By Marea Socialista

Interventionist escalation and imperialist incursion for Maduro’s kidnapping

Although there was a military intervention to kidnap Nicolás Maduro (with a death toll of 100 reported so far), imperialism avoided establishing itself with troops (for now), although the powerful naval air siege continues. What took place was an external military coup by imperialism, but which undoubtedly counted on internal complicity or was supported by negotiations and compromises made behind the scenes. That, and not only the enormous U.S. military technological superiority, accompanied by the work of its intelligence services, is what can explain why the anti-aircraft defense and other means to repel the gringos did not work or were not activated. But the Venezuelan FANB has not yet given its explanations of what happened and only Trump’s version is known. There are strong indications of a betrayal or a negotiation, with its sacrifices, concessions and conditions.

Attacks on other targets accompanying the kidnapping and extraction of Maduro were also directed at military installations, government headquarters and even a Venezuelan scientific research institute, with some damage to residential buildings, death of at least two civilians and several wounded. The great majority of the deaths corresponded to the assassination of members of Maduro’s military custody, including Cubans.

After the aggressions against Venezuela, a message appeared from the Minister of Defense, Padrino López, giving an account of the same and asking for confidence in the Venezuelan military forces which were not exactly efficient in their task, besides basically calling for calm and demobilization. Subsequently, a message from the Minister of the Interior, Diosdado Cabello, circulated in the same sense. No effective actions of defensive anti-aircraft counter-attacks by the Venezuelan FANB were known, beyond a damaged enemy helicopter and, of course, the members of the presidential custody killed and some civilians who died in the explosions.

After Trump reported that President Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores had been “captured” and taken out of the country, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez appeared in an audio denouncing Maduro’s kidnapping, demanding information on the whereabouts of the presidential couple and asking for a proof of life of both of them. Subsequently, they would demand their release. The government announced that it would proceed with the appointment of the Vice-President as Acting or Interim President, to avoid a power vacuum.

The first pronouncements of Marea and the LIS in the face of the imperialist escalation and the January 3 intervention

From Marea Socialista, a leftist organization opposed to the authoritarian government of Maduro, but anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist and defender of the democratic and social rights of the working class and the Venezuelan people, we declare from the outset our strong condemnation of Trump’s imperialist bombings and aggressions, we also reject the kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores, and we reject any consequent interference in determining the internal political destiny of the country. We demand the immediate withdrawal of the naval air forces and troops that are harassing and attacking Venezuela. We also demand that the governments and organizations of Latin America and the world adopt a position of firm condemnation and protest against the pirate and interventionist actions of the U.S. government.

On the other hand, we said that regardless of the deep and insurmountable differences with the Venezuelan bureaucratic-authoritarian regime, which until January 3, 2026 was led by Maduro, we pronounced ourselves for the defense of the sovereignty of the country and the demand for democratic rights, in rejection of the repression and for the social demands of the working class and the suffering Venezuelan population. We express our call for the broadest unity of action in the national and international mobilization against U.S. imperialism and in defense of the people of Venezuela(Marea Socialista, manifests its repudiation of the bombings and interventionist aggressions of US imperialism against Venezuela – January 3, 2026).Part of these approaches had already been contemplated in the resolution that we approved in the 3rd Congress of the LIS (December 6-12, 2025), in whose ranks Marea Socialista militates, in favor of an international campaign against imperialist interventionism and aggressions against the people of Venezuela, as well as towards other Latin American countries, such as Colombia: Resolution on the growing interventionism of Trump in Venezuela (December 2025).

Significance of the imperialist aggression against Venezuela in the current international capitalist context and the required response

As we pointed out in our first communiqué issued after the occurrence of the armed intervention of U.S. planes, helicopters and drones in Venezuela, and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro by elite special forces, Marea Socialista expressed its resounding repudiation of these extremely serious aggressions of US imperialism. The United States has no right to violently extract and imprison any president of another country, since the sovereign right to remove and judge him belongs to each people; in this case to the Venezuelan people.

We warned that Trump’s offensive goes beyond Venezuela and threatens the independence of all Latin American and Caribbean nations. It opens the way for other possible interventionist actions towards those who do not bow to his impositions, as he expressly said against Petro’s government in Colombia and even with his warnings to Mexico, in addition to Cuba.

Trump has also been threatening Panama if it does not fully accommodate him in the management of the canal or if it favors China for its advantageous use in the trade war. He has reiterated his desire to annex Greenland and even neighboring Canada for simple security reasons or taking resources for U.S. interests. It has been aiding the genocide committed by the Netanyahu government against the Palestinian people in Gaza and intends to take over that territory for its business as well.

