Venezuela: We reject the attempted military coup of Guaidó, López and his imperialist allies

Declaration of Marea Socialista

We reject the attempted coup of Guaidó, López and his imperialist allies. Workers need an alternative independent from the political leaderships of the bureaucracy and capital.

Since the early morning in Venezuela, there is an irregular situation, in which Juan Guaidó and Leopoldo López are trying to carry out a military uprising, so far with a small sector of the FANB outside the La Carlota air base in Caracas. On the other hand, they call the right-wing opposition and disgruntled people to start an insurrectional mobilization, ahead of the May 1st mobilization, which they called against the government of Maduro and the PSUV. So far, no other military units are supporting the coup.

Marea Socialista rejects this maneuver because it is anti-democratic and imposed, because its political leadership responds to the interests of big business and because it is promoted by the United States, and its real leadership is Trump. No government imposed by imperialism can bring benefits for the working class and the people. If this attempt succeeded it would be a blow, not only against the people of Venezuela, but also against all the peoples of Latin America.

Workers have plenty of reasons to be upset, as victims of the mega crisis we are in, and to be against the Maduro government, which has been sinking the country into increasingly worse situations. But we also see how the opposition of the traditional right bets on foreign intervention, has equally terrible economic plans to unleash on us (Plan País de Guaidó) and does not mind contributing to strangle the population with the economic austerity measures ordered by the United States.

In this way, through a coup controlled by the exploiting class, we will not have a favorable outcome to the unbearable economic and social situation that we suffer, and that is why we call on working people to not fall into this lie and do not lend themselves to serve as cannon fodder. This does not mean giving up the struggle, but for this we need to rebuild our own social and political forces, without submitting ourselves to the bureaucracy or the traditional bourgeoisie.

While we strongly reject this coup, we also affirm that Maduro and the bureaucratic-military PSVU leadership are responsible for this disaster and we must seek a democratic solution, with the direct participation of the mobilized people, to decide the future of the country, and apply an emergency plan as soon as possible that meets the human needs of a population that cries out for food, medicine, public services, better working conditions, an end to repression, among other urgent issues and numerous problems that we have been suffering for years.

We warn that the adventurous coups of the opposition are generally used to bring more repression and worse conditions for the free exercise of democratic freedoms, based on the response of the government, beyond the responsibilities of the coup leaders. Because, while they have the money from their banks and companies and the support of the U.S. government, the people are the ones who end up paying the consequences with the worsening of their living conditions and governmental oppression.

Both Maduro and Guaidó represent the continuity of misery, the loss of the country’s sovereignty against external interests, the corruption of the rich and powerful, and the lack of a real democracy for the great majority of the manipulated and oppressed population. That is why we reject the attempted coup, we alert the people against the manipulative deception of their discontent and we call to continue resisting the hunger policies of the Maduro and PSUV military bureaucratic government, but with class independence, in the recovery of our mobilizing capacity.

We need to face the coup with popular mobilization, but without depositing any confidence in the Maduro government and without lowering our guard towards it, because it is not our government and what the people need is a government of the workers and popular sectors, with the call to a true, free and sovereign National Constituent Assembly, to replace the current false assembly, hijacked by the constituted power and the bureaucracy, in order to begin the reconstruction of the country under new bases.

  • No to the coup of Guaido, Leopoldo and Trump!
  • The disgruntled people must not fall into the trap of the coup!
  • No to imperialist intervention!
  • Do not trust Maduro!
  • For the autonomous mobilization of working people without bureaucrats or capitalists! For an emergency plan under control of the workers and for a truly democratic solution based on the autonomous participation of the Venezuelan working class and people.

Marea Socialista