US intervention in Venezuela, political control, and thirst for oil.
Venezuela's independence is threatened by both the U.S. military and by the Bolibourgeoisie that is apparently now ready to work with U.S. imperialism hand in glove
US imperialism has carried out a bombing raid on Venezuela, kidnapping the dictator Nicolas Maduro, the country’s president. This extremely serious event constitutes an act of war, which threatens and affects not only Venezuela but the rest of Latin America. It also has nothing to do with the reason given by the far-right US president Donald Trump of “combating drug trafficking.”
What are the real reasons for this interventionist offensive in Venezuela? What was its prior context? How did events unfold? What are the implications and consequences? What is the overall strategy of US imperialism for Venezuela and the rest of the region? What prospects are opening up? What is the dynamic of the Chavista regime in light of these events? What program and policy should we revolutionaries adopt, and how should we act to confront the strategy of US imperialism? These are questions we will attempt to address in this article.
Political pressure and military deployment
We believe it is pertinent to describe and analyze the political context and events that preceded the events that took place in early January 2026.
Since the first half of August 2025, the US, under the pretext of the supposed “war on drugs,” began a disproportionate deployment of weapons on the coasts of the Caribbean and Latin America, with a particular focus on the Venezuelan coast. Prior to this, US President Donald Trump issued an order authorizing the use of armed forces to “fight foreign drug cartels, with the aim of defending his nation.” Similarly, the US government doubled the reward to $50 million for information leading to the arrest of Nicolás Maduro, accused of leading an alleged criminal organization called “El Cártel de los Soles” (The Cartel of the Suns), dedicated to drug trafficking and terrorism. Simultaneously, money, jewelry, goods, and properties attributed to Maduro as proceeds of his criminal activity were seized.
In previous weeks, the Trump administration had opened a process of negotiations with Maduro’s government, which included the exchange of US prisoners for Venezuelan migrants held by Bukele’s government in prisons in El Salvador, the release of some political prisoners in Venezuelan territory, and the granting of a new license authorizing Chevron to operate in the country, extract and market Venezuelan oil.
Following this, the United States carried out an unusual military deployment, which initially included three warships (destroyers equipped with the Aegis air defense system, armed with Tomahawk guided missiles to attack land targets, the latest technology in the U.S. Navy), a nuclear submarine with missile and intelligence capabilities, as well as P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and military personnel exceeding 4,000 marines. This deployment increased over the months, with more and more warships, F-35 aircraft, and B-52 strategic bombers being added, along with the deployment to the Caribbean of the largest aircraft carrier in the US armed forces, the USS Gerald Ford, and an increase in military personnel to approximately 10,000, including assault troops. In short, this was a deployment of military forces and resources that, from the outset, was more characteristic of wars and/or military invasions than of actions to combat drug trafficking.
For months (since September 2025), US imperialism has been carrying out a military offensive, expressed in acts of war, such as more than 25 attacks on small boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, leaving more than a hundred dead, fishermen of various nationalities (Venezuelans, Colombians, Trinidadians, among others), seizure of oil tankers from Venezuela, with the theft of the tons of oil they contained, as well as a cyberattack against PDVSA, affecting the company’s operations and endangering oil workers, and an alleged drone attack on “a large facility on the Venezuelan coast” (presumably at the docks of Maracaibo, Zulia state), the latter unconfirmed, but which Donald Trump himself claims to have carried out. “I don’t know if you’ve read or seen it, but they have a large plant, a large facility where the ships leave from, and two nights ago we destroyed it” (BBC News Mundo 12/29/2025), Trump said in a phone call he made to WABC radio station to speak with billionaire John Catsimatidis.
To this list of aggressions must be added the enforcement of a total naval blockade on oil tankers entering or leaving the country, with the clear purpose of suffocating the Venezuelan economy by cutting off trade in its main resource, and with it the inflow of dollars; and the orientation of an air blockade against the country, which was partially complied with by various international airlines.
After the bombings against Venezuelan territory on January 3, 2026, all this military force remains stationed on the Caribbean coast, near Venezuela, as a threat and a mechanism of coercion.
