An initial comment by Internationalist Standpoint
The unprovoked US military attack on Caracas, as well as the kidnapping of the country’s elected president Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, followed by criminal prosecutions against them (for drug trafficking, criminal organization, etc.), are causing shock and anger throughout the world.
This is the culmination of the aggression that has been manifested by the US imperialism under administration of Donald Trump, throughout the recent period against the country, under the pretext of the alleged war on drugs, which includes attacks on fishing boats, during which over a hundred Venezuelan citizens have been killed in recent months.
It is also a move which adds another front to a planet of conflicts, instability, antagonisms and wars. Just a few weeks ago, the US bombed Nigeria, while in recent days it has again threatened Iran, this time under the pretext of the safety of protesters taking to the streets against the country’s regime.
All this, of course, while within the US itself, protests are being met with extreme police repression, arrests and violence. The arguments about drug traffickers cannot convince anyone who follows international news seriously. The Trump administration itself has not presented convincing evidence about the alleged danger that the Venezuelan drug cartel poses to the US. On the contrary, according to data from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, both the production and the drug trafficking networks that reach the US from South America are mainly based in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia.
Not coincidentally, just a few hours after the removal of N. Maduro from the country, Trump declared that the US would undertake a strong role in the country’s oil industry – something that seems to be much closer to the real motives of the attack.
Faced with the blatant violation of any concept of democracy and respect for the independence of other nation states by the Trump administration, US allies are watching indifferently. The EU is calling for “self-restraint” and countries like France, the UK and Spain are talking in general terms about the need for de-escalation and respect for international law. These were the same powers that a few years ago, after Russia’s attack on Ukraine, went so far as to ban even Russian works of art within their countries, and of course spend exorbitant amounts of money to strengthen the Ukrainian army.
The next day in Venezuela is full of uncertainties. Everything indicates that the US will try to install a puppet government in the country, which will facilitate their access to its wealth-producing sources and will set the “example” of cooperation, instead of that of resistance to the plans of imperialism – something that for a long time was embodied by the Chavez and Maduro governments, especially the former, despite the serious deficits and inadequacies in their policies, combined with corruption and bureaucracy. Whether Trump’s US imperialism will achieve its immediate goals is doubtful. In the long term, however, their policies are certainly doomed to failure.
Practical international solidarity in the struggles of the Venezuelan people, against imperialism, for independence for their democratic and national rights and a for dignified life is more necessary today than ever.
Workers everywhere must stand with the working class and poor of Venezuela in their struggle against US imperialism and its allies and for their democratic and national rights. The struggle must not just be against the US military intervention but for genuine democratic socialism in Venezuela and across the continent.
