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‘The Imperialist Offensive is Nothing New for the Bolivarian Revolution’: A Conversation with Ana Maldonado

Cira Pascual Marquina

[Oct 24, 2025: In recent months, Washington has stepped up its military presence in the Caribbean, sending warships, aircraft, and even a nuclear submarine to waters near Venezuela amid extrajudicial attacks on fishing vessels. For many, this new phase of aggression is all too familiar–part of a decades-long campaign of hybrid warfare designed to undermine Venezuela’s sovereignty.

In this context, Cira Pascual Marquina spoke with Ana Maldonado, a sociologist, international relations coordinator for the Francisco de Miranda Front—a national Chavista movement—and member of the Venezuelan chapter of ALBA Movements. In this interview, Maldonado offers her perspective on how Venezuelans are experiencing the latest imperialist escalation, reflects on the country’s long resistance to hybrid war, and situates the current threat within the broader struggle for sovereignty in Latin America and the Caribbean.]

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Cira Pascual Marquina: How are the Venezuelan people experiencing this new imperialist escalation?

Ana Maldonado: President Nicolás Maduro has said that in this scenario of maximum pressure, our response must be maximum preparation. At the same time, he has called on us to combine vigilance with calm, to continue our daily lives, and to defend the peace with social justice that has cost us so much to build and preserve.

You can see this clearly in the fact that, even amid the current military escalation, the new school year began normally across the country. More than 20,000 educational institutions opened their doors without disruption, and over six million children and youth returned to class, as they do every year around this time.

While we are indeed facing a serious threat of war, people are also carrying on with their everyday lives and that, in itself, is a victory, since the enemy seeks precisely to disrupt our life.

CPM: People abroad are often surprised to learn that daily routines here continue undisturbed and that Venezuelans are not living in a state of panic. How do you explain this?

AM: This is far from our first encounter with imperialist aggression. The tactics may shift, but the strategy remains unchanged: hybrid warfare. For years, U.S. imperialism and its allies have waged a relentless campaign against Venezuela, beginning in earnest in April 2002 with the coup d’état and the people’s heroic counteroffensive that restored democracy. That was followed by the oil sabotage, mercenary incursions, and global media campaigns against our democracy.

After Comandante Chávez passed in 2013, a new and sustained period of aggression began. Initially, they bet that we would fail to hold peaceful elections or that President Maduro would never be elected. The dominant narrative was “Maduro is not Chávez.” With that simplistic argument, they sought to demoralize the Chavista social base, implying that the Bolivarian project would not withstand the loss of the Comandante. Yet we won the elections and, even as we mourned Chávez, the project continued.

But the U.S. and their local agents were determined not to let us go on with our revolution. In 2014, the opposition launched a violent campaign called “La Salida” [The Exit], led by Voluntad Popular and María Corina Machado, the same factions now openly calling for foreign intervention. The following year, the United States took another war-like step: Obama’s 2015 executive order declaring Venezuela an “unusual and extraordinary threat.”

That decree was followed by the 2016 economic strangulation, marked by deliberate shortages aimed at making everyday life unbearable. Ten years later, we remain under a blockade that has killed tens of thousands.

In 2017, the most extreme factions of the opposition returned to the streets with fascist violence, committing atrocities such as the burning alive of a young Black man, Orlando Figuera, targeted simply for looking like a Chavista. More than 100 people were killed during this period of intensified fascist terror.

President Maduro responded by calling for a National Constituent Assembly, once again raising the banner of peace and democracy in the face of fascist violence. People from all sectors, including residents of middle-class neighborhoods whose polling centers had been attacked, were able to vote in peace at the Poliedro de Caracas.

Since then, we’ve lived through multiple phases of hybrid war: Juan Guaidó’s self-proclamation as “interim president” in 2019 and the “Battle of the Bridges,” when the opposition attempted to stage a false-flag operation on the Colombian border under the guise of a humanitarian aid effort. That was followed by massive blackouts that left the country in darkness for days and the 2020 Operation Gideon, recently further exposed in a Max Blumenthal interview with its U.S. organizer, Jordan Goudreau, a former Green Beret.

None of these were isolated incidents: they are coordinated fronts in a sustained hybrid war combining political, psychological, economic, and military aggression.