A criminal act of war against an oppressed country
As is well known, at approximately 1:50 a.m. on Saturday, January 3, 2026, the government of the far-right Donald Trump launched a bombing campaign using helicopters and drones. The US military bombed several locations in the city of Caracas, namely, Fuerte Tiuna, La Carlota Air Base, Cuartel de la Montaña (where Chávez’s remains rest), the General Command of the Militia, and the Navy Academy (the Naval School in Meseta de Mamo, La Guaira state). In addition to this, civilian airports such as Higuerote (Miranda state) and the port of La Guaira (the country’s main port) were also attacked, and attacks on military installations in the neighboring state of Aragua were reported. All of these targets are located either in the city of Caracas (the country’s capital) or in states close to the capital, in densely populated areas, some surrounded by buildings and residential areas.
Thus, while aircraft flew over and bombed the city of Caracas and other parts of Venezuelan territory, and explosions were reported in the vicinity of military targets, ports, airports, and urban areas, special forces carried out the kidnapping of dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife and first lady Cilia Flores, a fact that was announced a few hours later by Donald Trump on his social network Truth Social and later confirmed at a press conference in Mar-a-Lago. The same was also confirmed by official spokespeople for the Venezuelan government, who demanded that the US government provide proof of life for the kidnapped head of state and his wife.
These events constitute a criminal act of war against the sovereignty of an oppressed country and are an unacceptable imperialist interference by the US government, led by the far-right Donald Trump. Far from representing any fight against drug trafficking and/or terrorism, it is part of the strategy of US imperialism to apply the well-known Monroe Doctrine, augmented by the so-called “Trump Corollary,” in the context of disputes and negotiations over territories, markets, and areas of influence among the imperialist powers.
This is an unprecedented attack on Venezuela perpetrated by the United States, the world’s leading imperialist power. It constitutes a threat not only to this country, but to Latin America as a whole, being the first direct military intervention, i.e., using its own armed forces, by US imperialism in the last 36 years on the continent[1] and the first in history against a South American country. In this way, the US is reviving the practice of interfering in the internal political affairs of countries on the continent through direct military intervention, openly returning to gunboat diplomacy, blackmail, and militarization.
The strategic objective is to brutally deepen Venezuela’s semi-colonial condition, subordinating its political regime, economy, and strategic resources to the dictates of the White House, while attempting to discipline the peoples of Latin America as a whole. This military operation, similar in nature to the 1989-1990 intervention in Panama, is part of Donald Trump’s global policy that seeks to reverse the crisis of US domination as the leading imperialist power, in the broader context of the global economic crisis of capitalism, the greatest in history.
Recolonization strategy and the National Security Strategy document
It is clear that in the midst of the global economic crisis of capitalism and the inter-imperialist dispute with emerging powers such as China and Russia, US imperialism seeks to regain its hegemonic dominance in a continent it has always considered its backyard, “reviving” the Monroe Doctrine and extending it to the Western Hemisphere as a whole.
This was formally announced in the government’s new National Security Strategy 2025. The document, published by the Trump administration on December 5, 2025, presents this objective as a central priority of US foreign policy, affirming that the Western Hemisphere is Washington’s main area of strategic interest.
This is not just a government plan, nor is it just another policy document, but rather the formal announcement of a major change in US intervention in the inter-imperialist struggle, an increase in the levels of aggression and protectionism that US imperialism intends to deploy to regain lost ground. It is centered on tighter and more direct control of Latin America, a geographical area that they historically consider their colony, and their expansion to the rest of the Western Hemisphere (Europe, Greenland), as indicated by the “Trump corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine.
“After years of neglect, the United States will reaffirm and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore U.S. preeminence in the Western Hemisphere and protect our national territory and our access to key geographies throughout the region. We will deny non-hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets, in our Hemisphere.
This “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine is a sensible and forceful restoration of American power and priorities, consistent with American security interests. “Our objectives for the Western Hemisphere can be summarized as ‘Recruit and Expand.
We will recruit established allies in the Hemisphere to control migration, stem the flow of drugs, and strengthen stability and security on land and at sea. We will expand by cultivating and strengthening new partners, while reinforcing our own nation’s appeal as the hemisphere’s preferred economic and security partner” [2].
