TRUMP’S MILITARY ATTACK ON VENEZUELA AND KIDNAPPING OF MADURO
Fight US Imperialist Intervention With Mass Protests and the Struggle for a Democratic Socialist Alternative!
On January 3, the Trump regime unleashed a bombing raid on Venezuela and used special forces to kidnap the President, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife. The CWI condemns this act of colonial aggression by US imperialism.
By Tony Saunois, Committee for a Workers’ International Secretary
This intervention has massive consequences for the working class of Venezuela, Latin America and globally. It has been carried out for two main reasons. One, to assure great access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. Secondly, and crucially, as a warning to China and Russia against encroaching into what US imperialism regards as its “backyard” – central and South America. A similar operation was carried out by US imperialism in Panama in 1989. Trump stated that Maduro will stand trial in the US, which will be a potential political minefield.
The US president claims the US will now run Venezuela until an acceptable regime is in place and that US oil companies will be heavily involved in the Venezuelan oil sector. In his press conference, Trump invoked the Monroe Doctrine, which is based on US imperialism intervening in its so called ‘backyard’ in pursuit of its interests. How this develops is uncertain, but it will arouse the anger and hatred of US imperialism throughout Latin America.
This intervention is a further illustration that the so-called “rules based” international order that existed following World War Two has been shredded and now there are no rules. That previous era should not be glorified. The “rules” were frequently broken in wars in Vietnam, Iraq and elsewhere. Military coups instigated by US imperialism in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and throughout Latin America, to name but a few.
IMPERIALIST ARMED AGGRESSION
Trump will celebrate this armed aggression, ringing the bells that a dictator has been removed in the name of ‘democracy’. Yet what about the allies of US imperialism, like Saudi Arabia? A deafening silence pervades about regime-change in such countries.
Trump’s approval ratings may temporarily rise as a result of this intervention. Today, Trump and his supporters will celebrate but tomorrow they will wring their hands as the wider consequences become clear.
Removing Maduro can open the possibility of a major polarisation and even civil war developing in Venezuela. The regime Maduro headed still remains. How the situation will develop at this stage is unclear. However, it is most likely it will lead to social and political polarisation and upheaval probably involving armed conflicts.
Trump’s actions will polarise Latin America further. Right wing president Meili, in Argentina, the newly elected Kast in Chile, and other ciphers of US imperialism, will praise this bloody military intervention.
Hundreds of thousands of others are likely to take to the streets in the region, roused by the bitter anti US imperialist consciousness that exists throughout the continent. The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, reflecting this pressure, has deployed the military to the Venezuelan border.
Calls for the UN and OAS to intervene as global capitalist institutions will resolve nothing. The solution lies in the hands of the Latin American working class to build a real socialist alternative that can confront US imperialism and establish a genuine democratic socialist alternative in the continent, and link up with the working class of the US. The Maduro regime is not a democratic socialist regime. It abandoned the radical reform programme of Hugo Chavez which had encroached against capitalist interests and used socialist rhetoric. It is the task of the Venezuelan working class to find the road to democratic socialism and socialists can have no illusions in the US imperialist intervention aimed at installing a new regime compliant with its interests. The future of Venezuela is for the working class and poor of that country to decide, not meddling imperialism and other right-wing forces.
This article, originally published on January 3, was slightly edited.
For more information and comprehensive analysis on Trump’s attack on Venezuela, visit the website of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) www.socialistworld.net to read the article titled Venezuela, Trump and a New Era of Imperialist Aggression