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the United States’ war against Venezuela has been going on for almost 27 years, when Hugo Chávez won the presidency of that country and, together with his people, began a series of transformations that worried the lords of war and money. The people of Venezuela, with Chávez at the helm, moved forward with the recovery of their oil, managed to have their territory declared free of illiteracy through initiatives such as the Robinson Mission with the “Yes I Can” method. With the formation of communal power, which has been one of the most interesting popular power initiatives – and not free of contradictions – of the 21st century, large exploited and oppressed social sectors managed to propose something as authentic as it is contradictory: the Communal State. Venezuela thus became, for the US, a bad example for the world.
The US war against Venezuela in these 27 years has been constant and with different phases. Disinformation and media attacks have always been present, but so has financing of opposition groups and political and military advice for coups d’état. In the memorial of attacks remains the coup d’état and kidnapping of Hugo Chávez in 2002, which had the support of the US, and which was managed to be reversed thanks to the mobilized people. We also remember the assassination attempt in 2018 of Nicolás Maduro, with the use of drones and explosives. Along with disinformation, media attacks, political and military advice and financing, there are also economic sanctions, the freezing of accounts and other financial measures that always sought to suffocate the Venezuelan people.
While all forms of war were and are being applied against Venezuela, the US governments, their allies and some lost progressives were strengthening cardboard leaders through the media. Although time and time again Juan Guaidó, Corina Machado, Leopoldo López or Edmundo González said they would “win elections”, “have the support of society” and even be recognized as “presidents” by governments of other countries; Today it is clear that they were only disposable puppets of Washington.
The people of Venezuela resisted all of this, and continue to resist. It resisted the death of Hugo Chávez when they predicted that everything would end and it also resists today the kidnapping of its president Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores.
The people of Venezuela resist the multiple forms of war that are imposed on them from outside and also resist the contradictions and errors of their leadership and bureaucracy. They resisted and resist those wars that were never about democracy and human rights, which were always about oil and territory.
The intensification of the war against Venezuela in recent days is part, however, of a phase of global reorganization of capital, with the expansion of wars of conquest. In this phase, Venezuela’s oil continues to be the objective, but also to give a “disciplining” and fear-generating message: anyone who does not align can be the next target. “Every bomb that falls in Gaza also falls in the capitals and main cities of the world, they just haven’t realized it yet,” the Zapatistas said in 2023. Those bombs have already fallen in Venezuela.
Little by little more information is coming out about what happened a few days ago in Venezuela. Today we know, for example, that there was fierce resistance to the invasion, that Cuban internationalist fighters and also many Venezuelans fought for several hours. The balance is not official yet, but there is talk of at least 80 people killed and a hundred people injured on the Venezuelan side. Nicolás Maduro’s attitude during the transfers and in his presentation leaves more the impression that he is a winner in the battle, if by winning we understand that he and Cilia are alive, that the Bolivarian government continues, that his country was not conquered, that the narrative is winning and, most importantly, that the Venezuelan people will resist in the streets.
In the days that have passed and in the days to come, much misinformation will circulate. We must cling to an ethical position and to the truth: without the support of the legal apparatus of its country, the US government invaded Venezuela, kidnapped its president and his wife, murdered dozens of people – including civilians; It affected homes and educational centers, and today it is proposed to impose a kind of protectorate. Accustomed and prepared to resist, the people of Venezuela begin to leave the shock and to demonstrate in the streets. It needs the solidarity of the people of the world, and more importantly, the people of the world need the people of the USA intensifying the protests from within.
It is the time of the Venezuelan people. It is the time of the people of the world.
*Sociologist