The U.S. president believes he has the right to meddle in any part of the world and dispose of resources or determine who should or should not govern, and to this end he has shown that he will not pay attention to international laws or treaties or multilateral organizations, despite the weight he wields in them.

It is therefore clear that we are facing a global offensive by US imperialism, which is part of its attempt to regain its hegemony as the dominant power and world geopolitical predominance. In competition with other major imperialist powers, old and emerging, it is trying to delineate regional spheres of exclusive dominance on the planet, while seeking to gain ground in sharing with Russia and China. But by breaking all the rules of the game, it also allows the other powers to satisfy their own appetites with the same methods, appealing to arbitrariness and military force, without any kind of ambiguity.

Therefore, Trump’s growing global interventionism must be rejected and confronted by the peoples and their movements, urgently and energetically, with all the strength and capacity of struggle possible on an international scale, starting with united and coordinated campaigns and initiatives of struggle. At the same time, these must call upon and pressure governments and organizations to condemn these outbursts, and to adopt concrete and effective measures for their containment.

Among the international actions to respond to all these facts and stop Trump’s feet we see the following:

• Worldwide mobilization campaign in rejection of imperialist intervention in Venezuela and active pressure on all governments and international organizations for this purpose.
• Condemnation of the kidnapping of Maduro and Cilia Flores by Trump, because it is the Venezuelan people and not the U.S. who must settle accounts with them. We ask that they be released not to resume the de facto government but to be tried in Venezuela.
• Demand from the governments the rupture of relations everywhere with US imperialism-colonialism, especially in Latin American countries.
• Demand the departure of the bases of the aggressor empire from all Latin America and other countries. Out with the bases of Trump’s pirate empire all over the world!
• Demand the rupture of all military pacts with the U.S. by all countries and the adoption of joint sanctions against Trump’s imperial offensive in Latin America and the world.
• Actions demanding the immediate withdrawal of the U.S. military siege off the coast of Venezuela, the attacks on boats and seizures of cargo ships, the restrictions on air transport, as well as all types of disrespect of its territory. An end to imperialist threats, aggressions and impositions against Venezuela.
• Promote the adoption of measures to sanction and punish the invader of peoples and supporter of genocide Donald Trump. Support mobilizations in the U.S. aimed at stopping Trump and promoting Trump’s impeachment in the U.S. before it is too late.
• To take up the proposal of Argentine Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Ferez Esquivél to promote a Continental Strike against Donald Trump’s interventionism and war aggressions.

Trump’s announcements after Maduro’s kidnapping and the appointment of acting President Delcy Rodriguez:the interim government and the colonial tutelage plan for Venezuela

Once the interventionist coup and the kidnapping of Maduro to take him to the United States were executed, Trump announced on his own account that:

1. He would leave Delcy Rodriguez (vice-president) in the government, in order to maintain control of the country, and would use her as a figurehead for the “transition” in Venezuela under the tutelage of the US.
2. It was said that the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, would lead this process until a call for elections could be guaranteed, although no definite date or deadline was set.
3. Trump ruled out María Corina Machado (and her representative Edmundo González, who was considered the presumed winner of the July 28, 2024 elections, usurped by Maduro), considering that the opposition (of the extreme right) was not an alternative for now, due to the fact that according to him it did not have enough support, mainly from outside and without enough coordination inside the country, with control over the Army.
4. He demanded access to all the oil under the conditions that he himself would like, as a first priority and as a second task the “reconstruction of the country” also on his own terms, with the call for elections remaining for when the above has been fulfilled and stability is assured.
5. He threatened the government and Delcy that if it did not cooperate and obey, it would receive a punishment worse than Maduro’s or there could be a new wave of attacks, so Venezuela would have to deliver everything he asks for, in addition to reimburse him for alleged debts and the costs of the intervention.
6. He then warned other Latin American countries and their presidents that they risked a similar fate if they went against U.S. interests, or favored their contenders, such as China.
7. He later added that they were thinking of reopening the embassy in Venezuela (in order to better manage their control of the country).

On her part, the now interim president, although maintaining certain symbolic rhetoric typical of chavismo, did not reject or confront Trump’s plan but said she agreed to carry out a “cooperation agenda” with the United States, despite all that it implies. In a meeting with the (Venezuelan) National Defense Council, there was no questioning of the new situation imposed, beyond defending and demanding the release of Nicolás Maduro. His investiture, endorsed by Trump, was carried out by the TSJ and ratified by the National Assembly. The State of External Conmotion decreed before the departure of Maduro is maintained, but not to confront imperialism but to maintain the anti-democratic restrictions, administer repression and give special powers to the government to dictate measures, which we already see that Trump, who claims to be the “absolute power” in Venezuela, intends to dictate. Such conditions and impositions, if carried out as announced, would represent a colonial subjugation unprecedented since the Venezuelan independence achieved under Bolivar.

