U.S. Hands Off Venezuela!

Once again, the Wall Street-captured, war-promoting, servants of the one percent—who administer the U.S. government at the pleasure of, and solely in the interest of, corporate America—have deigned to command a sovereign nation as to how to handle its internal affairs.

In a further escalation of the U.S. government’s long-running campaign against the elected Venezuelan government, Vice President Mike Pence pledged on Tuesday, Jan. 22, his “unwavering support” for opposition moves aimed at unseating the elected president Nicolás Maduro. The following day, in violation of international law and the right of self-determination, President Trump formally recognized U.S. puppet politician Juan Guaidó as the legitimate Venezuelan leader. On Jan. 24, The New York Times joined the war chorus, proclaiming, “The Trump administration is right to support Mr. Guaidó.”

To the chagrin of U.S. robber barons, Maduro was elected in 2013 in a process the Carter Center previously called the “best in the world.” Maduro was then re-elected in 2018. Fearing another electoral defeat and seeking to deny Maduro legitimacy, the rightist opposition boycotted that election, with the strong encouragement of its U.S. sponsors.

This latest act of U.S. imperial aggression is not the first of its kind directed against Venezuela or other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that refuse to march in lock step with U.S. corporate interests. Other hostile actions include:

• The illegal, decades long economic blockade of Cuba.
  
• The invasion of Guatemala in 1954.
  
• The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961.
  
• The invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965.
  
• The U.S. supported coup in Chile in 1973.
  
• The Contra war against Nicaragua from 1981-1990.
  
• CIA-backed  Haiti coups, 1991 and 2004  & U.S. occupations.
  
• The invasion of Grenada in 1983.
  
• The invasion of Panama in 1989.
  
• CIA backed coups in Haiti in 1991 and 2004, including years of occupations.
  
• The U.S. supported coup in Honduras in 2009.
  
• Material aid to Nicaraguan opposition groups from at least 2016 to the present.
  
• Support for Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil.
  
• The U.S.-supported coup against Hugo Chavez in Venezuela in 2002.
  
• Economic sanctions against Venezuela from 2006 to the present.
  
• A special $5 million fund for Venezuelan opposition groups established by Barak Obama in 2011.
  
• Coup attempts against Venezuela’s Maduro in 2015 and 2018.
  

The same corporate behemoths that push for cutbacks, layoffs, offshoring, and austerity here at home—all to maximize corporate profits—are behind the latest threats against Venezuela. Working people in the U.S. only lose if the one percent succeeds in imposing their will on the Venezuelan people or anyone else.

Many have justifiably criticized the capitalist Chavez and Maduro government policies from the left. But in the current context, under the threat of U.S. intervention, this is not the overriding consideration. Any changes or improvement in the Venezuelan government are for the Venezuelan people alone to make.

The U.S. imperial machine has no progressive role to play in Venezuela or elsewhere! The last thing U.S. corporate leaders want is a truly mobilized, active, and empowered Venezuelan working class. In the U.S., antiwar and working-class activists must take to the streets to demand, “U.S. Out Now!”

Hands Off Venezuela! No to the U.S.-Sponsored Coup Efforts! No to U.S. Sanctions and Military, Economic and Political Efforts to Bring Down the Venezuelan Government! Not One Dollar for the U.S. War Machine! End All U.S. Government Covert Operations! Fund Jobs, Education, and Healthcare, not the Pentagon!

— Statement of the Political Committee of Socialist Action