Defend Venezuelan Sovereignty in the Face of Escalating Provocations by the U.S.

The Resist US-Led War Movement strongly condemns the US' escalating militarization of the Caribbean and the coastal waters of Venezuela, including the provocative deployment of warships and a nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine near the sovereign territory of the Bolivarian Republic. This aggressive military buildup constitutes a direct threat to the government and people of Venezuela and a blatant violation of its national sovereignty and independence.

The United States has long treated Latin America as its backyard, a stance formalized by the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 and repeatedly enforced through military intervention. From the Spanish-American War to Roosevelt’s 1904 declaration of the US as an “international police power,” the region has endured more than two centuries of overt and covert meddling. This latest escalation on Venezuela follows new US economic tariffs against Brazil, heightened political pressure on Colombia, and threats to invade Mexico, extending Washington’s political and military encirclement of Latin America.

Following the victory of the Bolivarian Revolution in 1999, US imperialism has relentlessly targeted Venezuela through sanctions, intervention attempts, and media warfare aimed not only at the government but at the entire nation. In his first term the Trump administration dramatically escalated this aggression by imposing devastating oil sanctions in 2019, unilaterally recognizing coup leader Juan Guaidó as so-called “interim president,” and freezing Venezuelan state assets abroad. These measures, continued under Biden, have severely crippled Venezuela’s economy, blocking access to food, medicine, and basic commodities while strangling the nation’s ability to participate in international trade.

Trump's most recent provocation involves assembling a naval strike force capable of launching 268 Tomahawk missiles and landing 4,000 Marines under the false pretext of counter-narcotics operations. Amidst these deployed military forces, the US carried out an aerial strike of a ship in Venezuelan territory, claiming to kill 11 people, branded as "narcoterrorists" by Trump posting a video on X, with no substantive evidence or judicial process before taking unilateral military action and murdering Venezuelans. At the same time, the US increased its bounty on President Nicolás Maduro to $50 million and continuously conducted joint military exercises with Guyana along the Venezuelan border, a clear attempt to intimidate the Bolivarian Republic and lay the groundwork for full-scale intervention.

This operation, intensifying since early August, forms part of a broader intimidation campaign against Venezuela, a political-military siege disguised as a “counter-narcotics” operation. Such narratives, like the “war on terror” before it, have historically been used to justify invading nations, assassinating leaders, and plundering resources. Venezuela’s oil reserves, the largest in the world, estimated at 303.8 billion barrels, represent a key strategic interest for the United States, that before the Bolivarian Revolution, was dominated by US-led multinational corporations, a control broken only by the nationalization and sovereignty regained under Chávez.

In response to the escalating provocations, the Venezuelan people have mounted growing popular resistance in defense of their national sovereignty. President Maduro has mobilized 15,000 soldiers, naval patrols, drones, and military vessels to actively defend Venezuela and the Caribbean. Caracas has intensified maritime surveillance operations, particularly in the Gulf of Venezuela and Lake Maracaibo, regions threatened by US naval movements. Maduro also condemned the deployment of nuclear-capable vessels as a grave breach of the UN Charter, declaring: “No empire will touch the sacred soil of the Bolivarian homeland!”

The success of the Bolivarian Revolution in breaking the US' decades-long grip on Venezuela is exactly why Washington has repeatedly tried to overthrow its government, from supporting the failed 2002 coup attempt against Hugo Chávez and many others after that, to waging relentless economic warfare through sanctions and threatening military intervention. In the face of this imperial aggression, the Resist US-Led War Movement expresses its full solidarity with the Venezuelan people and their ongoing struggle to defend their sovereignty.

US HANDS OFF VENEZUELA
US OUT OF EVERYWHERE