At two o’clock in the morning on January 3, dozens of U.S. helicopters and planes invaded Venezuelan territory, unleashing a brutal wave of bombings on airports and barracks in Caracas and other cities. Shortly afterward, Donald Trump announced the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and their transfer to New York to be “tried.” Thus was consummated a criminal imperialist aggression not only against a sovereign nation, but also against the oppressed peoples of Latin America and the entire world.
Once again, the machinery of death and destruction of U.S. imperialism has been set in motion with a very precise objective: to impose its will through blood and fire, to send a message of strength to enemies and allies alike, and to establish a far‑right puppet regime in Caracas that would allow it to regain control over the world’s largest oil reserves and other resources coveted by U.S. multinationals.
Trump’s triumphant speech, reminiscent of Hitler in the 1930s
In case anyone had doubts, Trump himself made his objectives crystal clear in a press conference which will go down in history. Surrounded by the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, the Secretary of War, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, the U.S. president emulated Hitler in the 1930s. Not only did he deliver a nationalist and supremacist speech, he threatened the entire world, declaring that the United States has the largest army on the planet and is prepared to use it at will. His entourage paid tribute to him like an invincible Caesar, waving the specter of MAGA and U.S. supremacy. There is no precedent for such a spectacle except in the era when fascists and Nazis held power in Italy and Germany.
The roadmap laid out by the U.S. president is clear: “We are going to control Venezuela until there is a safe, proper, and sensible transition; it has to be sensible, because that is our goal.” At another part of his speech, he was explicit in hammering home his objectives: “We are ready to carry out a second, much larger attack if necessary (…) In fact, we assumed a second wave would be needed, but now it probably won’t be, since the first attack was so successful that we probably won’t have to do a second one — but we are prepared to do it.”
One of the largest parts of his speech was devoted to the imperialist control of Venezuela’s oil industry. To quote him directly: “As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a failure, a total failure, for a long time. They were extracting almost nothing compared to what they could have extracted and what could have happened. Our great American oil companies, the largest in the world, will invest billions of dollars to repair the oil infrastructure, which is in very bad shape, and begin generating revenue for the country.”
And of course, he did not forget Hugo Chávez, whose mausoleum was bombed mercilessly: “We built the Venezuelan oil industry with American talent, initiative, and skill, and the socialist regime stole it from us during the previous administrations, and they did it by force. This was one of the greatest thefts of American property in the history of our country, considered the greatest property theft in our nation’s history. They took a massive oil infrastructure from us as if we were defenseless. And we did nothing about it. I would have done something. The United States will never allow foreign powers to steal from our people and drive us out of our own hemisphere.”
Emulating the Nazi party leader in his famous Berlin speeches, Trump boasted about the military power he commands: “No other nation in the world could have achieved what the United States accomplished this Saturday in such a short period of time.”
Trump’s appearance sends an unmistakable message: U.S. imperialism is willing to set the planet on fire, to use its military force to demonstrate that it will not be defeated in the inter‑imperialist struggle for hegemony. It is determined to go to the last consequences to achieve its objectives.
The collaboration of sectors of the Venezuelan military and the attitude of China and Russia
Pending more complete information that will emerge in the coming hours and days, one thing is clear: U.S. imperialism and Trump must have secured the support of a sector of the Venezuelan military higher echelons to allow the success of a large‑scale military and intelligence operation. The defense apparatus of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) was not mobilised, and the security ring meant to protect Maduro collapsed spectacularly.
A surgical strike of this precision cannot be improvised, it needed to guarantee manyt favorable elements. Over the past four months, U.S. imperialism has been able to act with total liberty, emboldened after devastating Gaza and presenting a sham peace plan alongside Netanyahu that legitimizes the Palestinian genocide and ethnic cleansing — a plan supported by all governments. During this period, it acted freely across the Middle East and sent very clear signals that it was prepared to go all the way in Venezuela. The institutions that supposedly safeguard peace have bowed before this reactionary figure, just as they did before Hitler in the 1930s.