Following the publication of the aforementioned document, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth stated:
“The department’s activities throughout the Western Hemisphere are not limited to eliminating narco-terrorists, but also include deterrence and defense of our nation’s interests against other threats in the hemisphere. […] This includes ensuring U.S. military and commercial access to strategic areas such as the Panama Canal, the Caribbean, the Gulf of America, the Arctic, and Greenland” (Opera Magazine, 12/19/2025)[3]. This statement reaffirms the strategic objectives of U.S. imperialism, with the far-right Trump at the helm.
This, then, is the strategic, political, geopolitical, and military framework in which US imperialism is developing its attack on Venezuela and threatening the rest of the continent, making explicit the Trump administration’s goal of having puppet governments throughout Latin America. Pro-imperialist governments that implement neoliberal plans are not enough for its hegemonic and colonizing interests; rather, it seeks far-right governments that are completely subservient to Trump and his interests.
To this end, it exerts economic, political, and military pressure, seeking to impose this type of government on the continent. Using these methods, and aided by the crises created by class-collaborationist governments, they have managed to impose, via elections, governments such as Milei’s in Argentina, Kast’s in Chile, Bukele’s in El Salvador, and Asfura’s in Honduras, and they seek to continue this advance with Uribism in Colombia (hence the threats and pressure on Petro).
Now, through military invasion, they have deposed Maduro, even though he had already conceded country’s sovereignty and was making major concessions both in the Orinoco Oil Belt (FPO) and in the Orinoco Mining Arc (AMO).
The objective is to steal Venezuelan oil and impose a puppet government of imperialism, for now through the acting Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, now invested as President of the Republic, while Trump affirms that he will govern Venezuela directly, that he will carry out a new military incursion if the recycled “new Venezuelan government” does not do what they say. Trump imposes conditions, and keeps María Corina Machado in reserve for an eventual puppet government if the Delcy formula does not suit them.
However, the actions taken so far by the Delcy government, its announcements, the commitments made, and the agreements signed reveal a collaborationism typical of the puppet governments that Trump seeks.
This entire strategy by Trump and US imperialism, in the context of the global capitalist crisis and inter-imperialist dispute, the attack on Venezuela, the explicit intention to colonize this country and plunder its resources in order to better position themselves in this crisis and dispute, also foreshadow harsher attacks against immigrant workers, Venezuelans, Latin Americans, and others from other parts of the world in the US, as well as against the working class as a whole, and in addition to new pressures, threats, and interventions in other countries in the region and around the world. It is therefore necessary to build unified strategies to confront and defeat the ambitions and attacks of US imperialism and its rivals in their respective areas of influence.
Internal complicity: a key element of the US operation
The operation deployed against Venezuela in the early hours of January 3 this year met with almost no resistance from the Venezuelan armed forces and defense agencies. Around a hundred aircraft (including planes, drones, and helicopters) flew over Caracas, while approximately twelve armed helicopters crossed the border from La Guaira to Caracas, evaded radar without a single warning shot, and bombed Fuerte Tiuna, headquarters of the general command and the Ministry of Defense, and three other military centers, in addition to the parliament. One of those helicopters landed on the palace, capturing Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores without much fuss and taking them out of the country. Only at the security level closest to Maduro were clashes reported, leaving at least thirty-two Cuban troops who were part of his personal security guard dead.
None of this could have happened without the collaboration of the military and internal security apparatus, especially in a country whose government has claimed to have anti-aircraft defenses that include radars, missile systems, rockets, and cannons purchased from China and Russia. This, coupled with subsequent statements by Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and other US government spokespeople, as well as the attitudes and actions of Delcy Rodríguez, reveal the internal complicity that allowed the US operation to achieve its objectives, and that Maduro has been betrayed and handed over by Chavismo itself for his capture.
This internal complicity, together with the evident US military superiority, which destroyed 90% of the country’s anti-aircraft defenses, and the incompetence of the Venezuelan military responsible for the country’s defense, explain the relative ease with which US forces successfully carried out their incursion into Venezuela[4].
Was Delcy Rodríguez involved in the betrayal?
It is obvious that internal complicity based on prior negotiation led to the surrender and capture of Nicolás Maduro (surrender by Chavismo, capture by US forces). It is worth quoting the statements of Eric Rojo, a retired US Army general and advisor to Marco Rubio in Latin America, who said, “…Maduro was handed over to the US armed forces by the Venezuelans…[5]”. Now, which leaders and sectors of Chavismo negotiated Maduro’s surrender and removal from power?