Along with the rejection of the actions ordered by the assailant government of Donald Trump, Marea Socialista has stated that the anti-imperialist position that it assumes together with the International Socialist League (ISL), does not imply at all a defense of Maduro and the regime that until recently he ruled. Of course, we also oppose the caretaker government that now succeeds him, under the forced tutelage of Trump, from which Delcy Rodriguez (the replacement) has not disengaged herself, but has shown herself ready for a “Cooperation Agenda”. That is already being carried out in the economic and political fields, starting with the delivery of all the oil that the US asks for. Trump assures that he himself will take charge of the administration of the money derived from that, proclaiming himself as “absolute power” over Venezuela, for an “indefinite” period of time that, he says, “could last several years”.

We continue to be frontal opponents of this post-Maduro regime, from our leftist position, because now it is about the use of Delcy Rodriguez as “Proconsul” of a kind of “Protectorate” directed by Washington.

Together with the defense of Venezuelan sovereignty, we aim to seek, through struggle, the recovery of the rights taken away from the people by the bureaucratic and corrupt regime that with Maduro and his entourage produced the tremendous involution and destruction of the initial conquests of the Bolivarian revolution, achieved during the Chávez era.

The very behavior of the Madurista government was the one that contributed to provide the opportunities for strengthening the pro-imperialist extreme right of María Corina, and also generated the vulnerabilities that imperialism took advantage of and continues to take advantage of in its interventionist escalation and colonial subjugation.

Maduro was already weakened by the loss of the 2024 elections, which led him to install himself de facto after an electoral fraud, which not only increased his wear and tear and rejection by the Venezuelan people, but also fueled the power dispute within his own entourage, where there are wings such as Diosdado Cabello (PSUV and the police and parapolice security apparatus), on the one hand, and on the other hand, the Rodriguez brothers (National Assembly, Vice-Presidency and PDVSA), as well as Padrino Lopez (Bolivarian National Armed Forces).

What is happening with Venezuela must be interpreted within the international and national framework already mentioned. However, Trump’s boldness, bravado and aggressive rhetoric do not mean that he can concretely do whatever he wants, hence the pragmatic behavior that leads him to opt for a “transition” in Venezuela, monitored by Washington, without Maduro, but with the rest of the Chavista bureaucratic-military apparatus still in power, which it is trying to continue to twist his arm and force him to abide by its guidelines, under threat of new armed attacks and exemplary punishments, having its warships, aviation and troops off the Venezuelan coast.

Conditions for the workers’ and people’s struggle in Venezuela to recover independence, democratic freedoms and decent living conditions

Up to now and even worse under Trump’s dictates followed by the Venezuelan government, the repressive, anti-democratic, authoritarian, corrupt and anti-worker State that we had under Maduro continues to prevail… Trump intends to impose himself both inside and outside Venezuela as absolute master of the continent, even stopping ships from other nations with Venezuelan oil, putting us on the brink of unforeseeable confrontations. The pretensions of imperialism continue to manifest themselves in the most ambitious and shameless manner.

Within Venezuela, the government, the PSUV and the FANB themselves are incapable of giving any defensive or mobilization response that is up to the circumstances. The “Maricorinista” opposition endorses and complies with Trump’s plan that leaves María Corina out of national politics (for the time being).

The people watch in stupefaction and spectatorship what is happening without any significant reaction from the streets. The government works in favor of fear and paralysis while it complies in deeds with Trump’s mandate.

In the midst of this complex, difficult and dangerous war situation, it is urgent that the anti-imperialist social and political actors, who are for the defense of national sovereignty and independence not only of Venezuela but of all Latin America, and those who are for the rescue of all the rights of the people without the imposition of an external regency, find the spaces to discuss the situation and assume common positions and united actions together with the working class and the popular sectors of the country.

May this allow us to raise a resistance plan and initiate mobilizing responses against colonialism and submission, against authoritarianism and repression, for the reconquest of democratic guarantees, and for economic sovereignty over oil and all our resources, in order to meet the living emergencies of the population with the necessary measures.

