By Leonardo Arantes, Socialist Workers’ Unity (UST) — Venezuela
In recent days, the U.S. government, led by far-right President Donald Trump, has made a series of announcements and taken actions aimed at launching a military operation in Latin American and Caribbean waters under the pretext of fighting drug trafficking.
U.S. imperialism is threatening and baring its teeth
A couple of weeks ago, the United States began an unusual display of naval military power by deploying several warships and military personnel to the aforementioned area. According to international press reports, three warships, a nuclear submarine with missile and intelligence capabilities, P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, and more than 4,000 Marines have been deployed so far.
Additionally, three destroyers equipped with the Aegis air defense system, as well as submarines and aircraft, have been sent to the edge of Venezuelan territorial waters. These ships are armed with guided missiles, including Tomahawks, which can attack land targets and are the latest technology in the U.S. Navy.
They perform naval combat and escort larger ships, such as aircraft carriers. They also perform land bombardment and air defense functions and can carry out intelligence and surveillance operations. They can also be used as a launch platform for selective military attacks.
The deployment of such weapons to combat drug trafficking is disproportionate. Using weapons, military equipment, resources, and military power more characteristic of wars and/or military invasions makes it clear that this operation, supposedly to combat drug trafficking, constitutes a new threat against the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean in general and Venezuela in particular under the pretext of fighting drug trafficking. Considering the recent political tensions and the fact that this operation is unfolding near Venezuela’s territorial waters, it is impossible not to consider the possibility that Venezuela is a potential military target.
The political context in which the threat of intervention is developing
It is relevant to describe and analyze the current political context of the operation and the threat of U.S. intervention.
This military deployment follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s August 8 order authorizing the use of armed forces to “fight foreign drug cartels” and defend the nation. Prior to this, on August 7, 2025, the U.S. government doubled the reward for information leading to the arrest of Nicolás Maduro to $50 million. It is worth noting that Maduro was accused by the United States of drug trafficking and terrorism in 2020, during Trump’s first term. Specifically, the U.S. government claims that Maduro and high-ranking officials and military personnel in his government lead the “Cartel of the Suns,” an alleged criminal organization that the U.S. has declared a terrorist organization.
Following these announcements, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi stated that the U.S. government had “confiscated more than $700 million in assets from Maduro,” including “two luxury planes, several houses, a mansion in the Dominican Republic, and others in Florida; a horse farm; and millions of dollars in jewelry.” All of this was a result of his actions as “leader of the Cartel of the Suns.”
In the weeks leading up to this announcement, the Trump administration had been engaged in negotiations with the Maduro government. These negotiations included the exchange of U.S. prisoners for Venezuelan migrants held by the Bukele government in El Salvador, the release of some political prisoners in Venezuela, and the granting of a new license authorizing Chevron to operate in Venezuela and extract and market Venezuelan oil.
It is too early to say whether the U.S. government truly intends to intervene militarily in Venezuela or if it is merely increasing pressure on the Maduro government, as it has done before, to force it to negotiate unfavorable agreements and further surrender the country’s sovereignty, particularly its oil and mineral resources.
The argument of “combating drug trafficking” is a cheap pretext that imperialism uses to increase its offensive to recolonize Latin America and the Caribbean. In this case, the target is particularly Venezuela.
With the current military deployment, Trump and his government are seeking more than to combat, control, and defeat drug trafficking. Their real objective is to reinforce the protection of their economic, political, geopolitical, and military interests in a historically strategic region for U.S. imperialism.
The Maduro government’s response is false anti-imperialism
As expected, Maduro and his officials, including Diosdado Cabello (Minister of Internal Relations) and Delcy Rodríguez (Executive Vice President)—several of whom have been accused of various crimes—have denied accusations linking them to drug trafficking. They have also made bombastic statements such as “No empire will touch the sacred soil of Venezuela” (Nicolás Maduro, August 19, 2025), and “We are also deployed in the Caribbean Sea, in our Venezuelan territorial waters, to defend our sovereignty” (Diosdado Cabello, August 19, 2025).