Washington began by deploying a war fleet of between 15,000 and 25,000 military personnel in the Caribbean Sea and killing more than 100 defenseless civilians — Venezuelans, Colombians, and residents of nearby Trinidad and Tobago — most of them fishermen executed extrajudicially. Trump declared himself master of Venezuela’s coasts and airspace with the collaboration of major airlines and European and other governments, which obediently complied with his orders by suspending all flights. And the final blow came just 15 days ago, when the U.S. president diverted a Russian oil tanker and seized and blocked the so‑called “sanctioned tankers,” large vessels responsible for transporting Venezuelan oil to third countries, ultimately going to its main buyer: China.
With this overwhelming show of force, he sent a very clear message to the Venezuelan military leadership, achieving what he sought: opening a breach within it and ending the unity that had sustained Maduro until now.
But what ultimately convinced Trump and his advisers to deliver this decisive blow was the attitude of Moscow and Beijing. Both Putin’s regime and Xi Jinping’s regime abandoned the Venezuelan president and his inner circle — supposedly among their firmest allies in Latin America — to their fate. In the weeks leading up to this brutal attack, China and Russia made almost no statements and mobilized no military resources to deter Washington. They did nothing visible to defend Venezuela, despite having the material and human means to do so decisively.
Moscow and Beijing knew perfectly well what was going to happen, but remained silent and did nothing, repeating the shameful behavior they displayed in the face of the genocide in Gaza: despite the massacre suffered by the Palestinian people, they continue to trade with and sign numerous agreements with Netanyahu’s regime. From this emerges a profound and painful lesson for the world working class: China and Russia are no alternative for the oppressed of the world. They are capitalist and imperialist powers with a very specific agenda: to defend the economic and geopolitical interests of their ruling class above all else. The fact that they do not have the same criminal record as the United States does not change their nature.
The great imperialist game for the division of the world
The tightening of the U.S. imperialist grip on Venezuela has advanced in parallel with negotiations over Ukraine. Everything indicates that Trump’s envoys in those negotiations secured Moscow’s blessing for the offensive on Caracas: “We guarantee you victory in Ukraine, but you do not lift a finger in Venezuela.”
Such is what remains of the speeches about multilateralism and multipolarity with which Xi Jinping and Putin so often fill their mouths to disguise their imperialist character — speeches in which much of the governmental left in Latin America, Europe, and the world has placed its hopes.
The brutal blow that Trump has struck in Venezuela is a definitive response to that section of the left whose entire anti‑imperialist strategy pivots on the false and reactionary idea that the enemy of our enemy is our friend, granting Moscow and Beijing credentials as “defenders of the sovereignty of the peoples.”
As Lenin explained, under imperialism all decisive questions ultimately end up being resolved by force, through war. That is the law governing the division of the spoils among the imperialist bandits. And that is what Trump is. And both Xi Jinping and Putin are fully aware that any serious resistance to Trump’s plans would require the rise of a mass anti‑imperialist movement throughout Latin America, one that could take on a revolutionary character. But neither Moscow nor Beijing wants a socialist revolution, nor do they fight for one anywhere. Such a revolution would directly threaten the profits and alliances that the major monopolies of their respective countries maintain with the capitalist governments of Latin America and the rest of the world.
It seems evident that China and Russia have decided to place their strategic and economic interests in Ukraine, Africa, and Asia above their commitments to Maduro and the Venezuelan regime. The idea has taken hold that, even if they lose Venezuela, they still maintain significant economic positions in other Latin American countries—especially in the region’s most powerful economy, Brazil—while also trusting that, in the medium term, their economic superiority will continue to assert itself and weaken their North American rival.
