Statement by Marea Socialista and the International Socialist League (ISL)

A terrible agreement has just been made public between Trump’s administration and the government of Delcy Rodríguez and the PSUV, which amounts to a total surrender of the Venezuelan people’s oil resources—misnamed by some as a “historic agreement,” which is actually a form of massive confiscation of Venezuelan resources. The agreement—or rather, the outright theft from the Venezuelan people—far exceeds other sellout agreements and anti-popular measures carried out to date by the Venezuelan government. For the working class, the popular sectors, and the majority of the people, there seems to be no end to the string of bad news, nor to the implementation of policies that are openly disastrous for their living and working conditions. That is why it is necessary to assess this new and scandalous leap in the country’s dependence within the context of what has happened throughout the entire preceding period.

For more than a decade, the regime led by Nicolás Maduro has carried out a systematic process of cutting back on and dismantling the fundamental gains of the class that sustains the country’s economy. To pay off and cover up the gaps caused by corruption, astronomical embezzlement, and illegitimate and fraudulent debt, Maduro and his inner circle dismantled wages, social benefits, collective bargaining, and pensions and retirement benefits, leading public education and health care to ruin.

This policy of dispossession could not be carried out without brutal state violence. It was accompanied by the imprisonment of union leaders, all kinds of political activists, and opposition, as well as the relentless persecution of the opposition left. The result has been thousands of workers and political prisoners crammed into Venezuelan jails, amid flagrant violations of due process and human rights.

It is essential to look bac in a context where the dynamics of events seek to stifle our conscience. We cannot allow the unjustifiable to be justified in the eyes of the working class, both nationally and internationally: the current situation is one of unprecedented subservience, submission, loss of sovereignty, and imperialist plunder—all agreed upon by our country’s leadership with the U.S. and Trump.

Maduro’s Abduction and the Colonial “Historic Agreement”

Following the bombings on January 3 and the abduction of Nicolás Maduro by global repressors and U.S. imperialists (against a backdrop exacerbated by the tragic consequences of the June 24 earthquake), we witnessed the announcement of the so-called “historic agreement” between the puppet government of “president” Delcy Rodríguez and the U.S. administration.

The “deal” announced by the White House, ratified by Delcy Rodríguez, and meekly endorsed by the PSUV’s National Directorate, hands over control of a large portion of Venezuela’s oil reserves to the United States and its private transnational corporations for up to 100 years. Those who will take control of more than 21% of the reserves and approximately 65,000 million barrels. Moreover, this comes without any real or substantial return in revenue for the nation (which is forcibly withheld and seized in U.S. Treasury accounts), thereby establishing a strictly colonial relationship of subjugation. 

We must denounce this categorically: Venezuelan oil is being openly plundered and stolen by the United States. This brazen theft of our energy resources, coupled with the crushing burden of a colossal and illicit foreign debt—which has become yet another burden and embezzlement against the nation— through a restructuring carried out by imperialism and accepted by the government, which amounts to 240 billion. With the plundering of our wealth and the drain of fraudulent debt, it is absolutely impossible to pay off the immense social debt accumulated toward the workers and the people. 

For that reason, this debt must be subjected to a public and citizen audit and rejected as false, illegitimate, corrupt, and odious. The debt that must be paid is the social debt: wages, benefits, pensions, services, health care, education, the environment, and post-earthquake reconstruction. We must break free from this colonial system; it is the only way to ensure decent wages that at least cover the cost of the basic basket of goods, and to overcome the catastrophic working conditions that today can only be described as true modern-day slavery.

Delcy Rodríguez, Jorge Rodríguez, and Diosdado Cabello are intensifying the systematic violation of rights of which they have been co-perpetrators and jointly responsible, alongside Maduro. Today, they are unacceptably demonstrating their complete willingness to sell off the very concept of the Venezuelan nation to imperialist plunderers. And they lead a government that has lost all independence and sovereignty, acting as representatives of a sort of U.S. protectorate, dedicated to safeguarding imperialist interests within Venezuela. 

