Stop imperialist aggression against Venezuela. Trump’s troops out of the Caribbean and Latin America!
Joint statement of October 3, 2025 in Caracas by six left-wing organizations denouncing US imperialism while continuing to oppose the anti-worker policies of the Maduro government. It was signed by
Homeland for All/Popular Revolutionary Alliance (PPT/APR)
The US has deployed warships, surveillance aircraft, helicopters, and special operations troops in the southern Caribbean Sea and openly targeted our country under the pretext of the “war on drugs.” This is a military deployment that opens the door to possible armed intervention by the US.
The goal of this military deployment is to reaffirm that Latin America is the “backyard” of US capitalism, to renew its dominance in the region in the face of competition from other capitalist powers such as Russia and, above all, China. Through militaristic threat, Donald Trump is bringing back “gunboat diplomacy” to subdue our peoples, and this is what looms over Venezuela and other countries on our continent.
Trump is not only responsible for imposing sanctions to pursue his goals of imperialist domination in our country, but also for the most brutal contempt and criminal treatment of Venezuelan immigrant working families in the US, in addition to the recent murder of several people in attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea.
Sectors of the right-wing opposition, such as that led by Trump supporter María Corina Machado, support this new imperialist aggression against Venezuela, just as they have supported economic sanctions and constantly called for the US to invade our country.
Confronting the external aggression of a government as reactionary as Trump’s is in the interests of the working class and the vast popular majority in our country. We, the signatories of this statement, conceive of the defense of our national interests in an active, organized manner, independent of the Maduro government and the bosses’ opposition, which allows us to understand the role that the US plays globally and what its predatory interests are.
For the left-wing organizations that call for the repudiation of this aggression by the US, this in no way implies endorsing the Maduro government; on the contrary, we reject it and openly confront it. We believe that in the face of the repressive and anti-worker policies that Maduro brutally unleashes against the working and poor people, only the Venezuelan working people have the duty of settling accounts with him, not any imperialist power.
But state repression and the violation of the fundamental rights of workers and the popular sectors is not the best way to stand up to a possible foreign invasion. With wages below a dollar a month and the imprisonment of critical voices and those who protest, we believe that this actually facilitates the work of US imperialism. To confront imperialism, workers and the people need the fullest freedom of action and organization. <>
The Ukrainian Social Movement's stand on Trump's imperialist kidnapping of Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife:
Standpunt van mijn Oekraïense vrienden en vriendinnen van Соціальний рух (Sociale Beweging) over de Amerikaanse agressie tegen Venezuela. (Vertaling uit het Oekraïens met Deepl)
What is wrong with US aggression against Venezuela? – Social Movement
The morning of 3 January marks the beginning of a widespread attack on democracy and the relative peace of the peoples of Latin America – and far beyond.
The events in Venezuela, where US military operations led to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and the declaration of a state of emergency with mobilisation, are yet another manifestation of the escalating imperialist confrontation, the consequences of which will be felt by millions of people across the continent.
The actions of Donald Trump's administration cannot be viewed as an isolated incident or a ‘forced response’ to the crisis. As before – from the bombing of small vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific Oceans to the sanctions blockade – this is a demonstration of the United States' power and complete readiness to use violence without trial, investigation or any regard for international law. Pretexts such as the fight against drug trafficking and cartels are used to legitimise aggression. Until recently, the majority of drug precursors were produced in China. The share of drug trafficking through Venezuela is negligible compared to other countries in the region and sea routes.
Excuses about fighting against the ‘drug cartel-linked leadership’ seem particularly cynical in light of Trump's recent amnesty of former Honduran President Hernández from an American prison – he was sentenced to a long term for involvement in cocaine trafficking, but was released to help his allies in the last election. As in the case of the ‘fight against terrorism,’ the real goal is not protection, but control over oil and mineral resources and the establishment of a regime loyal to Washington.
At the same time, it is necessary to call a spade a spade: Nicolas Maduro's regime is authoritarian, repressive and deeply corrupt. It has nothing to do with socialist democracy, hiding behind the legacy of Hugo Chavez and Bolivarian rhetoric. Along with the devastating US sanctions, it is the Maduro government's policies that are responsible for the economic collapse, social catastrophe, extrajudicial killings, malnutrition and mass emigration of millions of Venezuelans. The Maduro leadership has nullified the achievements of the mass movements and social programmes of the Chávez era, instead discrediting left-wing ideas in the region. Parasitising on the population, the regime is sustained by the security forces, restrictions on freedoms and external support, primarily from Russia.
The Kremlin has become one of Caracas' key allies in maintaining its authoritarian model of government. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has visited Venezuela on numerous occasions, including in April 2023, as part of a tour of Brazil, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba aimed at mobilising political support for Russia's war against Ukraine. Although not as notorious as Daniel Ortega, the traitor of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, President Maduro declared his ‘full support’ for Russia from the very beginning of the full-scale invasion, and state institutions and the media actively promoted the Kremlin's interpretation of events.
However, it would be a grave mistake to equate the Maduro regime with Venezuelan society.
Despite widespread propaganda, most Venezuelans did not accept pro-Russian narratives. In the early days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, people took to the streets to protest against the aggression – in a country where demonstrations are regularly criminalised and dispersed. Venezuelans carried Ukrainian flags, chanted ‘Stop Putin’ and openly criticised their government's alliance with the Kremlin.