Similarly, they announced the mobilization of over 4 million reservists and the start of a recruitment and training process for these forces, in which they will likely coerce public administration workers into participating. Meanwhile, the Executive Vice President, Delcy Rodríguez, called for “the unity of Latin American countries in the face of direct threats of military intervention by the U.S.” on August 19, 2025.
Maduro flaunts a false anti-imperialism while handing over our sovereignty, oil resources, hydrocarbons, and minerals to imperialist transnational companies such as Chevron, Barrick Gold, and Gold Reserve in the Orinoco Mining Arc (AMO). He exempts imperialist companies in the oil and food import business from paying income tax while imposing brutal austerity measures on Venezuelan workers. These workers earn a minimum monthly wage of less than $1, and their collective agreements are frozen. All of their labor, union, and social rights are violated.
The bourgeois opposition celebrates the operation and the threats
True to their bourgeois, ultra-right-wing character, as well as their role as lackeys of U.S. imperialism, María Corina Machado and her supporters celebrate the interventionist threats and imperialist military operation. They are fueling the population’s expectations for a military intervention against Maduro and Venezuela, even calling for its swift execution. They also declare that the United States would be “the best commercial, energy, and security ally in the region” if Machado were president.
We warn Venezuelan workers and people not to trust a bourgeois leader who is a servile partner of the most rancid imperialist interests, nor the political sector she represents, nor U.S. imperialism, its government, or its armed forces.
Let us reject the imperialist threats of intervention and show no support for Maduro and his government!
From the Socialist Workers’ Unity (UST), we denounce this new threat of intervention and imperialist aggression, and we call for its repudiation. We categorically oppose the deployment of U.S. military forces near Venezuelan territorial waters and in the waters of Latin America and the Caribbean. We demand the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from these regions and urge the governments of the continent to condemn such military operations.
Similarly, rejecting U.S. imperialism’s aggression and offensive against Venezuela does not mean supporting Maduro and his government politically. On the contrary, we denounce his policy of surrendering our sovereignty, natural energy, and mineral resources to U.S., Chinese, and Russian transnational corporations, among others.We oppose his policies of destroying wages, cutting income, curtailing labor and social rights, violating democratic freedoms, and repressing labor leaders, trade unionists, and political opponents of the government. We also oppose his attempts to eliminate trade unions through the so-called trade union constituent assembly. We call on workers to organize and mobilize in a unified manner to defeat the policy of surrendering the country’s sovereignty and the anti-worker, anti-popular austerity measures implemented by the government.
We must expel Maduro from power. Only by overthrowing the Maduro government through the autonomous and independent mobilization of workers and popular sectors can consistent anti-imperialism develop. This will put an end to the surrender of the country and expel transnational corporations and joint ventures from the oil business and the Orinoco Mining Arc. It will also nationalize 100% of oil, banking, food production, telecommunications, and other strategic sectors. Additionally, it will stop payment of the foreign debt and repatriate capital flight.
These are all anti-imperialist tasks that will not be carried out by the bourgeois, dictatorial Maduro government, nor by any other bourgeois government. Only a government of the workers and popular sectors of the country can undertake these tasks.
U.S. troops out of Latin America and the Caribbean!
Reject imperialist interference in Venezuela. We must reject the threats and aggressions of imperialism.
Do not trust the bourgeois opposition, U.S. imperialism, its government, or its armed forces.
Mobilize the workers and popular sectors to stop the surrender of the country’s sovereignty.
Defeat the anti-worker, anti-popular austerity measures of the Maduro government.
Restore wages, collective bargaining agreements, and labor, union, and social rights for workers. End repression!
Say no to the union constituent assembly and defend the unions!
Down with the Maduro government!
For a workers’ and popular government!