Yet, in each of these moments, the government and the organized pueblo have responded effectively. During the 2019 electrical sabotage, for example, communities mobilized to ensure access to water and basic needs, while Operation Gideon was defeated by the same fisherfolk who are now being attacked in the Southern Caribbean.

So, to return to your original question: yes, people are alert because the threat is real, but we are also seasoned and organized. We know we are capable of defending the Revolution with unity and discipline. We are in a phase of maximum preparation, with millions voluntarily enrolling in the militia and preparing for the defense of the Patria [homeland].

CPM: Indeed, people are not only enlisting in the Bolivarian Militia but also preparing collectively. You’ve given us a historical account of the attacks faced by the Bolivarian Revolution over the past 25 years. But as we know, the current military buildup in the Caribbean is not only against Venezuela: it is an attack on the continent. How do you understand its broader implications?

AM: The imperialist onslaught on the Caribbean is nothing new. Haiti, still punished today for its revolution more than two centuries ago, remains under siege. Now, armed gangs tied to the Dominican Republic are also involved. Puerto Rico continues to endure capitalist dispossession, with five million Puerto Ricans now living in the U.S. while barely three million remain on the island. All the while, revolutionary Cuba has faced a brutal blockade for many decades.

However, the recent imperialist military buildup should deeply concern the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, since it signals a shift in Washington’s military policy. Around 10,000 U.S. troops are currently stationed in the Caribbean, mainly in Puerto Rico, to say nothing of the destroyers, nuclear submarine, and air force deployments.

They are not there only to threaten Venezuela; this is the revival of the Monroe Doctrine. As Trump once said, “Why pay for Venezuelan oil, if we can just take it?” That’s how they think about the resources of the continent.

When it comes to Venezuela, beyond seizing our resources, the U.S. also aims to strip away our sovereignty and destroy the example that we represent. If our project succeeds, it will inspire the entire continent. From Canada to Patagonia, people are struggling for liberation, and the Bolivarian Revolution represents a living example of how that can be done.

Attacking Venezuela serves two purposes: to loot our resources and to extinguish the example of participatory democracy. Since 2021, Venezuela has experienced renewed economic growth and the strengthening of its communes and popular power.

That is precisely what Washington wants to halt: they fear that the peoples of Latin America, and even within the United States, will draw inspiration from our experience.

CPM: Why the military escalation at this particular moment?

AM: Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” is itself an admission of decline. The U.S. is no longer what it once was, and its elites are desperate to recover lost ground. Yet even within those elites, fractures abound between the neoconservatives, the Zionist zealots, and the MAGA bloc. Their internal contradictions often produce erratic foreign policy decisions.

However, on one point they all agree: war is profitable. The military-industrial complex remains central to sustaining the U.S. economy. So even amid domestic tensions, there is a bipartisan consensus around war as business.

Before the recent attacks on Venezuelan vessels, President Maduro warned that they might attempt to recreate a Gulf of Tonkin incident, because their hunger for war is insatiable. He was right: this aggression is ultimately driven by the economic imperative of feeding the war machine. In a post-Cold War world, it survives through perpetual “hot wars”—and what better front than Venezuela, which is rich in resources and defiant of imperial domination?

CPM: Let’s close with Chávez. He declared the Bolivarian Revolution anti-imperialist in 2004, but in truth, it always had a sovereign and anti-imperialist character. Could you reflect on Chávez’s anti-imperialism?

AM: Indeed. The formal declaration came during a historic rally at the Botanical Garden in 2004, but the Revolution was Bolivarian from the start, and Bolívar himself was profoundly anti-imperialist. He warned that the United States seemed “destined by Providence to plague the Americas with misery in the name of liberty.” That same spirit lives in our revolution since day one.

Chávez revived Bolívar’s anti-imperialist legacy as early as 1977, when he created the People’s Army for the Liberation of Venezuela, whose founding document enshrined Bolivarianism and anti-imperialism as guiding principles. Later, in The Blue Book [1991], he outlined the vision of sovereignty and dignity that still guides us. President Maduro calls that text a “historical compass” pointing us steadfastly, no matter how much we have to maneuver, toward our strategic goal: the defense of sovereignty and the rejection of imperial domination.