Trump gave clear answers when asked who the facilitator from Caracas was, stating: “…the negotiations were conducted with Delcy Rodríguez…”[6], adding: “Marco Rubio is negotiating the transition with Delcy Rodríguez. The vice president spoke with Rubio and said she will do what we say”; this makes clear her participation in the negotiations for the surrender of the deposed president and her collaboration with US imperialism.
All this is reinforced by her recognition, finally and without any immediate objection from the US, by the Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice as Maduro’s legal successor, in addition to her investiture before the National Assembly (AN, Venezuelan parliament), presided over since 2021 by her brother Jorge Rodríguez.
The recognition of Delcy Rodríguez came at the expense of the ambitions of Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado and the claims to power of Edmundo González Urrutia, who until then seemed to be Trump’s favorites to lead the transition.
Thus, the Delcy-Jorge tandem, now known as “Los Rodríguez,” would be the Chavista sector that negotiated with the U.S. government the terms and conditions of collaboration that the latter would impose for the continuity of the Chavista regime at the head of the state under U.S. tutelage. This faction would have brought along with it another faction led by Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, who had retreated in the face of CIA harassment. A third faction, led by Diosdado Cabello, would be the least acceptable to the Americans[7].
Delcy Rodríguez has built a reputation as a shrewd operator in the management of the country’s political and economic affairs, as well as in administrative matters, but she lacks sufficient influence in the party to guarantee the unity of Chavismo. For this reason, she seeks to surround herself with a politically hardline sector, while bowing to Washington’s tutelage in economic matters. In her speeches to the country, she resorts to allusions to Bolívar and Chávez, as well as references to Maduro as President of Venezuela, to appease the Chavista base (although they tend to be diminishing in number), while with the Trump administration, she talks about working “jointly” with the United States, remaining silent on Washington’s decision to control energy resources and force the purchase of American products with that money.
Then, within the country, executive and legislative power is concentrated in the Rodríguez family, with the help of Diosdado Cabello and Vladimir Padrino, ministers of the interior and justice and defense respectively, that is, guarantors of military and police power, to accentuate the repressive model that remains in force, while US imperialism, with Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth, dictates, controls, and regulates economic and political decisions that are crucial to the country’s destiny, in a colonial relationship unprecedented in the country’s recent history.
- The dynamics of the Chavista regime, a collaborationist puppet government. The oil agreements.
The Chavista regime retains many of its characteristics, especially in terms of its repressive nature against the labor and mass movements, the centrality of executive power supported primarily by the armed forces and repressive police and paramilitary forces, and its austerity measures against the working class and the poor. It also preserves administrative continuity in the management of the state. However, what has essentially changed is its relationship with US imperialism. Over the last twenty-five years, Venezuela has been led by submissive and dependent governments (first Chávez’s and then Maduro’s) that nevertheless caused friction with the various US administrations. It is now being led by a totally collaborationist government, a potential puppet of US imperialism and the Donald Trump administration, which consents to a colonial-type relationship between US imperialism and Venezuela.
Strong evidence of this can be found in the statements made by Trump and reported by various international media outlets, claiming that he is the one in charge of Venezuela and that the US government will immediately take control of the South American country, accepting and approving Delcy Rodríguez as the new acting president through a combination of pressure and support. Rodríguez’s government is clearly unstable and in crisis, without popular support, sustained only by US imperialist support as long as it fully complies (according to the criteria of Trump and company) with its collaborationist and puppet role.
The greatest proof of this relationship of collaboration (on the part of the Delcy government) and patronage (on the part of Donald Trump and Yankee imperialism) are the agreements signed on oil matters after the US president announced that he would administer Venezuela’s oil resources. These agreements, which were announced by Donald Trump[8] and later confirmed by the Venezuelan government itself and the board of Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) in an official statement[9], stipulate that the Delcy government will deliver between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil to the US.
The PDVSA statement specifies that negotiations with US oil transnationals will take place under the terms already established with Chevron-Texaco, i.e., without any obligation on the part of the transnational to pay taxes and/or royalties to the Venezuelan state on profits earned and paying salaries at its discretion.
