Millions of Americans were shocked when it came out recently that the US military killed two men who were helpless and clinging to the wreckage of a boat that had been bombed by US forces in the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela. There is no question that this was a war crime. Now at least 104 people have been murdered in the Trump regime’s campaign of extra-judicial attacks on boats in international waters in the Caribbean and the Pacific. The US seizure of oil tankers threatens to escalate the situation.
These attacks are illegal and immoral, and so is all the other military, economic and political pressure that has been put on Venezuela since 1998. None of this benefits the people of Venezuela or the American people. White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles recently admitted that the pressure on Venezuela is about regime change and has nothing to do with stopping the drug trade. Trump himself has said Venezuela is under threat because the US wants the country’s vast oil reserves (the largest in the world), and other assets.
Yale historian Greg Grandin has said the looming war against Venezuela is also about the larger agenda of the US billionaires and corporations, who feel threatened by the more than $200 billion in Chinese investment in Latin America over the last two decades, and who also want to see all of Latin America’s more progressive governments overturned. This means that not only Venezuela but Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia and Brazil are under the gun. The US wants to reassert its control over its historic “back yard” in Latin America.
It’s estimated the US military task force deployed off of Venezuela is costing $18.5 million per day – a total of $600 million so far, as of early November. (This is on top of the $900 billion defense bill that Congress recently passed.) Meanwhile, unemployment is rising in the US, millions are homeless, and millions of people can’t afford to pay the rent, buy gas, child care and groceries or go to the doctor, all while tens of millions who rely on food stamps, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act are facing cuts or losing their benefits altogether. And don’t forget the roughly $117 billion in tax cuts the top 1% will get in 2026 – more than the bottom 60% of the people combined.
In recent polls, as much as 70% of Americans oppose any American military intervention in Venezuela, and 53% oppose the bombings of the boats.
The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers union said in a December statement, “Our government’s escalating attacks on Venezuela are unconstitutional, immoral, and a massive waste of resources. The idea that Venezuela represents a military threat to the U.S. is patently absurd; the use of the U.S. military to carry out lethal attacks on fishing boats and seize oil tankers amounts to simple murder and piracy. We demand that our government immediately cease these attacks, and that Congress exercise its power to reign in this overreach by the executive branch.”
Veterans For Peace said in a Dec. 18 statement that it “demands that the U.S. government withdraws its military forces from the Caribbean and abandons its campaign of regime change in Venezuela and throughout Latin America. We call on all U.S. military personnel to fulfill their legal and moral obligation to refuse unlawful orders to participate in illegal wars or war crimes. When you take such a moral and courageous stance, Veterans For Peace and many others will stand with you.”
On Dec. 6, thousands of people in 65 US cities and towns took to the streets to say “no war with Venezuela.” One organizer, Sanika Mahajan, told a reporter, “We know that any money spent on war is money not spent on our communities. The people of the United States do not want to get dragged into another war. We do not want to pay for another war that benefits the richest people.”