But in any case, the events in Venezuela represent a severe blow to the political prestige of China and Russia. It shows that a military superpower, even one that has clearly shown its economic decline, is determined to go all the way, it can impose itself and secure major advantages. Trump may achieve in Venezuela the political victory that U.S. imperialism has been pursuing for more than two decades, and he will undoubtedly use it to strengthen his offensive strategy. The result will be more violence and war across the world, and a nightmare for the people of Venezuela
The counterrevolution at Washington’s service rubs its hands
After removing Maduro from the country, Washington’s next step will very likely be to force some kind of transitional government—without ruling out the participation of military commanders—that will propose a timetable to call elections within a few months. At the same time, they will stir up mobilisations organised by the far right, thanking the US for the “liberation” and manufacturing an image of themselves as “benefactors” of the Venezuelan people.
Trump’s Venezuelan puppet, the far‑right María Corina Machado—an embarrassing Nobel Peace Prize laureate who carries on her shoulders dozens of deaths resulting from terrorist and coup‑related actions—has already announced her intention to return to Venezuela, run as a candidate, and occupy the presidential palace of Miraflores. Machado has promised that Maduro will answer for his “atrocious” crimes and that Washington has “kept its promise to enforce the law.” “We are prepared to take power,” she wrote on her social media.
But the US president also stated at the Mar‑a‑Lago press conference that he has not yet contacted the opposition leader, and above all expressed doubts about her leadership capacity: “She does not have [enough] support inside the country, she does not have respect inside the country.”
With Maduro out of the game, the first statements from other leaders such as Vice President Delcy Rodríguez or Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello show how deeply they have been shaken. They are in shock, calling on the population to remain calm and maintain national unity—an image that inspires very little confidence. Even Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at the presidential press conference that he “held a long conversation” with the Venezuelan vice president, and that she, according to his words, “has placed herself at the disposal of the White House.”
It is likely that decisive sectors of the regime and the military leadership have been negotiating with Washington for days. And the reality is that they will have no qualms about offering their services to a Trump‑controlled puppet regime. Many of the current leading figures of the Venezuelan state turned their backs on Hugo Chávez’s legacy long ago and embarked on policies that undermined the social and political gains of the Bolivarian revolution, dragging the name of socialism through the mud.
We are witnessing a brutal counterrevolutionary coup, orchestrated by US imperialism with support from the highest levels of the state. And they struck at a moment when popular support for Maduro was at its lowest point. This defeat will not stop at a simple change of government. Trump and his Venezuelan agents will launch an all‑out offensive to plunder Venezuela’s oil resources, and destroy anything that smells of revolution or the left. Sooner or later there will be a mass reaction, but in the short and medium term the effects of this defeat will be undeniable.
Venezuela was the most advanced point of the revolutionary wave that shook Latin America during the first decade of the 21st century. All attempts at coups, assassinations, and military intervention against the Bolivarian revolution were defeated by mass mobilisation. This outcome is the result of years spent dismantling all those anti‑imperialist and revolutionary policies—repressing them, persecuting and even imprisoning activists of the anti‑capitalist and anti‑bureaucratic left—while relying entirely on the support of Chinese and Russian imperialists and on pacts with the Venezuelan bourgeoisie itself, including those who organised coups, assassination attempts, and sabotage to bring down Chávez and the revolutionary process.
And the most harmful effect s has been the demoralisation and demobilisation of millions of young people, workers, and peasants, who look with anger and indignation at the criminal intervention of US imperialism, but also at the current leaders and see no willingness to resist, nor any determination to correct course with policies in their favour.
At this moment it is not possible to outline a definitive perspective, but there is one main lesson burned into the memory for communists, the combative left, and the mass movement. The reformist “lesser‑evil” policies—of making pacts with sectors of the bourgeoisie or with imperialist powers rival to the US—can only lead to disaster. The only path to confront militarism, imperialist war, capitalist barbarism, and the neo‑fascist reaction is to raise the programme of socialist revolution and proletarian internationalism.
We have the obligation to draw all the lessons from this counterrevolutionary coup, to promote active solidarity with the Venezuelan people by organising the strongest mobilisations possible, and to continue denouncing all the accomplices of Trump and of imperialism in this aggression, starting with the social democracy and its servile attitude. This is the moment to redouble all efforts to build socialist organisation and consciousness.
Down with the imperialist intervention in Venezuela!
For proletarian internationalism, for the world socialist revolution!