For us, being anti-imperialist means not only refusing to surrender our resources, but also defending our identity, our dignity, and our very being. The empire’s elites belong nowhere; they want the world to belong to them. We, by contrast, define ourselves by belonging to a land, to a pueblo, and to a history.

That is why even symbolic aggressions, such as the attempt to erase “Bolivarian” from the Republic’s name during the 2002 coup, or mocking us as “venecos” in an attempt to erase our identity, are part of the war.

CPM: Bolivarianism and anti-imperialism are also deeply rooted in your organization, the Frente Francisco de Miranda. Can you tell us about it?

AM: Indeed. In 2003, Fidel and Chávez founded the Frente Francisco de Miranda as a movement of Bolivarian, anti-imperialist social workers. However, anti-imperialism isn’t limited to my organization; it’s in the bloodstream of millions of Venezuelans who have resisted International Monetary Fund impositions since 1989 and continue defending the Bolivarian project today.

To be Chavista is to be anti-imperialist. Chávez was the first Latin American president to recognize Palestine, to support the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, and to speak of our historical debt to Haiti. His backing of these and other liberation struggles was not just a matter of words but also about material support. He also linked the defense of Haiti to a history that, for him, didn’t begin with Pétion and Dessalines, but with Hatuey, the first known hero of an anti-colonial Caribbean rebellion.

That is our Chávez—the anti-imperialist Chávez—whose legacy continues to guide us!

[Cira Pascual Marquina is Political Science Professor at the Universidad de Bolivariana de Venezuela in Caracas and is staff writer for Venezuelanalysis.com. Courtesy: Venezuelanalysis, an independent website produced by individuals who are dedicated to disseminating news and analysis about the current political situation in Venezuela.]

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The Militias Make Venezuela Impregnable: Padrino Lopez

Courtesy: teleSUR Desk

Oct 29, 2025: On Sunday, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez confirmed that the Bolivarian militias are ready to defend Venezuelan territory against any external threat.

“Venezuela has definitely become an impregnable territory. From every physical space, the militiamen, with their missions and assigned weapons, make our nation an impregnable homeland,” he said.

“If something has developed during these 10 weeks of preparation, it has precisely been the Bolivarian Militia,” Padrino Lopez emphasized, describing it as Venezuela’s “strategic weapon.”

“The Militia continues its preparation throughout the national territory–today on the coasts and in the mountains, tomorrow on the rivers and in the plains, and wherever necessary,” he added.

Currently, 6.2 million citizens are enlisted in the Militia as part of the comprehensive defense system that President Nicolas Maduro’s government has been implementing.

On Oct. 24, Padrino Lopez said the country continues to prepare for a military deployment that is getting closer each day to Venezuela’s coasts. He also reaffirmed that Venezuelan troops remain “unbreakable, determined, and firmly committed to defending every inch” of the territory.

He made these remarks after the Pentagon announced the deployment of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to Caribbean waters. The ship joined the contingent the Pentagon has had stationed in the Caribbean since the summer, citing anti-narcotics operations as its mission.

The U.S. mobilization includes three amphibious assault and transport ships, F-35B fighter jets, P-8 patrol aircraft, and MQ-9 drones operating from a base in Puerto Rico.

On Sunday, the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Gravely arrived in Trinidad and Tobago to conduct several days of military exercises. Since last Thursday, members of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, along with militiamen and police units, have been deployed along the country’s coasts for 72-hour drills.

[Telesur is a Latin American terrestrial and satellite news television network headquartered in Caracas, Venezuela and sponsored by the governments of Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba and Nicaragua. It was launched in 2005, under the government of Hugo Chávez, promoted as “a Latin socialist answer to CNN”.]

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Interview: Venezuela’s Militias and the Civil-Military Union

Ria Evelyn

[Current US aggression against Venezuela is an attempt to force regime change under the guise of ‘fighting narco-terrorism’.

In recent months the US has: egregiously bombed several boats in the Caribbean, killing dozens of people; has placed a $50m bounty on the head of democratically-elected President Nicolas Maduro; has terminated diplomacy with Venezuela; has stationed close to 10,000 military personnel, a nuclear powered attack submarine, F-35 fighter jets and military helicopters in the Caribbean close to Venezuelan territory and has hinted at a ground invasion of Venezuela. On 15 October the US military confirmed it has drawn up plans for potential strikes inside Venezuela and most recently the Trump administration’s war drive has expanded to include Colombia as Colombian President Gustavo Petro refuses to work with the US to destroy the Bolivarian Revolution.