However, the US Department of Energy explains the oil agreement announced by Trump in more detail:
“The oil will be sold on the global market for the benefit of the United States, Venezuela, and allies; all proceeds from the sale of the oil will first be deposited in a U.S. account at recognized banks to ensure the integrity and legitimacy of the final distribution; the funds will be used for the benefit of Americans and Venezuelans under the direction of the U.S. government; the sale of this oil begins immediately and will continue indefinitely; Oil transported to and from Venezuela will be done only through legitimate and authorized channels consistent with U.S. national security. The U.S. is selectively lifting sanctions to allow the transport and sale of this Venezuelan oil on the global market. U.S. light oil will go to Venezuela, as required, to optimize the production and transport of very heavy Venezuelan oil, as part of modernization, expansion, and development. The US will authorize the importation of oil equipment and services to Venezuela to remedy decades of mismanagement and corruption. This will involve technology, experts, and investment. The US will work on the Venezuelan power grid to also correct the destruction it has suffered. (US Department of Energy, 01/06/2026)[10] [11] [12].
In addition to this, the US government is establishing conditions such as prohibiting the sale of Venezuelan oil to rival imperialist powers such as China and Russia, suspending oil shipments to Cuba, and requiring that the purchase of supplies and products made with money from oil sales be exclusively from the US. One would have to go back to the days of dictator Juan Vicente Gómez to find such aberrant conditions of patronage and colonialism in the hundred-year history of Venezuelan oil exploitation.
Other examples of Delcy’s collaborationism and the potentially puppet nature of her government are the steps taken to reopen the US embassy in the country, as well as the fact that it has already been announced that the four major US banking corporations JP Morgan Chase & Co., Bank of America (BofA), Wells Fargo, and Citigroup (Citi) plan to start operations in Caracas in the week of January 12, 2026, under the control of the U.S. Treasury Department, and that it would be through these banks that the U.S. would handle all transactions in Venezuela. Additionally, there is speculation that public employees would receive their salaries through these banks, according to the account of X, ElObservadorBinario, as well as websites such as Forbes.com.mx and Bancaynegocios.com, which raise this as a possibility. And so another set of announcements have been made in recent days.
The situation of the Venezuelan masses
Amidst all this colonialist turmoil and the Venezuelan government’s collaborationist efforts, the question arises as to the situation of the working class and the Venezuelan masses.
They continue to suffer the rigors of pro-employer and anti-worker austerity measures, which the Maduro government has placed on their shoulders, formally since at least 2018 (in reality they had already been applied before, informally). The minimum wage earned by workers is barely $0.39 per month, and the benefits granted by the government, which have no impact on wages, such as food and other benefits, are $40 and $120 per month respectively (although they never reach these amounts due to devaluation), making a minimum monthly income of $160.39 (income, not wages, since only $0.39 of this is wages), compared to a basic family basket that, according to data from the Documentation and Analysis Center of the Venezuelan Teachers’ Federation (Cendas – FVM) and the Maracaibo Chamber of Commerce (CCM), exceeds $630 per month.
Inflation is hitting Venezuelan workers hard in the pocket, according to the BloombergLinea website, with the inflation rate standing at 556% in the 12 months of 2025, dwarfing the 45% rate in 2024.[13] The Venezuelan masses and workers continue to suffer from hunger and misery, surviving largely thanks to remittances from relatives abroad, which are increasingly diminished by the effects of devaluation and inflation. Added to this, basic services such as electricity, gas, water, telephone, and internet are undergoing a process of privatization or price increases and are a permanent calamity.
In addition to this, labor, contractual, and union rights have been violated through mechanisms such as Memorandum 2792 and the Onapre[14] directive, which are part of the adjustment program implemented by the Maduro government, pompously named the “Economic Recovery and Reactivation Program.” None of this has changed, and it is expected to continue during the government of Delcy Rodríguez, under the patronage of Donald Trump.
Another aspect that Venezuelan workers continue to suffer is the systematic violation of democratic freedoms. Hundreds of political prisoners abound in Venezuelan prisons, suffering isolation, torture, and violations of the most basic rights, as well as all the legal norms and procedures established in the legislation. Hundreds of union leaders, safety representatives, and workers without representative positions are also detained or facing legal proceedings simply for protesting in defense of labor rights that have been violated or for expressing political opinions. In addition, most opposition parties have been outlawed or stripped of their legitimate leadership, with the government imposing others that serve its interests.