Through their actions, they are not only handing over control of a large portion of the country’s oil wealth to the United States, but they are also enabling this decadent imperialist power to use Venezuela as a spearhead to advance across the entire region, strengthening its military and economic plans, all within the context of its inter-imperialist dispute with China. We condemn all of this and fight for a country and a continent where no imperialist power plunders or dominates, and where we, the people, are the ones who decide what to do with our common resources.

Complicit Leadership and the Bosses’ Offensive

For their part, the rest of the traditional leadership supports and celebrates this power grab. María Corina Machado and “Maricorinism,” along with sectors that threaten to challenge the announcement, do not reject the handover itself, but rather demand that they—and not Delcy Rodríguez—be the ones to oversee the handover on behalf of the country. All the factions at the top have proven to be deeply submissive and servile to the imperialist interests of Donald Trump and Marco Rubio.

Alongside these top-down plans, the bosses’ association Fedecámaras is taking advantage of the situation to deliver the final blow: pushing for a reform of the Organic Labor Law to grant legal status to what they have been implementing in practice for years: the permanent elimination of social benefits and labor rights.

The Urgency of Anti-Imperialist Responses and Popular Mobilization

Despite this adverse situation and the general state of demobilization among the working class, the anti-imperialist movement has begun to rally critical voices expressing outright rejection of the plundering and violation of sovereignty. And it is necessary to encourage joint responses and mobilizations in this regard.

We, Marea Socialista and the ISL, observe the coalitions and alliances against the surrender of our country with deep interest. We see real potential to organize a militant response that shifts the national debate to where the ruling elite and their imperialist masters feel most uncomfortable, by driving mobilization and greater unity of organized action in the streets, against the U.S. occupation and in denouncing and confronting all measures that erode the country’s sovereignty.

Anti-imperialist struggle cannot be considered as the exclusive responsibility of certain sectors—neither of critical Chavismo nor of narrow political circles. It is an urgent call to the entire working class and the popular sectors who are suffering the ravages of this crisis. Today, the possibility of regaining wages commensurate with the cost of living, work, housing, health care, and education inevitably depends on freeing ourselves from imperialist occupation and interference in our territory and our resources. This is not an abstract or ideological proclamation, but a necessity.

Although we were not able, as a collective, to respond in a timely and forceful manner when the Maduro regime began to dismantle our historic achievements, nothing is definitively lost. The situation is complex, but in recent months some social movements have begun to emerge; the mechanisms and social force to reverse this trend do exist. We can coordinate broadly among all sectors that genuinely want a Venezuela free from backroom deals and imperialist interests—and free from a government that is completely subservient to those interests. 

For all these reasons, we welcome the anti-imperialist and unifying initiatives that are emerging, which must serve to spur the broadest possible mobilization of workers and the people. We also recognize that this anti-imperialist struggle is directly linked to the anti-capitalist struggle, because there is no way to defeat the plans aimed at dismantling our sovereignty without attacking the entire capitalist power structure behind them. We must take into account the negative experience of political projects and governments that have stopped halfway or have been unwilling to strike at the heart of capitalist interests—and by not doing so, have failed time and again.

For a New Political Tool for the Working Class

At the same time, this entire reality reaffirms the urgent need to build a new political tool for the Venezuelan people—one that has nothing to do with U.S. interests or with any political sector of the old elites or those who have been part of or complicit with them. That is why we call for taking firm steps toward a political and social coalition of an anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, and anti-bureaucratic nature, organized around a substantive program that breaks with the interests of the U.S. and large capitalist corporations, and aimed at reviving the historic anti-colonial and pro-independence consciousness of the Venezuelan people. 

Let’s build something new and unified from within the working class, independent of all capitalist and employer sectors, with the goal of helping to forge a political path so that one day workers can govern Venezuela. That is the great challenge of the moment, and from Marea Socialista and the ISL, we stand ready to take on this task alongside every activist and organization that decides to join the fight. As we continue to build our revolutionary organization within Venezuela—which stands ready to support all these social and political struggles—we invite you to join us. 

Annulment of the oil agreement between the U.S. (Trump) and Delcy Rodriguez (PSUV).

No to the recolonization of Venezuela.

Enough with a government that acts as a tool of the U.S. 

National and grassroots struggle to defend sovereignty.

Oil for the well-being of workers, not for Trump and multinational corporations.

For a new anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, and anti-bureaucratic political alternative.