Hands Off Venezuela: A Slogan that Unfortunately Needs Repeating – Protest NYC Sat. 9/6 1pm

If we do not have enough other issues to address – Trump has just attempted to provoke war with Venezuela – that nation carefully considering its response to the piracy at sea where the US obliterated a small boat based upon unproven accusations that it was aligned with a gang and transporting illegal drugs. NJ has a proud tradition of resistance to an atttempted coup by Trump during his first term when he tried to install Guaido the Clown who never got a single vote as the president of Venezuela – and he failed. NJ protested relentlessly sending two buses to separate DC protests and mobilizing platoons of protesters to resist the fascist and illegal invasion of the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington DC. We certainly need to build into our struggle the ability to respond and resist each and every escalation of US imperialist attacks on other nations – be they in Venezuela or be the US supporting Israel attacks on Iran and Yemen or launching attacks in Africa or anywhere. Those interested in organizing opposition to escalating warfare by Trump and the US in general, please reach out to this editor at Editor@FightBackBetter.com

On Tuesday, September 2nd, news broke that the US military had struck a Venezuelan ship that reportedly was carrying drugs to the US. This took place after the US sent warships south in a move that could only be called provocative toward the Maduro regime. And this after the US spent much of 2024 and some of 2023 interfering with Venezuelan elections in an effort to unseat Nicolas Maduro. During the lead up to the elections, there were nearly constant accusations by Maduro that the US backed opposition to his presidency were seeking to assassinate him or otherwise rig the upcoming presidential elections. These actions prompted Maduro’s government to ban certain candidates from running, in what might have looked to the outside as the moves of a “dictator” instead of the moves of a leader trying to prevent yet another outside coup. Regardless of one’s opinion of Maduro, much of these activities can be classified as illegal and others as just plain interference with Venezuelan sovereignty.

Seems like anti-war activists have been making this call over and over again, “Hands off Venezuela”, during the past 25 years, ever since the US attempted coup of Hugo Chavez in 2002. The US never likes Latin American countries asserting their sovereignty and so was not happy when the Chavez campaign initiated a program to educate the Venezuelan people about their new constitution and a recognition of the human rights of all. Nor were they happy when Chavez did all he could to keep control of Venezuelan oil in the hands of Venezuelan people and its government, instead of the hands of private, profit-making multinationals. Shifting profits from private industry to public control has always been expressed as a “threat” to US National Security, so maintain US elected officials. But honestly, it’s no threat at all, just a sign of the ideological divide between privatization — allowing private companies to profit from control over a public good — and nationalization of valuable resources.

As someone who now resides in Latin America, it is a sheer embarrassment to see how the US has treated its neighbors to the south. The US has treated Central and South America as its own private playground for years, acting as if Latin America exists to serve the needs of the north, instead of being granted the freedom to benefit from its own wealth of resources. When the US gets desperate for access to the resources or desperate to make more profit, it threatens Venezuela with violence, unilaterally imposed sanctions and attempted coups.

The Monroe Doctrine, adopted by the US in 1823, more than 200 years ago, continues to plague the people of Latin America. The stated purpose of the Monroe Doctrine was basically to “protect” Latin America from European intervention and colonialization, but it didn’t stop the US from exploiting the countries and the resources of Latin America. Many people in Latin America would like to be free from the stranglehold of US domination, but ending that isn’t as easy as one would think or hope. After all, in the last century, the US has attempted at least 41 coup d’etat in Latin America. And those are the ones we know about.

This latest act of destroying a ship and killing 11 people, because they were allegedly carrying drugs into the US is made without proof and again mentions the gang the US seems to be obsessed with, Tren de Aragua. The attack took place in international waters in an illegal act of piracy or aggression. In addition, many of us are aware that the “War on Drugs” simply sets up a pretext for violence, one that simply covers for ongoing efforts to bring gang violence to other countries and, in so doing, to destabilize these governments.

So let us say once again “Hands off Venezuela”!

What has happened between the US and Venezuela is yet another example of this paternalistic attitude, as well as a pretext for US intervention in Venezuelan affairs, to again attempt to gain control of Venezuela’s oil fields.