Recent announcements by National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez regarding the release of political prisoners have been limited to emblematic prisoners and well-known political leaders, while a large number of ordinary people, detained during the protests against electoral fraud on October 28, 2024, remain behind bars.
Reactions from the labor movement and the masses
The brutal economic crisis that has been hitting the Venezuelan economy since at least 2013 keeps the country’s workers and humble people in conditions of poverty and misery. This, coupled with the deterioration of basic services such as health, education, electricity, and water, among others, increases the desperation and hopelessness of the Venezuelan working people.
Additionally, the policy of handing over mineral and energy resources to mainly US, Chinese, and Russian transnational corporations, among others (to a lesser extent), the gross corruption of the Chavista regime (a key factor in the emergence and abject enrichment of the Bolivarian bourgeoisie), social inequality (the enrichment of the traditional bourgeoisie has also increased), miserable wages, the despotism of government bureaucrats, as well as the continuous violations of democratic freedoms and the most basic human, social, trade union, and political rights, characteristic of the dictatorial nature of the regime, to which is added brutal repression against the labor and mass movement. All these factors have contributed to the majority of Venezuelan workers and masses coming to the conclusion that they had or have nothing to defend in Venezuela, welcoming imperialist intervention, viewing it with expectations of democratization and social vindication.
The justified contempt for the dictatorial Chavista regime and its corrupt, repressive policies that have brought the working class to starvation means that in Venezuela, any rejection of the US government’s attacks against the country and against imperialist interference in Venezuela’s internal political affairs is seen as a defense of the hated Chavista regime. This is expressed both by the majority of the population and by trade unions and political groups that claim to be left-wing, even revolutionary.
The fact is that the impoverishing, corrupt, and repressive austerity policies of the Maduro government and Chavismo as a project have only served to facilitate the interventionist plans and imperialist interference that have been carried out with no resistance from the masses and even with majority support from them.
Since the early hours of Saturday, January 3, 2026, there have been no reports of spontaneous and independent mass demonstrations in the streets to reject the US military attacks, nor to support them (we believe the latter is due to fear of repression and/or arrest). However, the social media accounts of most Venezuelan citizens, both inside and outside the country, were full of expressions of celebration.
In the early hours of the morning of the day of the attack, sectors of the ruling party attempted to mobilize the so-called armed “colectivos,” as well as part of their apparatus, both in the capital city and in the main cities of the country. However, in all locations, this did not go beyond a few hundred militants and militiamen (military reserve groups), mostly employees of central public agencies, as well as governors’ offices and mayor’s offices, who are regularly used to fuel government mobilizations.
In the state of Aragua, an hour from Caracas, the governor summoned the militias, neighborhood watches, and military to the Maracay air base, which was an anti-coup stronghold in 2002. As the hours passed and in the days that followed, state governors and mayors of various municipalities across the country called for some mobilizations that did not go beyond what was described above.
None of these actions were accompanied by mass participation from workers or residents of popular sectors, nor have there been demonstrations of social significance. Not even the diminished grassroots sectors of Chavismo came out in significant numbers.
Sectors of the Chavista bureaucracy have attempted, through their rhetoric and the actions described above, to emulate the current situation with that of 2002, on the occasion of the coup against the late President Hugo Chávez. However, the situation is completely different.
A necessary comparison
As is well known, in 2002, a sector of the Venezuelan armed forces, allied with almost all of the bourgeois opposition parties, NGOs such as SUMATE, led by María Corina Machado (with the financial and political support of George Bush), management sectors of PDVSA, most of the major media outlets (mainly the major TV channels and radio stations), Fedecámaras (the country’s main business association), other business associations, and the Venezuelan Workers’ Union (CTV—the country’s main bureaucratic trade union, led at the time by the Democratic Action party, in the person of Carlos Ortega), among other political and social forces, carried out a coup d’état against the then president of Venezuela, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías. All of this was driven and supported politically, logistically, and financially by US imperialism, under the administration of George W. Bush, president of the United States at the time.
