Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network declares its full and complete solidarity with the people and government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which today confronts not only over a decade of U.S. imposed coercive economic measures and economic warfare, nor imperialist military assaults on its trade and citizenry at sea, but a full-fledged ground and air aggression by the United States, targeting the capital Caracas, as well as the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira. U.S. President Donald Trump is even boasting of kidnapping the legitimate President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro Moros. At this moment, it is urgent for all who stand against imperialism, particularly in the United States and throughout the imperial core, to stand with Venezuela against U.S. imperialism and its criminal military aggression.
The aggression against Venezuela is cut from the same cloth as the ongoing U.S.-Zionist assault on Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, and throughout the region, including the ongoing and escalated war threats against Iran. As the U.S. bombs and invades the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela — notably, just days after Trump’s meeting with fellow war criminal, Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu — the Zionist regime is threatening yet more attacks on Lebanon, as it continues to bomb the South on a daily basis, and on Gaza, where it continues its genocide, even amid the one-sided “ceasefire.”
The U.S. has even attacked the mausoleum of Venezuelan leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, Hugo Chavez, who famously declared in 2009 that the Zionist entity was guilty of genocide in Gaza and expressed his strong support for the Palestinian people’s liberation struggle. As in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Iran, once again, it is imperative to affirm full solidarity with Venezuela’s right to defend itself and to resist U.S. imperialist assault.
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is being targeted today for its resources and its oil, which war criminal Trump openly boasts of demanding for U.S. control, domination and exploitation. However, more than simply for its oil, Venezuela is being targeted because the Bolivarian Republic stands, clearly and firmly, for the right of the people and government of Venezuela to control its own destiny and future, and for the rights of the people of the world to do so. This includes breaking all ties with the Zionist entity and repeatedly standing in international forums for Palestine.
In 2018, Ahmad Sa’adat, imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a prominent leader of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, wrote:
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has been a stalwart friend of the Palestinian people. In all international arenas and forums and through practical support and material solidarity, the Venezuelan people and state have stood with the Palestinian people, confronting imperialism and Zionism. Venezuela’s rejection of diplomatic ties with the Israeli colonial regime stands as an example in the world of principled solidarity and boycott, especially as the Palestinian movement, including the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, urges international boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel… We know well the words and actions of Hugo Chavez in support of the Palestinian people and his clear condemnations of the Zionist attacks on the Palestinian people. ‘The State of Israel has become a murderous lackey at the service of imperialism…It’s a genocidal government. I condemn that Zionist government that persecutes the heroic Palestinian people,’ Chavez said. His words on Palestine and in support of the struggle of our people have bolstered the strength and resolve of Palestinians everywhere.
Venezuela has been, for over a decade, targeted by sanctions and siege — illegal unilateral coercive measures — imposed by the United States. This has formed a fully fledged hybrid economic war on Venezuela, for the purpose of “regime change” to a Venezuelan “opposition” that is fully in the pocket of U.S. imperialism and allied with Zionism. It has also birthed creative and resilient responses to U.S. coercion, in alliance with other targeted states, such as Iran, as well as expanded trade with China, Russia, and other BRICS powers. This is the same policy of siege and starvation that has been intensified and focused for the past 17 years upon Palestine and its Resistance in Gaza. It is extended to the policy of “anti-terror” designations and individualized sanctions imposed upon every identified individual in the world involved in confronting U.S. imperialism, which the U.S. demands be treated as global edicts.
This refusal to allow the U.S. to control the trade in Venezuela’s world-largest oil reserves is part of the global effort to shatter the hegemony of U.S. imperialism and dollar domination of international trade. Venezuela is targeted today, alongside its leaders, because, like Simon Bolivar, from whom the Bolivarian Republic takes its name, it defends sovereignty, freedom, self-determination and the entire global South against imperialism; because Venezuela has dared, since its Revolution, to say ‘NO’ to empire.
The kidnapping of legitimate Venezuelan President Maduro is yet another egregious adventure by U.S. imperialism, following failed efforts to use collaborators and bribes to secure their goals. Before being subjected to this invasion and kidnapping, he was targeted with a $15 million U.S. bounty on his head. The kidnapping and assassination of leaders is a strategy used by the imperialist-Zionist alliance in Palestine, in Yemen, in Lebanon, in Iran and throughout the region, as is the posting of extensive bounties seeking to market the lives of those who refuse U.S. imperialism. In fact, many of the Resistance leaders targeted by the occupation (often with U.S. intelligence as well as nearly always with U.S. weaponry) have been targeted by such bounties, including the martyrs Saleh al-Arouri (martyred two years ago yesterday), Haitham Ali Tabataba’i, assassinated just 40 days ago in Lebanon, and, of course, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, assassinated with 80 tons of U.S.-made explosives. The combination of kidnapping, imprisonment and assassination of leaders is the standard imperialist and colonialist playbook, epitomized by the campaign of imprisonment and assassination targeting the Palestinian resistance.
Indeed, this 3 January assault on Venezuela comes six years to the date after the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis in Baghdad, Iraq, on 3 January 2020, in yet another blatantly unlawful crime of U.S. imperialism. This infamous anniversary is now marked by yet another U.S. crime of aggression against the people and nations of the world who act and organize to reject imperialism and its plunder, domination and hegemony.
The Venezuelan government has affirmed that Vice President Delcy Rodriguez is safe, and will assume the duties of the legitimate President captured and illegally kidnapped by the United States.
This is a moment for resistance and for action. It is clear that the U.S. sees the slaughter of even the appearance of international law under imperialism in its imperialist-Zionist genocide in Gaza as an open door to expand its aggression everywhere in the world, without even an attempt to manufacture other than the thinnest pretext and while openly declaring their thirst for the resources of the people of the world.
It is an urgent responsibility for everyone and every organization in the United States and in the international core to stand now for Venezuela, to escalate, to protest, to take direct action — as we stand simultaneously against the ongoing genocide in Palestine, the attack on Lebanon, and the aggression against all the peoples of the region and the world who confront and resist imperialism. We must not allow business as usual or content ourselves with mild condemnations.
The Palestinian liberation movement is fundamentally an anti-imperialist movement; the Palestinian people confront not only Zionism in Palestine and its entity “Israel” but the imperialist powers — if this was not clear before Al-Aqsa Flood, it is more clear than ever now. The front to defend Venezuela is a front to defend Palestine, for the liberation of land and people, and to confront our collective imperialist enemy.
In 2022, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro noted: “The Axis of Resistance exists throughout the world; it exists in Africa, in Asia, in the Middle East, in Latin America and in the Caribbean. The Resistance also belongs to the people who are fighting against neoliberalism, racism and various forms of colonization…The 21st century is our century. It is the century of the unity of the people. It is the century in which people will be liberated. It is the century of justice and truth. Empires are in decline, and people’s projects for well-being, development and greatness have just begun. This century is our century.” There are two paths for the world: of the resistance of the people, of Al-Aqsa Flood and the Bolivarian Revolution; and of the horrific crimes of imperialism and the blatant greed and thievery of the U.S. empire in decline. It is our task to make the first path — the global camp of resistance — larger, stronger, and, indeed, victorious.
Source: Samidoun