Venezuela is ready and prepared to resist an escalation in the imperialist aggression it has faced since it launched its Bolivarian Revolution in 1999. Carmen Melendez, mayor of Caracas, declared ‘if [the US] dares [to invade] we’ll be waiting for them here […] and we will use all of the weapons we have to defend the homeland’, while Vice President Delcy Rodriguez vowed that ‘we will never hand over our homeland’. Maduro is activating defence strategies in zones across the country as part of the 27-task ‘Independence Plan 200’ and the National Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela are ready to mobilise to safeguard the country’s borders and protect key infrastructure.

In Venezuela it is not just the armed forces who are ready to defend national sovereignty. Nine million Venezuelans across the country, out of a population of 28 million, make up a people’s militia united with the armed forces, armed and organised to defend their homeland and Revolution from imperialist attack. This example of a civilian population working hand-in-hand with their armed forces as a unitary force is one of the many remarkable examples of participatory democracy in Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution.

Armando Urgelles, a member of the Bolivarian militia, 5th special component of the Bolivarian Armed Forces, and member of Venezuela’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela, spoke from Caracas to Ria Evelyn from Red Spark. In the below interview he outlines the historical roots and ideological basis of the civil-military union, how it is structured, how it practically functions and how it is preparing for invasion.]

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Red Spark: What is the ideological basis of the militias?

Armando: The ideological basis of our militias is rooted in anti-colonial struggle. Resistance to Spanish conquest in the 16th century was led by Aboriginal peoples. The form of social organisation of our indigenous peoples was not a pyramid-type hierarchical order with a single chief – we had many chiefs – so Spanish colonisers found they could not dismantle the entire social, political and military structures of our society by killing the head of a pyramid. Our chiefs organised resistance, including the great indigenous leaders Great Cacique Guaicaipuro and Great Cacia Uriquia, forming liberation movements which continued until the independence era.

Then we were given our most well-known heroes: Liberator Simon Bolivar and Fransisco de Miranda, precursors of independence and ideologues of Panamericana. They gave rise to the beginning of our independence from Spanish rule in the 19th century and promoted resistance to be fought by general militias made up from the people themselves. At first these militias were largely made up of the white Creoles, but as the fight for independence deepened the entire population unified without discrimination to beat the brutal royalist forces. Bolivar and the people’s militia achieved liberation in our part of the region with the decisive Battle of Carabobo. The Liberator decided they must continue to carry the campaign south to free this entire region from the Spanish in order to guarantee full independence and sovereignty. Two thirds of our population died fighting the Spanish Empire. We must also mention Ezequiel Zamorana, who led the peasant insurrection 1859-1863.

With these emancipatory examples, when Commander Hugo Rafael Chavez came to power he was inspired to replace the military doctrine imposed on us by the gringos with a Bolivarian model as part of the 1999 Constitution. This is based on a model where various territories within Venezuela have independent social organisation, but each has a defence strategy which integrates for total territorial defence.

Article 322 of our constitution establishes that the state is responsible for the security of the nation. But it also establishes that defence is a shared responsibility between the State and civil society. Private or public entities that are part of this territory have the duty to defend it. Article 326 outlines that the shared responsibilities of the military and civil population in defence of the nation includes in political, economic, social, cultural, geographic and environmental spheres. Our population must be prepared in all these areas, including the military, of course, to defend the nation, sovereignty, independence and our freedom.

This gives the militia a revolutionary patriotic ideological formation and keeps our morale high. We understand that we must rise up and continue to advance on our historical roots of our indigenous resistance leaders, the Liberator Simon Bolivar, General Fransisco de Miranda and Zamorana.

RS: How are the militias organised?

A: The militias are organised on three levels to ensure the total defence of the territory. First, on the local level we use the territorial methodology of the Local Supply and Production committee (CLAP) networks to organise (the CLAP network ensures every family in need receives food packages while we are subject to this economic siege and blockade). Then, several local units come together to form Popular Units of Integral Defence. Finally, Popular Units of Integral Defence come together to form the Integral Defence Popular Bases (IDPB) which are based within parishes and relate to voting areas.