After weeks of pressure, marches, massive mobilizations, and street rallies, mainly in Caracas but also in other major cities across the country, on April 11, a massive opposition march was directed toward the Miraflores Palace with the intention of occupying it. This led to clashes at Puente Llaguno between sectors of the metropolitan police and armed groups allied with the coup in progress, with sectors loyal to the government defending the palace, resulting in a significant number of injuries and deaths. While this was happening, sectors of the armed forces linked to the coup attempt kidnapped Chávez and took him to the island of Orchila. Hours later, in the early hours of April 12, the then General-in-Chief of the Army, Lucas Rincón Romero, appeared on television announcing that, on behalf of the Venezuelan Military High Command, they had requested Chávez’s resignation and that he had accepted.
“The members of the Military High Command of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela deplore the unfortunate events that took place in the capital city yesterday. In view of these events, the President of the Republic was asked to resign from his post, which he accepted. The members of the High Command are placing their posts at the disposal of the officers appointed by the new authorities.” (12-04-2002, 3:20 a.m., Inspector General of the Army Lucas Rincón Romero) [15]
The coup had taken place, and Pedro Carmona Estanga, then president of the employers’ association Fedecámaras, was invested and sworn in as president of the Republic before the national parliament, where he made a series of announcements to the country.
After a few hours of confusion, the country’s working class and popular masses began to react. Trade unions, neighborhood associations, popular movements, student groups, and others began to occupy the streets of the country’s major cities and to go through neighborhoods and towns to explain the invalidity of Chávez’s supposed resignation and to call on people to take to the streets to demand his return. These calls resulted in massive demonstrations in the country’s main cities. In Caracas, the population of the largest neighborhoods occupied the city center and surrounded the Miraflores Palace, demanding Chávez’s return. In response, the Chavista leadership began to reappear and take up their government posts, while the troops and the middle and lower ranks of the military sided with the masses, refraining from repression and applauding and encouraging the demonstrations around the palace. High-ranking officers loyal to the government reappeared and took command of the troops. Popular pressure caused the coup leaders and their allies to flee the Miraflores Palace in a stampede. The then-president of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, was sworn in as president at the end of April 12, and in the early hours of April 13, Chávez was brought back and reinstated as president of the Republic.
There are enormous differences between that moment and the present one. Fundamentally, at that time, Chávez was a legitimately elected president and was perceived as such by the masses (although we did already have criticisms of him and his policies). As a result, he enjoyed enormous prestige and support from the mass movement, mainly from the popular sectors, but also from sectors of considerable weight in the trade union and student movements. This explains the massive mobilizations to defeat the coup and bring him back to the presidency.
None of this is happening with Maduro today. On the contrary, he is a fraudulent president who was defeated in the last presidential election and took office by ignoring the will of the masses, that is, the vast majority of the Venezuelan population and political forces in the country. Maduro has no popular support, which is why the masses and the working class are not mobilizing in his defense.
Total rejection of imperialist intervention, no political support for Maduro and the Chavista regime
The rejection that we, the vanguard sectors, mostly left-wing and revolutionary organizations, express against imperialist intervention in Venezuela and even against the kidnapping of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, cannot be confused with political support for him. On the contrary, we denounce his pro-boss, anti-worker, dictatorial, corrupt character and his submission to imperialism.
What we defend is Venezuelan sovereignty, which is being attacked by US imperialism at a level of colonialism infinitely worse to Maduro’s level of subservience. We denounce Maduro’s kidnapping as an act of interference by the US, which assigns itself the right to decide the political destiny of Venezuela and to impose governments on this country. We are against this in Venezuela and in any other country in the world. The political destinies of countries and their governments must be decided by their own peoples. The United States has no right or political or moral authority to interfere in this, least of all by use of military force. Consequently, we also reject and denounce the collaborationist pact to impose the government of Delcy Rodríguez and the colonial patronage imposed by the Trump administration on the political and economic direction of the country.
We reject the strategy of US imperialism to reintroduce “gunboat diplomacy,” as well as the continental and hemispheric colonial pretensions set out in the US National Security Strategy 2025.
A policy and program to confront imperialist plans and government collaborationism
As we have said throughout this article, there is a pact of patronage—collaborationism—between US imperialism and the Chavista regime, now headed by Delcy Rodríguez, which has turned Chavismo from being a problematic but ultimately submissive subject of US imperialism, to a project that is completely collaborating with the US. This makes any kind of political unity with this regime to confront the plans of US imperialism unthinkable and impossible.
