or that he is
\nsimply a “scapegoat”, but the reality is that, despite this pose of apparent defense of
\nsovereignty, the vice president, far from calling on Latin American governments and
\npeoples to confront imperialism, calls on Trump to negotiate.
\nThis repulsive agreement between the Chavista regime and Trump is confirmed by the
\nWhite House statement of 1\/7\/26: “The Administration maintains close correspondence
\nwith the interim authorities of Venezuela. We have maximum leverage right now and their
\ndecisions will continue to be dictated by the United States.”
\nIn reality, imperialist interference and control in Venezuela will be the main obstacle to
\nending the dictatorship and establishing a regime where the workers and the people are the
\nones who decide the country future.
\nInternational struggle against Trump’s attack
\nAnti-imperialist mobilizations have begun to take place in different countries of the world,
\nthey are still small. It is striking that movements, parties and personalities that defended
\nChavismo, such as the PT of Brazil, the Kirchnerist sectors in Argentina, Petro of
\nColombia(2), and Castro-Chavista organizations from different parts of the world, have not
\nlaunched themselves with force to promote these mobilizations.
\nRegardless of one’s opinion of the Venezuelan regime, it is essential that revolutionaries,
\nworkers and anyone who claims to be anti-imperialist strongly promote these
\nmobilizations.
\nAt the level of the rulers, it is natural that Milei and Netanyahu have been the first to support
\nTrump. There were 6 governments that rejected the attack on Venezuela: Spain, Brazil,
\nChile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, but everything remains in statements. We must
\ndemand, with mobilization, the rupture of economic and diplomatic relations with the
\nUnited States, and that all Yankee ambassadors be expelled.
\nVenezuelan Chavismo, despite the evident agreement of the vice president with Trump,
\ncontinues to say that it will defend Venezuelan sovereignty, confronting imperialism. We do
\nnot place any trust in them to do so, and we call on the people and fundamentally the
\nVenezuelan working class to organize from below, to demand and impose:<\/p>\n
End all persecution of opponents, free all political prisoners of the Maduro<\/strong> Full freedom of action for workers, political and student organizations!<\/strong><\/p>\n Armament of the workers and popular neighborhoods organized by trade union and<\/strong> Permanent assemblies in factories, schools, hospitals and neighborhoods!<\/strong><\/p>\n To confront imperialism, it\u2019s necessary to end Chavista totalitarianism!<\/strong><\/p>\n If resistance increases within Venezuela, in the heat of the anti-imperialist struggle, it<\/strong> For the broadest unity of international action against imperialism and Trump’s<\/strong> The military attack on Venezuela, the kidnapping of its president, the missiles in various parts of Caracas, the aftermath of deaths and injuries caused, have nothing to do with the fight against drug trafficking, nor with the fight for democracy as some Venezuelan migrant workers think. While we understand and share the righteous hatred towards […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":408,"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":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-venezuela-en","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"\n
\ndictatorship!<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nsocial organizations!<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nwill be possible to advance in the construction of a revolutionary organization of the<\/strong>
\nworkers, which will lead that struggle and begin to discuss its own power.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nrecolonization plan!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"