Marea’s position on the government tutelage and the plan Trump is trying to impose

Some programmatic proposals and slogans to guide our policy and action at the national level:

• No to Trump’s colonialist plan and a tutelary government in Venezuela!
• No to the Cooperation Agenda of the interim government of Venezuela with the aggressor and colonialist kidnapper Donald Trump!
• No to the reopening of the gringo embassy in Caracas!
• Let us denounce and repudiate the pro-interventionist and surrenderist calls and applause of the right-wing opposition and María Corina Machado. The promoters of imperialist interventionism should have no place in Venezuela.
• Oil for Venezuelans! Neither for Trump nor for the thieving bureaucracy! Sovereign rescue of the oil industry under worker-social control, withdrawal and Venezuelan takeover of the assets of the U.S. transnational Chevron. Workers’ and social control of all the assets of the imperialist companies in Venezuela and their placing at the service of a plan of recovery and attention to the national needs and those of our people.
• End the repression and the state of commotion against the people! Enoughrepression! Immediate release of the workers imprisoned for the labor struggle and of those imprisoned for political reasons!
• The FANB should inform why the defense plans against the gringo incursiondid not work.
• Urgent attention to the atrocious situation of the living conditions of the working class and the people. Wage increase already according to 91 of the CRBV (equivalent to the cost of the Basic Food Basket and indexed) to recover the standard of living and face the emergency!
• Restitution of political freedoms so that the people can regain their protagonism, mobilization and decision-making capacity in the face of Trump’s colonial impositions. Proceed according to the provisions of the CRBV so that elections are called and the people can choose freely. The people have the right to elect the government of Venezuela, and not Trump or the bureaucracy collaborating with frauds and outside the national Constitution.
• Anti-imperialist and class unity by the rank and file, against Trump’s “Protectorate” and the Tutelary Government!
• Let us recover Venezuela’s independence and defend the independence of the peoples of Latin America!
• Formation of a real popular army and workers militias democratically organized in the communities and workplaces, not subordinated to the bureaucracy and corrupt military caste that did not defend the country. Real arming of the working class and the people for the defense of the territory, of the goods of the country, of the rights and class interests of the workers and the oppressed people.
• In order to promote the struggle for the most immediate measures to alleviate the situation of the people, we need the unity of action of the organizations that act in the trade union, social and political fields.
• We postulate the need for a true revolutionary anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, anti-bureaucratic, democratic and internationalistparty to organize and lead the struggle towards a Government of the Workers and the People.
• Regroupment of the militant forces in a new revolutionaryinternational project : Given that we are confronting an imperialist offensive on Latin America and of world scope, and in correspondence with what was resolved by the III Congress of the ISL in December 2025, we extend the call to the militant international regroupment of revolutionaries to fight for the fundamental solutions to the capitalist crisis, in a similar way as we are trying to do with the articulation of revolutionary parties of different countries that we are building the International Socialist League. The definitive defeat of imperialism cannot be the work of the people of a single country but of the united struggle of the peoples of the world with a collective revolutionary leadership at the head.

Many of these measures or actions are an elementary demand of sovereignty, democracy and social justice, but even if we demand them, we cannot expect their application by an authoritarian government that collaborates with the interventionist tutelage of imperialism and they can only be applied by an organized, conscious and strongly mobilized people, in class unity, with a genuinely revolutionary leadership and coupled to the international revolutionary and solidarity struggle. Therefore, although there are demands to be made to the government, their conquest depends on the recovery of a true leading role of the people and the development of the revolutionary anti-capitalist and anti-bureaucratic initiative. That is the great task we have to assume.

Last minute note at the time of finalizing this document:

As we were about to publish it, we learned of the government’s announcement that it would proceed to release a considerable number of political prisoners, both Venezuelan and foreign, although there were still no lists known and there was no confirmation that such release had taken place. Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly and brother of the president in charge of the government, described the decision as a “unilateral gesture of peace”, adding that it was made “for the purpose of contributing and collaborating in the effort that we all must have for national union and peaceful coexistence”. The news of the release of prisoners is undoubtedly welcome, and we must be careful that it is not discriminatory towards the workers and union leaders imprisoned for fighting. We know that it is not the result of any respect by Trump or the government towards human rights, but of the convenience of both to promote stabilization and political tranquility for the plan they have agreed upon, apart from the fact that Trump also needs to count on those imprisoned leaders of the right-wing opposition to start assembling the political team of replacement or coalition that can give way to the “transition”. So, it is also necessary to be aware of the release of all those who are just people of the people who have protested or posted annoying messages for the government in the social networks, for which not a few were imprisoned for “incitement to hatred” and even for “terrorism”. We must demand then that the release of prisoners be completed, that there be no new arrests and that repressive laws be repealed and military, police or para-police street repression cease.