This solidarity with Ukraine has deep roots. Since the days of Euromaidan, many Venezuelans have seen the Ukrainian struggle as close and understandable – a struggle against corrupt authorities, external control and authoritarianism. Sympathy for Ukraine stems not only from anti-war sentiments, but also from a rejection of foreign influence, which is crucial to the survival of Maduro's regime, as well as that of Vladimir Putin – both of whom are under investigation by the International Criminal Court.
Since 1999, Ukraine and Venezuela have been building friendly relations, which began under Ukrainian Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk, who was received by then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. It is noteworthy that José David Chaparro, the Venezuelan consul in Russia during Chávez's time, joined the International Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine in 2022 and was involved in rebuilding cities destroyed by Russian troops.
That is why the current US aggression cannot be justified even by criticism of Maduro. By proclaiming in its recent National Security Strategy its desire to return Latin America and the Caribbean to the role of a subordinate ‘backyard’ in the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine, American imperialism seeks to ‘clean up’ the region of any regimes that do not fit in with its economic and geopolitical interests, while at the same time strengthening the far-right forces.
The isolation of Colombia's progressive government and threats to a similar government in Mexico, the strengthening of an alliance with the far-right regime in Argentina at the expense of American taxpayers, support for neo-fascist revanchists in Brazil led by Jair Bolsonaro, and the use of Bukele's notorious mega-prison in El Salvador to hold deportees from the United States are all part of a single strategy to restore Washington's hegemony in Latin America.
It is significant that during Trump's previous term, Venezuelan affairs were overseen by the same Elliot Abrams who was responsible for training, during the Reagan era, the ‘death squads’ of anti-communist dictatorships that carried out more than 90% of the crimes of civil wars in Central American states, such as the murder of about a thousand residents of the village of Mosote in El Salvador.
An externally imposed ‘regime change’ will only deepen the social catastrophe. Like Trump's racist policy towards Venezuelan refugees, this war is a continuation of a policy of contempt for human life. Even if there are no immediate mass casualties (the 1989 invasion by US Marines to remove the dictator and drug trafficker Noriega, who until recently had been a CIA client in the fight against revolutionary movements in the region, resulted in at least hundreds of civilian deaths), external destabilisation will result in further internal turmoil.
In addition, the potential rise to power of the ‘Trumpist’ wing of the opposition poses a danger. Just as Maduro is a caricature of socialism, the ultra-right and ultra-capitalist course of María Corina Machado is a caricature of the democratic movement. After receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, she emphasised in every way possible that she would prefer to give it to Trump and would support his intervention against her own country. In contrast, the left-wing opposition to Madurism, which is increasingly attracting disillusioned former supporters of the Bolivarian revolution, emphasises the unacceptability of a military scenario and the fact that the fate of Venezuela should be decided by Venezuelans themselves, not by imperialist leaders.
The struggle against Maduro's dictatorship and the struggle against American imperialism are not mutually exclusive. These are two sides of the same conflict, in which nations become hostages to geopolitical games. That is why today we must speak of solidarity with the people of Venezuela – the same solidarity that Venezuelans showed towards Ukraine in its resistance to Russian aggression.
The people of Venezuela are fighting against the imperialist yoke and are hostages of Maduro's predatory regime.
I'm guessing US intelligence had determined where Maduro was and headed in there with helicopter strike forces.
But it's not clear this will actually capture the country as Trump thinks when he says he'll "run the country." Any attempt at mass US boots on the ground operation is likely to see resistance from the military and militia -- at least there is a good chance of this. A snatch and grab with helicopters is one thing, controlling the country is something else. And if they try to impose the right wing opposition leader, that will undermine her. They've always mouthed talk of "democracy" but being imposed by US military is far away from that.
It's obviously a blatantly illegal action. Moreover, the turmoil is likely to lead to increased migration. Colombia has already beefed up its border patrol for this reason.
It's a "carry a big stick" Teddy Roosevelt 19th century style of imperialism. It might beef up right wing governments in Chile and Argentina, or so the leaders might think, but it's going to be an unpopular action in Latin America and could undermine those governments in reality.
The motivation is given as stopping drug traffic but that is fake. It's partly about oil -- and Trump's fixation on the US being a petrostate. Partly it's a distraction from his rapidly dropping poll numbers.
Ev Kaye
Trump doesnt seem to be leaning into mass boots on the ground either today, or in preceding months. It was pretty obvious today thta they didnt have a clue as to what kind of leadership on the ground was to replace Maduro, in partiuclar what kind of civilian figure they would concoct as part of the face of a regime that would basically survive on military might behind it. (like they hoped for wiht Guaido in 2014)
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My speculation is that Trump and his cronies think that they can strong-arm Delcy Rodriguez into being their proxy and they plan to run the country through her. They have ditched Machado because she is too risky. They think that the bolibourgeoisie can be persuaded to become their junior partner and that way they won't loose their privileges and this will be an easy way to get to the oil. And also, I think that Trump has in mind trading control over Venezuela with Putin getting control over eastern Ukraine and that way Trump will sell Ukraine out soon.