We at the People’s Tribune strongly condemn the US attack on Venezuela and we stand with the people of the US and world who denounce it. This unprovoked assault on the people and the government of a sovereign nation should stop at once; all US troops should be withdrawn from the area, and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, should be returned to Venezuela.
This insane and brutal attack is not simply one more outrage from the US government. Certainly it should be seen as an outgrowth of obscenities such as the ongoing US complicity in the Gaza genocide, and the attacks on Iran, Yemen and Nigeria, among many others. But it also marks a serious escalation of corporate America’s effort to impose its will by force on the whole world, to render Congress and international bodies like the UN impotent, and to trash the US Constitution and create an open, fascist dictatorship in the US. It marks the full emergence of the US as an out-of-control rogue state, run by high-tech robber barons and unconstrained by US or international law. This should deeply worry all of us.
Contrary to the pompous claims of Trump, Rubio, Hegseth and others, the terroristic bombing of neighborhoods in Caracas and other cities and the kidnapping of Maduro and his wife were not a display of strength, but a sign of weakness and desperation on the part of US billionaires and corporations. Speaking after the raid, Trump omitted the pretext about “stopping the drugs” and openly admitted that the attack was in large part about seizing Venezuela’s oil and other abundant natural resources. “We’re going to be taking out a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground,” he told reporters. In addition to having the largest proven oil reserves in the world, Venezuela has significant deposits of natural gas, the largest gold reserves in Latin America, iron ore, bauxite, diamonds, coal, nickel, copper, zinc, and rare earths.
The US billionaires know they are in danger of losing their fortunes and their power in the world. They know the $38 trillion national debt of the US is unsustainable, and the value of the US dollar is under pressure. They know the bubble in the financial markets could burst at any time. They know the growth of US domestic oil production is declining, and the US is low on other critical resources. They know they are locked in a fierce competition with China, Russia and many other countries for markets and resources, and they’re losing. They know that almost half our population is living in some level of poverty, while unemployment and the cost of living continue to rise, and the people are getting more angry as the economic crisis deepens. No wonder the billionaires tried a smash-and-grab robbery of Venezuela.
And they plan to do more; Trump has said Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Iran and Greenland are in the crosshairs. Don’t think he’s kidding.
The billionaires’ agenda is the opposite of what most Americans need. While millions in the US are going hungry and doing without housing and health care, the corporate-controlled government is cutting things like food stamps, Medicaid, and subsidized health insurance. Instead of spending money to take care of our people, the government is squandering billions on wars, on immoral immigration raids, on police and prisons, and on tax giveaways to the wealthy. The decades of immoral, US-initiated corporate wars up to now have not made anyone safer, richer or more free, except the billionaires.
Though most of the leading Democratic and Republican politicians are either silent, offering wimpy “criticism” or openly supporting the assault on Venezuela, there are some who are speaking out. Opposition to the attack has created an unlikely group of bedfellows – everyone from Marjorie Taylor Greene to Zohran Mamdani has come out against it. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson released a statement that said in part, “As we have said for the past two years, the dehumanization of migrants from Venezuela, and of immigrants generally, by the Far Right has laid the groundwork for military action in Central and South America. I strongly condemn the Trump administration’s inhumane treatment of migrants in our country and this illegal regime change abroad.”
Millions across the country and world have marched to express their anger. More needs to be done. Groups in this country and elsewhere are calling for political parties, unions, social movements and community organizations to unite and collaborate through coordinated actions, strikes and assemblies to rein in the US. We wholeheartedly support this sentiment.
As the Puerto Rican group Mothers Against the War said in a statement condemning the aggression against Venezuela, “Puerto Rican mothers do not forget. Our sons and daughters were sent to Iraq under the false pretext that weapons of mass destruction existed…Today, the same pattern is repeated: a new aggression is being justified through the discourse of the so-called war on drugs…We issue a direct call to military personnel, particularly Puerto Ricans serving in the armed forces, not to become accomplices to this invasion and to claim their right to conscientious objection…We reaffirm our commitment to peace, self-determination, and life. The Caribbean is a Zone of Peace.”
