The imperialist escalation ordered by Trump against Venezuela continues to grow: it began with sanctions that harm the entire population and by putting a price on the heads of Venezuelan leaders. It continued with the deployment of a military air and naval blockade and moved on to the sinking of boats and the murder of their crews on charges of being “drug traffickers,” without any evidence or legal proceedings.

Since the end of November, he has imposed a “ban” on flights to and from the country, stablishing an air exclusion zone. He has expressed the will to launch armed actions on land and in the air (without specifying what kind) to act against alleged “drug” targets and against Maduro’s government, which he has described as “narco-terrorist,” and has given him an ultimatum to step down from power.

The threats and aggression of the US government are also affecting Colombia, with attacks on boats in the Pacific, and it has even warned Mexico, while imposing its own conditions in the Caribbean. Under the pretext of drug trafficking, Trump says he will take forward military action in any Latin American country, while seeking to install more military bases. The US government attempts to do so in Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands with Noboa’s government, which was rejected by a majority of the Ecuadorian people in a popular consultation.

The 3rd Congress of the International Socialist League strongly rejects the threats and interventionist aggressions of US imperialism. We speak out in defense of the national sovereignty of Venezuela and any Latin American or Caribbean nation against Trump’s actions, which aim to reinforce the neocolonial domination and control of the United States in the region, increase the exploitation of its resources, dictate political guidelines, and control what they consider their “backyard” in the geopolitical dispute with China and Russia.

Our anti-imperialist stance does not in any way imply support for Maduro’s government, which we oppose as revolutionary socialists since it is a bureaucratic-capitalist government with authoritarian, repressive, and anti-worker policies, as well as being illegitimate. The solution to the Venezuelan crisis will not come from the bourgeois opposition or from a US intervention, as it can only be forged from within the Venezuelan people and its working class, on condition that they reorganize, mobilize in unity of action, and recover their capacity to fight, with an authentic revolutionary leadership for power and the democratic and anti-capitalist transformation of the country together with the anti-imperialist struggle of all the Latin American peoples. We find it hypocritical that while the US blocks and militarily attacks Venezuela, Chevron Texaco continues to maintain its oil business in Venezuela with the authorization of both Maduro and Trump.

The policies of Maduro-Military-PSUV’s government have paved the way for the pro-imperialist right wing, while at the same time intensifying the super-exploitation of the working people. Instead of restoring the democratic freedoms and social rights taken away from the people, it deepens their hardships and intensifies repression, leading large sectors of society to be more concerned with the overthrowing of the government, by any means necessary, than with maintaining the integrity of the territory. Maduro’s government is not really preparing the people for resistance and the defense of national sovereignty, but rather encouraging the narrative of the pro-interventionist right wing.

For all these reasons, regarding the situation in Venezuela and the prelude to what could become a more direct imperialist intervention in Venezuela, we resolve:

1. To condemn the murderous attacks ordered by Trump against Venezuelan and Colombian vessels and citizens. To reject the threats and aggressions of Trump’s government against Venezuela, as well as against Colombia and other Latin American and Caribbean peoples. To demand the immediate withdrawal of air and naval forces and troops that threaten Venezuela in the Caribbean.

2. To demand that the governments and organizations of Latin America and the world take a truly firm stance in condemning and denouncing the pirate and interventionist actions of the US government.

3. Demand that the Venezuelan government cease its anti-worker and anti-popular repression and release prisoners who have been imprisoned for their political ideas, for protesting, or for fighting in defense of the rights of the Venezuelan people. We demand the immediate restoration of the violated wage and labor rights of the working class, and the reopening of democratic mechanisms that allow for the necessary conditions to reorganize and defend the country, as well as to recover the people’s ability to decide its own destiny. Similarly, we demand that access to public spaces and media be facilitated so that all anti-imperialist voices and forces not linked to the government can also express their positions and proposals for confronting US aggression.

4. Promote an international campaign of anti-interventionist mobilization and solidarity with Venezuela and Colombia, including protests within the US to stop Trump. Reject the presence of foreign military bases in our countries.

Stop Trump’s aggression! No to imperialist intervention in Venezuela, the Caribbean, and Latin America!