For the Immediate Formation of an Anti-Imperialist United Front

Open Letter to Trade Unions, Movements, and Political Currents that Oppose the Military Invasion of Venezuela and the Kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro by the United States

For the Immediate Formation of an Anti-Imperialist United Front

January 6, 2026

The predictable military action by the United States against Venezuela, with the objective of overthrowing the government headed by Nicolás Maduro, was carried out on January 3. Among the political forces that condemned the arrogant intervention ordered by Trump, many—perhaps the majority—did not include this possibility in their calculations or chose to turn a blind eye to it.

The siege established by imperialism in the Caribbean Sea since August 2025, and expanded in the following months, with the prominent presence of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford, made clear the objective of overthrowing the nationalist Chavista regime. It must be emphasized that a significant part of the left fell short of the task of organizing an anti-imperialist movement against “Operation Absolute Resolution” and the explicit objective of the White House to annihilate the Venezuelan government.

The bombing of vessels in the Caribbean and more than one hundred deaths under the pretext of combating “narco-terrorism,” followed by the blockade of oil tankers, were unmistakable signs that the immense military apparatus established in the region was preparing the invasion of Venezuela. Trade-union currents and organizations that claim to defend the sovereignty of oppressed nations witnessed before their eyes the military operations and political mobilization of governments aligned with the United States, which would culminate in “Operation Absolute Resolution” in the early hours of January 3.

It is true that there were many verbal protests, but very few actions aimed at mobilizing the exploited and building the anti-imperialist united front.

Latin American bourgeois governments were divided between those who supported Trump and those who refused to collaborate with “Operation Absolute Resolution.” The majority that succumbed to U.S. pressure expresses the policy of the openly pro-imperialist and servile right and far right. The minority that sheltered under the banners of non-intervention, respect for international law, diplomatic solutions, and the preservation of multilateralism proved incapable of reacting by relying on anti-imperialist mobilizations.

The United States established the siege under conditions of Venezuela’s complete isolation. Once absolute control of the Caribbean Sea was secured, they were able to invade the country, bomb defensive positions in Caracas, kill more than 80 soldiers—including 32 Cubans—penetrate the bunker where President Maduro had taken refuge, and kidnap him without a single U.S. soldier being killed.

The arrogant action of the United States—which trampled on Venezuela’s sovereignty, disregarded the bourgeois international order, and ignored appeals from governments advocating peace in Latin America and worldwide—demonstrated the advanced stage of capitalism’s decomposition.

Trump made it clear how free the United States is to attack countries lacking minimal conditions of defense, as is clearly the case with Venezuela. Moreover, how free it is to unfurl the Monroe Doctrine, impose alignments on economically broken countries, drag dependent governments along, blockade the Caribbean Sea, and intimidate the Latin American continent as a whole.

The current U.S. offensive and the policy of overthrowing governments that do not submit to its dictates have well-known precedents that expressed—and continue to express—the Monroe Doctrine. Therefore, domination of the entire continent was historically imposed and maintained by arms and by the political directive of subjugating semi-colonial and oppressed countries.

The United States became the greatest power, surpassing England through wars, the partition of the world, and plunder. The hegemony achieved in the Second World War clashed with the survival of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the revolutionary gains of the working class in Eastern Europe. The Cold War developed under conditions of reconstruction and subordination of Europe and Japan. NATO was conceived and structured as an instrument of U.S. hegemony, aimed at recovering the ground won by the Russian Revolution and the construction of the USSR.

In Latin America, the Cold War unfolded against the Cuban Revolution, nationalist bourgeois and petty-bourgeois movements, and governments that defended national sovereignty. The collapse of the USSR was the greatest victory of imperialism after the Second World War—an event of historic transcendence that served to consolidate U.S. hegemony.

It is within this framework that U.S. imperialism encouraged and propelled the process of capitalist restoration in China. The strengthening of the Chinese economy on the basis of the market economy began to collide with the vast economic domination of the United States, which had established itself on all continents. Trade war is a phenomenon fundamentally inherent to capitalism in its imperialist epoch, harboring within it belligerent tendencies and wars of domination.

The economic crisis of 2008–2009 had the particularity, compared to previous postwar crises, of exposing the contradictions of the U.S. economy at the epicenter of the process of global capitalist disintegration. The collapse of a portion of parasitic capital combined with the need for the greatest power to intensify the trade war and shield itself with imperial protectionism. At the center of this economic and military movement emerged the confrontation between the United States and China. It was only a matter of time before the trade war expanded and took the form of continental-level clashes.

The intervention in Venezuela corresponds to a U.S. offensive in Latin America aimed at disciplining and limiting China’s economic penetration of the continent, rich in raw-material sources. U.S. imperialism could not coexist with the nationalization of the world’s largest oil reserve imposed by Hugo Chávez’s government on May 1, 2007.

The Bolivarian government was labeled a dictatorship fundamentally because it carried out expropriations and nationalizations that affected international and national capitalists. It would be considered democratic if it respected imperialist domination and fulfilled the role of serving the plunder of the oppressed nation.

The United States imposed brutal economic sanctions on Venezuela, primarily aimed at preventing national development of oil extraction and refining. Systematically, it justified its violent actions against Venezuela and fostered a so-called democratic, pro-imperialist opposition under the banner of ending the Chavista dictatorship.

U.S. imperialism failed in numerous attempts to overthrow the governments of Chávez and Maduro. Only now, under conditions of heightened trade war, military escalation, and the profound economic and social crisis into which Venezuela was plunged, have the United States been able to deliver the harshest blow against the nationalist government by kidnapping the president of the Bolivarian Republic.

The downfall of bourgeois nationalism and the setbacks of the revolutionary movement of the oppressed masses have enabled—and continue to enable—the United States to impose its directive of subordinating Latin America to its interests and hegemony. Bourgeois nationalism is historically exhausted, even if it survives politically, and is incapable of resorting to the mobilization of the oppressed majority. There is no other way to defend Venezuela except through the means of class struggle. The proletariat therefore faces the task of combating the dictatorial offensive of U.S. bourgeois policy and its Trump government.

It falls to the Venezuelan working class to react by forming an anti-imperialist united front under its own program and leadership. To fight for the sovereignty of the oppressed nation under the orientation and revolutionary method of expropriating big capital and carrying out the most complete nationalization of raw-material sources and industry—that is, the means of production. It is on this ground that the banner of ending U.S. intervention and restoring Nicolás Maduro to the presidency is raised. This proletarian orientation must be embodied by the most advanced detachments of the anti-imperialist struggle in Latin America.

This Letter aims to call on trade unions, movements, and political currents to form an anti-imperialist united front clearly directed toward combating U.S. domination over Latin America, unconditionally defending Venezuela, fighting for the immediate liberation of President Maduro and his companion Cilia Flores, investigating the massacre of Venezuelans and Cubans, demanding that the countries that condemned the invasion militarily support Venezuelan resistance, and putting an end to the military siege in the Caribbean Sea.

Let us fight to defeat the imperialist siege of Venezuela!

For the immediate liberation of the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro!

Organize the anti-imperialist united front for the self-determination and sovereignty of oppressed nations!