A Criminal Terrorist Act

In a cowardly escalation on January 3rd, US imperialism attacked Venezuela overnight, dropping bombs on Caracas that killed 40 people and carrying out an extrajudicial kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. This criminal terrorist act is not only the culmination of months of a bombing campaign against Venezuela and Columbia by the Trump government, but decades of bipartisan intervention and economic warfare against Venezuela because its people had the audacity to claim their own sovereignty, elect their own leaders, and control their own natural resources.

What are US Interests in Venezuela?

In a January 3rd press conference, Trump stated that the US will run Venezuela until a “proper transition can take place. […] We’re not afraid of boots on the ground,” he said. “we had boots on the ground last night at a very high level […] we’re going to make sure that that country is run properly. […] We want to surround ourselves with good neighbors.”

“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country, and we are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so.“

This is a barely-disguised threat to carry out an invasion or another series of bombings to topple the government of Venezuela or bend it to the will of the US. This crime has not been committed yet, and the people of the world can stop it. Behind Enemy Lines is calling on people around the country to take action to oppose the bombing and kidnapping and stand against any further invasion of Venezuela!

What is Maduro being charged with?

The US is charging Maduro with Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices… Why is the head of state of a sovereign country being charged under US law for anything?

Only a fraction of the narcotics smuggled into the US come from Venezuela, and there is no evidence of the government’s involvement in the drug trade. Opioids do not come from Latin America, so blaming them for the opioid epidemic and drug deaths makes no sense. By focusing on this “War on Drugs” talking points, the US is exploiting the devastating impact of the opioid epidemic in order to manufacture consent for war with Venezuela.

The first bloody stage of the imperialist reconquest of Latin America

As stated in the 2025 National Security Strategy released by the Trump administration on December 4th, “After years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere, and to protect our homeland and our access to key geographies throughout the region.”

We reject any war, anywhere, on anyone, by the United States

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