“Now more than ever, we must build solidarity with Venezuela and Cuba – demanding US Hands Off Latin America and peace across the region.”
By Matt Willgress
Donald Trump’s attack on Venezuela and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro on January 3 marked a dangerous and deadly escalation in Washington’s long-running campaign against the Venezuelan people.
This is an ongoing war for Venezuela’s oil — the largest proven oil reserves in the world, and the attacks followed the seizure of numerous tankers carrying Venezuelan oil.
It is also the first step in a new strategy to turn the whole of Latin America back into a US colony, seeking to reassert total domination in the region.
It’s already clear, less than two months later, that if Trump gets his way in the international arena, this will not stop with Venezuela. Trump is not only threatening to bomb Venezuela again unless it submits to US demands, but he is openly threatening Colombia, Mexico, and Cuba, among others.
The latter in particular has been in Trump’s sights since the deadly attack on Venezuela, with a new ‘Executive Order’ against the revolutionary island aiming at an even greater tightening of the US’ deadly and illegal blockade. Before this, Cuba has also been re-added to the ridiculous (yet extremely dangerous) so-called ‘State Sponsors of Terrorism’ list.
On the left, and across the peace and labour movements, it is vital that we understand that whilst the bombing of Venezuela marks a dangerous new phase, the war on Venezuela itself is not new.
In fact, for more than 25 years, since the first election of Hugo Chávez at the turn of the century, the country has faced US-backed coups, destabilisation, economic sanctions, and violent far-right opposition campaigns to restore the old order that served US interests.
Hugo Chávez was elected on – and carried out as part of a radical transformation of the country – the promise to take back control of Venezuela’s oil and use it to fund social programmes in healthcare, education, housing, and poverty reduction.
Venezuela also worked to challenge Washington’s long-standing treatment of Latin America as its “backyard,” including through the work of the ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America) bloc.
On the global stage, it became – and has continued ever since to be – a vocal voice for the Palestinian people, expelling the Israeli Ambassador and speaking up for justice again and again. Venezuela also fiercely opposed the illegal wars on Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.
In the eyes of the United States, these were the real “crimes” committed by the Venezuelan people – and this why the US has repeatedly sought to overthrow the government of President Chávez and later of Nicolás Maduro, who was first elected in 2013 to carry on this work, and has faced ever-greater, murderous economic sanctions aimed at isolating and collapsing the country’s economy.
Britain has fully supported this agenda, including through the Bank of England holding billions of pounds worth of Venezuelan gold, which could be used to help the people of Venezuela.
This war against Venezuela continues, and the jailing of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, fellow United Socialist Party of Venezuela leading figure Celia Flores, is a particularly clear illustration of that.
Now more than ever, we must build solidarity with Venezuela (including for the safe return of Nicolás Maduro) and Cuba – demanding US Hands Off Latin America and peace across the region.
- You can join the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign here.
- Join VSC’s online Voices from Venezuela meeting on Tuesday 3rd March 6:30pm. You can find out more information about the meeting and register here.
- Thanks to Louise, Lee and the VSC Volunteer team for providing much of the information used in this column.
- The Red Weekly Column will appear regularly on Labour Outlook from one of our regular socialist contributors.
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