This colonial pact stems from the objective of intensifying the plundering of our oil and other resources, which has always been the goal of Donald Trump as the highest representative of the planet’s leading imperialist power. This pact is part of a broader strategy to deepen political, geopolitical, economic, and military control over the entire Latin American continent and the Western Hemisphere.
The task before us in Venezuela, then, is to build a broad unity of action with the sectors that oppose Yankee interventionism and its colonial pretensions in the country, even as we oppose the Chavista regime, giving it no political support neither when it was headed by Maduro nor now by Rodríguez, in order to defeat these colonial pretensions in the country, but also at the continental and hemispheric levels.
We believe that a program to defeat this pact and this policy of US imperialism involves categorically rejecting imperialist attacks against Venezuela and interference in the country’s political affairs, defending Venezuela’s sovereign right to choose its own government.
Likewise, we must reject the recent oil agreements that deepen the surrender of our oil and energy resources by Chavismo to the US and the plundering and pillaging of these resources by the government of this imperialist country, and reject from the outset the possible extension of these agreements to other sectors such as minerals.
It is necessary to completely nationalize the oil industry, putting an end to joint venture agreements with transnational corporations and expelling them from the oil business. Trump and transnational corporations must be expelled from the oil business. The non-payment of the foreign debt must also be a central slogan of this program, as must the rejection of the intervention of US private banks in the management of the nation’s resources and financial operations.
In addition to this, we must demand an increase in the minimum wage and pensions to match the level of the basic basket of goods, an end to wageless income structures, as well as the repeal of Memorandum 2792 and the Onapre directive, and the restoration of all violated labor, contractual, union, and social rights.
For the restoration and respect of democratic, political, and union freedoms, an end to repression, no criminalization of labor and social protests, respect for the right to political expression, and the legalization of political parties and organizations currently banned by the dictatorship!
Immediate and full freedom for all political prisoners and all union, social, and popular activists detained for fighting in defense of their rights, freedom for all those detained for the protests of October 28, 29, and 30, 2024. No to piecemeal releases or revolving door mechanisms[16]!
Arms for the workers to confront imperialist military aggression!
No to the colonization of Venezuela. Let us defeat the colonizing pretensions of Donald Trump and Yankee imperialism in the country, in Latin America, and in the Western Hemisphere!
References
Trump and Yankee imperialism out of Venezuela and Latin America!
[1] The last one was at the end of 1989, specifically on December 17, 1989, when US troops occupied Panama. After thirteen days of occupation, the then-president of the country, Manuel Noriega, was captured, transferred to the US, and tried on charges of drug trafficking.
[2] https://www.laestrella.com.pa/opinion/columnistas/ee-uu-declara-el-regreso-de-la-doctrina-monroe-IL18643694
[3] https://revistaopera.operamundi.uol.com.br/2025/12/19/a-nova-estrategia-nacional-de-seguranca-de-trump/
[4] Incompetence and betrayal explain Venezuela’s lack of resistance to the US.
[5] Who betrayed Maduro? https://www.tiempoar.com.ar/ta_article/quien-entrego-a-maduro/
[6] Ibid.
[7] Incompetence and betrayal explain Venezuela’s lack of resistance to the US.
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[8] Venezuela will transfer 50 million barrels of oil to the US.
[9] PDVSA confirms negotiations with the United States.
[10] https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/05/trump-venezuela-oil-fields-00710893
[11] https://t.me/jhormancruznoticias/72751
[12] https://serviciodeinformacionpublica.com/
[13] Inflation in Venezuela exceeds 500% amid increased pressure from Donald Trump https://www.bloomberglinea.com/latinoamerica/venezuela/inflacion-en-venezuela-supera-500-ante-mayor-presion-de-donald-trump/
[14]
Memorandum 2792 gives public and private employers free rein to modify working conditions and eliminate established benefits at their discretion and convenience. Meanwhile, the Onapre instruction, drawn up by the National Budget Office, lowered the basis for calculating bonuses and allowances, which went from being the salary actually received by workers according to the salary scale to the minimum wage. It also established salary tables that tend to equalize the salaries of public administration workers downward.
[15] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_Rinc%C3%B3n_Romero
[16] Name given to the practice of releasing some political prisoners while arresting others.