To enlist in the militia, you must speak to the commander of the IDPB you would operate within. The commanders of these units are deployed by the National Bolivarian Armed Forces, so you can see the unitary force of the people and the Army.

Every week we participate in revolutionary patriotic training which includes theory and political education to learn about our history, our roots, our struggles. Having this understanding of our national identity is what motivates a militia member to defend ourselves and our territories, our homes, our families, our history, our geography.

RS: What is the relationship between the Bolivarian Armed Forces and the civil militias?

A: The relationship that exists is one of unity. The civic-military union is one in which the professional Bolivarian Armed Forces, high-ranking officers graduated from military universities, whether from the Army Air Force or the Navy, perfectly integrate with the Bolivarian Militia.

In order to develop some strategies of defence and resistance against the enemy, the relationship that exists is a harmonious one, a relationship of brotherhood. It’s not like in countries where the bourgeoisie dominates, where the armed forces are practically an occupying force against the interests of the population.

RS: How are the militias preparing to defend Venezuela from attack?

A: Any man or woman above the age of 18 can be a member of the Venezuelan militia. We have grown so much recently, from four million to nine million in less than two months. But how did we even have four million people in the militias? Because of the crucial role the militias have had in supporting the process of profound transformations that we are experiencing in Venezuela in the Bolivarian Revolution. People join voluntarily out of a desire to build a new, caring, peace-loving society. And recently we have grown much more rapidly in response to the threats from Donald Trump against our sovereignty in independence, with a series of unfounded accusations about Venezuela regarding drug trafficking. We know that the largest producer and exporter of cocaine is Colombia and we know that fentanyl is produced in high-tech, non-clandestine laboratories, mainly by pharmaceutical companies located in the United States, Canada or Mexico.

It just so happens that Venezuela has many critical and strategic minerals for the functioning of the capitalist system. It is common knowledge that we have the largest oil reserves in the world. We have almost four hundred billion barrels of oil under this soil, without counting what may be in the territorial sea that is not fully accounted for. We also have huge reserves of gold, copper and coltan. We have fresh water, a river, one of the largest reserves of fresh water, we have biodiversity and fertile land. Venezuela is a country of strategic geographical importance. The materials we have are necessary to keep the dominant capitalist system functioning.

So, in the face of this threat, our militias are prepared and we have very high morale. Just as the militias are prepared for civil duties, we are prepared in the strategic concept of permanent war. We understand the necessity of resistance, of the people in arms and of providing material and logistical support to the entire resistance effort of the armed struggle. We are constantly training in the tactical methods of revolutionary resistance and training in different disciplines of combat so that we can mesh with other combatants in other areas. The militias are prepared, organised and trained to be able to execute any type of manoeuvre in order to resist any attempt to desecrate Venezuelan sovereignty.

We will defend our homeland. If we must resist for 50 years, or 100 years, we will do it and we will resist with everything we have at hand. We will not surrender our homeland to any imperialist power.

[Source: Red Spark, an Australian socialist group.]

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Facing U.S. Military Aggression, Venezuela Launches Simón Bolívar International Brigades

Courtesy: Orinoco Tribune

October 27, 2025: On Friday, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced that Venezuela will form an international volunteer brigade to confront any U.S. intervention or aggression. The statement was made during a meeting of the World Anti-Imperialist Platform.

“We have received proposals from all over Latin America and the Caribbean, from Asia, Africa, and from many other places. I have seen videos on social media from many people, social leaders, saying that they too are getting ready,” Maduro said.

He added that the international brigades, comprised of “men and women of the world,” would defend Venezuela’s sovereignty. President Maduro added that Washington is unleashing “a new eternal war,” commenting on the controversial U.S. deployment and aggressions in the Caribbean Sea, with 10 strikes on small boats that have already killed 43 civilians in actions labeled as extrajudicial killings by international experts.

The announcement responds to the unprecedented U.S. military campaign in the Caribbean, which Washington claims is part of the war on drugs. Since August, the U.S. has deployed eight warships, one nuclear submarine and, most recently, the USS Gerald R. Ford, its most advanced aircraft carrier.

