Two facts. The US Air Force has entered the territory of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, bombed Caracas, attacked key targets in the states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira, and subsequently, in a kidnapping operation, abducted the constitutional president, Nicolás Maduro, and the first lady, Cilia Flores, to take him to New York to be tried by US courts and according to US laws on charges of being a narco-terrorist. Under no circumstances should attention be diverted. This is a violation of international law, and more seriously, it sets a precedent that raises the following question: Which Latin American country, president, or political leader will be the next target of the United States? And I mean the United States. If the Trump administration is the instrument of execution, the decision is part of the imperialist conception of international relations toward our America and, by extension, the rest of the world dependent on US military power. Let’s not fool ourselves, the Democratic Party and its so-called socialist wing remain complicitly silent.
There is no room for half measures now. Covering up the violation of international law, under the classification of the Venezuelan state and its narco-terrorist leaders, only justifies the aggressor. Nor is it useful to take refuge in the argument of the internal and external opposition, which alleges electoral fraud in the last presidential elections, a fact that it has been unable to prove, refusing to hand over the records that would prove it. Therefore, any explanation that justifies the military incursion of the US armed forces, by Venezuelans, betrays the principles of dignity and political independence on which national sovereignty is based. The rest is demagoguery.
Any opposition is legitimate until it breaks the rules of democracy by expressing support for a foreign invasion. Even more so if the decision conceals a spurious pact to hand over natural resources and wealth to imperialism in exchange for regaining power. Let’s not fool ourselves, this operation, designed by the Pentagon, the White House, the CIA, and the State Department, has María Corina as its faithful servant. While Donald Trump declares to Fox News: “We are now making a decision on the next step regarding Venezuelan leadership, (…) we will evaluate whether Machado can lead Venezuela.” Machado declares on social media: “The US has fulfilled its promise… Today we are ready to assert our mandate and take power.” The war of disinformation takes over the space and, in war, the allies of the United States take the lead. Nothing about the mobilizations in Venezuela that support the revolution. Even less so, journalists and academics emphasize the violation of international law or the illegitimacy of the kidnapping. All those interviewed are condescending. Lukewarm statements from presidents, such as Pedro Sánchez in Spain, who, on Twitter on February 24, 2022, “condemns Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and stands in solidarity with the Ukrainian government and people”; and today, January 3, 2026, writes: “The Spanish government is closely monitoring events in Venezuela… We call for de-escalation and responsibility.” No comment.
But let’s not fool ourselves, the representatives of the United States in Latin America, whether under Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George Bush, Richard Nixon, or John Kennedy, are not its ambassadors. They have names and surnames and represent members of the plutocracy or are part of its armed forces. They have been elevated to power by kneeling before the current occupant of the White House and requesting coups, covert actions, financial support, and destabilization campaigns. Let us remember some of them: Anastasio Somoza, Jorge Ubico, Rafael Trujillo, Castelo Branco, Augusto Pinochet, Alfredo Stroessner, Hugo Banzer, Jorge Videla, and if we talk about civilians: Joaquín Balaguer, Jair Bolsonaro, Javier Milei, Felipe Calderón, Nayib Bukele, and the president-elect of Honduras, Nasry Asfura. But there are many more. In other words: the enemies are within. They despise the people, they deeply hate the working classes, behaving like sepoy soldiers. How else can we interpret Milei’s words fanatically supporting the aggression and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores?
Now is the moment of truth. There is no more time for appeasement. The international community, if it still has any dignity left, must not only condemn the aggression, but also show its support for the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and demand the release of President Maduro and Cilia Flores, who are being held captive by the kidnappers. Corina Machado is not an option; she expresses hatred, revenge, and the death of all democratic options. If she appears, the betrayal will be complete. We are witnessing the end of a cycle. With or without Nicolás Maduro, the Bolivarian revolution must continue to build its path. Surrender is not part of Simón Bolívar’s victorious legacy.
Original text by Marcos Roitman Rosenmann published in La Jornada on January 4th, 2025.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.
Monroe
It’s not that the Monroe Doctrine has returned: it never left. President Trump’s advisors simply told him to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors: “Apply our foreign policy principles,” they said. His “neo-Monroeism” is an updated copy of that doctrine which, beginning in 1823, served to contain the geopolitical threat of the British, French, Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish in Latin America. After the dying Spanish empire left a vacuum, it would have to be filled by the United States, in a struggle that would give it defensive justification for the continent, which stretched from Cuba and the Caribbean to Nicaragua and Central America. Much later, it was not the eternal enemies, first the Soviet “communists” and then the Russians, who were the main target of the Monroe Doctrine during the Cold War; no, it turned out to be China as well.
With proven oil reserves in the world, 950 trade sanctions, expelled from the international financial system, with more than $300 billion withdrawn from bank accounts abroad, and with the United States stealing the Citgo oil company in 2023, Venezuela was forced to ally itself with other powers, as President Maduro told the Chinese state agency Xinhua; In addition, China is one of its main creditors and importers of Venezuelan oil.
If there is one thing that capitalist propaganda (investors, banks, and companies) is right about, and that their lackeys shout about in horror, it is that Venezuela has indeed had the construction of socialism in mind. Hugo Chávez said it: “… what did all this produce? A coup in 2002, a lockout, oil sabotage, a counter-coup, discussions, and readings. I came to the conclusion (…) that the way out of poverty is socialism […]” After having taken as his original project and trying to believe in “humanizing” capitalism, whose roots were in the third way, he would say: “Today I am convinced that it is impossible […] I am convinced that socialism is the way […] I believe that it must be a new socialism, with fresh ideas, coupled with a new era that is just beginning.” That is why I dared to call it ‘21st-century socialism’ as a project. I believe it is a challenge.” (Interview with Chilean Manuel Cabieses in 2005, quoted by Beatriz Stolowicz, El misterio del posneoliberalismo [The Mystery of Post-Neoliberalism], vol. 2 ILSA, Colombia, p. 742, footnote 3.)
This socialist alternative became a challenge and a project for the neoliberal state, with a social democracy distinct from the welfare state, populism, and real socialism; and as an alternative, it was attacked for being a threat to capitalism and for anticipating a domino effect in Latin America. Nationalist or populist governments were subjected to pressure, disqualification, indebtedness, and “natural or induced destabilization,” as sociologist Pablo Gonzáles Casanova wrote. Today, Venezuela represents what James Monroe believed: America must be reconfigured for and by its corporations… Except that China is unlikely to allow its investments to be withdrawn, unless this trade dispute crosses the line into war.
Original text by Miguel Ángel Zebadua Carboney published in Chiapas Paralelo on December 27th, 2025.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.