Donald Trump announced that the U.S. military attacked Venezuela and abducted their president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, and flew them to the United States. The largest oil reserves in the world, as well as the lithium and gold in Venezuela, are worth too much for U.S. corporations and their authoritarian Trump regime to leave untouched.
There have been months of aggression from the U.S., including the murder of over a hundred civilians by missile strikes on boats and the bombing of a port. This is a return to the repression, murder, and wars for big corporations and control of natural resources that U.S. governments have often launched against the people of South America. The Trump regime openly instigated this latest act of war against Venezuela. Working people across the world have no interests in this war. We must stand against Trump’s war for oil and military power.
Maduro’s regime is no friend to the working class. He has overseen a retreat from many of the radical steps of Chávez’s presidency, cutting deals with the Venezuelan capitalist class, repressing critics of the government (including socialists), and allowing rampant corruption. But the regime change that Trump seeks is not in the interests of the Venezuelan people. He supports empowering the far-right opposition in Venezuela, led by María Corina Machado, who refuses to condemn the U.S. military’s murder of Venezuelan citizens and the racist attacks on Latinos by ICE. The groundwork for abducting Venezuela’s president has been laid through decades of policy by both Democratic and Republican presidents, targeting first Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and now his successor Maduro.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez is poised to take charge in Maduro’s absence and has demanded “proof of life” from the U.S. government. Trump has announced that the U.S. will “run the country” until a new regime can be put into place, and is ready to stage a second and “much larger” attack against Venezuela if needed.
A right-wing regime coming to power in Venezuela will echo the horrific repression that the U.S.-backed Pinochet regime brought to Chile in the 1970s. It will mean brutal repression against the left, free-market “shock therapy” that will further worsen the living standards of Venezuelans, and collaboration with U.S. imperialism in South America.
Ahead of the current wave of military strikes in Venezuela, the Trump regime gave U.S. oil giant Chevron a license to restart oil production within Venezuela. Trump said in his announcement today, “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies – the biggest anywhere in the world – go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.”
The Independent Socialist Group (ISG) condemns the U.S. attacks on Venezuela and the Trump regime’s attempts to spread and strengthen U.S. imperialist repression and wars. Bloody U.S. military intervention offers no solutions for the crises facing the working class in Venezuela, in the U.S., or around the world.
- We need mass protests against the murder, sanctions, and military attacks on Venezuela. No Kings protestors, unions, pro-immigrant/anti-ICE, progressive community groups, etc., need to get in the streets against Trump and turn to protesting against this oil grab and assault on the Venezuelan people.
- Protect due process. End the ICE raids and deportations across the U.S. and summary executions by the Navy. Get U.S. military forces out of Venezuela and the region. Bring the troops home now.
- Lift harmful sanctions that only serve to starve the Venezuelan people.
- Prosecute Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and the Trump Regime for war crimes.
- End U.S. weapons sales and support for anti-worker governments, including Argentina, El Salvador, Panama, Egypt, Israel, etc.
- Both corporate parties support U.S. imperialism and unlimited billions for the U.S. military. We need to drastically cut the military budget and move beyond supporting either political party of militarism and war for the big corporations.
- We need to organize a workers’ party to have an alternative to the corporate, pro-war politics of the Republican and Democratic parties. Independent working class politics and building a revolutionary socialist movement will be the only way to stop the endless wars that capitalism and imperialism use to maintain their rule.
Independent Socialist Group 