Before the announcement of the aircraft carrier’s deployment, mainstream media reported that the number of U.S. troops deployed in the region was 10,000. This U.S. carrier is capable of housing 4,500 additional troops. It is on its way from the Mediterranean Sea to the Caribbean.

In response, the Venezuelan government has mobilized the Bolivarian Militia, enlisting 3 million more members to raise the number of this branch of the military to 8 million. Venezuela has also reinforced its borders and launched massive military drills to confront any U.S. attempt to enter its territory.

Venezuela has requested support from UN Secretary-General António Guterres in response to what analysts consider an unprecedented U.S. threat aimed at regime change in Venezuela, and the destabilization of the entire Latin American and Caribbean region.

The initiative for international support was previewed on October 13 by Secretary General of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) Diosdado Cabello. He said Venezuela would welcome support from people around the world to help defend the country from imminent U.S. military aggression.

Cabello’s statement was made during the party’s weekly press conference in response to a journalist’s question. The journalist inquired about President Maduro’s comments the previous day regarding an internationalist indigenous brigade, asking if the PSUV would organize general international brigades similar to those formed during the Spanish Civil War.

“If we have not publicly called for the peoples of the world to organize to defend our country, I take this opportunity to do so from this moment. From anywhere in the world, here is Venezuela, which is being attacked, and any help you can give us is welcome,” Cabello answered. “Here you will be received as brothers of life. Brothers of life. Love is repaid with love. That is what they say around here.”

Concluding his statements, Cabello revealed that military and police forces in the region, including countries currently controlled by far-right forces, have sent messages of full support in case of foreign aggression.

[Orinoco Tribune is an independent news outlet created in 2018 and specially designed to provide relevant progressive information about Venezuela or related to Venezuela.]

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Brazilian Workers Lead in Offering Solidarity to Venezuelans under US Attack

W.T. Whitney

October 27, 2025: Since August, U.S. warships, fighter planes, and troops have deployed in Caribbean waters off Venezuela and in Puerto Rico. Venezuela’s neighboring countries in Latin America and the Caribbean area are reacting variously. Many oppose U.S. aggression, but at a distance. Others are either non-committal or accepting.

Colombia and Brazil are backing Venezuela – or soon will be – in very different ways. Recent remarks of João Pedro Stédile, co-founder and a director of Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), warrant special attention.

U.S. attacks from the air have killed dozens of crew members of boats alleged to be carrying illicit drugs. U.S. accusations against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro that he is a top-level drug dealer, serve as pretext. The U.S. government now offers a $50 million reward for his capture. The allegation that he heads the drug-dealing Cartel de los Soles is false. The cartel doesn’t exist, according to a United Nations report. A U.S. coup plotter recently claimed the CIA created the cartel.

President Trump recently indicated the CIA would be operating inside Venezuela. It’s widely assumed that the U.S. government wants control of Venezuela’s oil and other resources and is contriving to remove a government heading towards socialism.

Venezuela’s government is training militia troops by the millions. Venezuelan defense minister Vladimir Padrino López announced on October 21 that Venezuela’s’ military will cooperate with Colombian counterparts to fight narcotrafficking. Relations between the two nations are quickly improving.

They had deteriorated after Colombia’s government backed accusations that Venezuela’s 2024 presidential elections were fraudulent. But on August 10, Colombian President Gustavo Petro stated on social media that, “Colombia and Venezuela are the same people, the same flag, the same history. Any military operation that does not have the approval of our sister countries is an act of aggression against Latin America and the Caribbean.” Petro recently announced the Colombian military will be sharing military intelligence with Venezuela.

U.S. vilification extends to Petro who, speaking at the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, condemned U.S. support of Israel’s war on Gaza and U.S. imperialism generally. He railed against the U.S. at a rally outside the UN Headquarters. In response, the U.S. government revoked his visa. Petro had previously refused to accept Colombian deportees sent handcuffed from the United States in a military plane.

International solidarity

On October 18, Petro accused the United States of killing a Colombian fisherman and violating Colombian sovereignty. Responding, President Trump called Petro “an illegal drug dealer … [who] does nothing to stop” drug production. He imposed import tariffs and suspended subsidies granted Colombia for drug-war activities. Petro recalled Colombia’s ambassador in Washington.

Colombia may be on Venezuela’s side, but that’s not clear with other countries in the region. Colombia, president pro tempore of the CELAC group of nations, arranged for a virtual meeting of CELAC foreign ministers to reach a common position. In 2014, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States – CELAC –had declared the entire region to be a “zone of peace.”

At the meeting taking place on September 1, representatives of the 23 CELAC nations present (out of 33) considered a general statement that filed to mention the U.S. -Venezuela confrontation. It expressed support for “principles such as: the abolition of the threat or use of force, the peaceful resolution of disputes, the promotion of dialogue and multilateralism, and unrestricted respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Most of the countries voting approved, but Argentina, Ecuador, Paraguay, Perú, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago did not.

Member nations of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America–Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) did condemn US military action in the Caribbean. The CARICOM group of Caribbean nations, meeting in late October, expressed support “for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries in the region,” again without reference to the United States and Venezuela. Trinidad and Tobago was an outlier: Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar insisted that, “I have no sympathy for traffickers; the US military should kill them all violently.”

Regional presidents spoke out against U.S. intervention, specifically: Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum; Honduras’s president Xiomara Castro, Daniel Ortega, co-president of Nicaragua, and Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Brazilian workers, especially those associated with Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) are taking matters into their own hands. Their leader João Pedro Stédile was interviewed October 16 on Rádio Brasil de Fato. He points out that:

“The United States has been threatening Venezuela for quite some time. The process was accelerated by the Trump administration, a mixture of madness and fascism. He thinks that, with brute force, he can overthrow the Maduro government and hand it over to María Corina [Machado] on a silver platter. Part of this tactic was awarding her the Nobel Prize …The United States is making a tragic mistake because it is basing its actions solely on information from the far right….

“Never before has the Maduro government had so much popular support … It is time for Lula’s government to take more decisive action and show more active solidarity with Venezuela.

“If the United States is exerting all this military pressure to try to recover Venezuela’s oil, and … [if] María Corina … comes to power after the invasion, her first act will be to privatize PDVSA [Petróleos de Venezuela] and hand over other Venezuelan resources—I imagine iron, aluminum, gold, which they have a lot of—to American companies for exploitation. …

“At this event I attended in Venezuela, the World Congress in Defense of Mother Earth, … we agreed … to organize, as soon as possible, internationalist brigades of activists from each of our countries to go to Venezuela and place ourselves at the disposal of the Venezuelan government and people.

“We want to repeat that historic epic that the global left achieved during the Spanish Civil War of 1936, when thousands of militants from around the world went to Spain to defend the Republic and the Spanish people.”

The MST webpage testifies to the class consciousness and anti-imperialism inspiring MST solidarity with the Venezuelans:

“Brazil’s Landless Worker’s Movement was born from the concrete, isolated struggles for land that rural workers were developing in southern Brazil at the end of the 1970’s. … Brazilian capitalism was not able to alleviate the existing contradictions that blocked progress in the countryside … Little by little, the MST began to understand that winning land was important, but not enough. They also need access to credit, housing, technical assistance, schools, healthcare and other needs that a landless family must have met…. the MST discovered that the struggle was not just against the Brazilian latifundio (big landowners), but also against the neoliberal economic model.”

The MST “is the largest social movement in Latin America with an estimated 1.5 million landless members organized in 23 out 27 states.”

Stédile himself articulates a rationale for calling the U.S. government to account. In a recent New Year’s greeting, he noted that, “The world and Brazil are experiencing serious crises, such as the structural crisis of capitalism, the environmental crisis and the crisis of the bankruptcy of states that are unable to solve the problems of the majority … A good 2024 to all Brazilian people!”

His recent interview with Monthly Review is revealing:

“The MST has drawn on two key concepts from the historical experience of the working class in general and campesinos in particular: mass struggle and solidarity.

“Our strength does not come from our arguments or ideas; it comes from the number of people we can mobilize … I believe there has been a process of integration and mutual learning among Venezuelans, Brazilians, and Latin Americans in general. … The MST … has promoted brigades in various countries … and a permanent brigade here in Venezuela.”

[W.T. Whitney Jr. is a retired pediatrician and political journalist living in Maine. Courtesy: CounterPunch, an online magazine based in the United States that covers politics in a manner its editors describe as “muckraking with a radical attitude”. It is edited by Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank.]