The fascist Trump regime is continuing to tighten its deadly chokehold on Venezuela and ramp up war provocations against the Nicolás Maduro regime. This is an outrageous criminal escalation against the Venezuelan people, and people throughout the region. People in the U.S. have a responsibility to act to stop this.

After seizing a full oil tanker that had just left port in Venezuela on December 10, U.S. military forces took over a second tanker on December 20. The two ships carried millions of barrels of crude oil, and Trump declared that the U.S. will keep both the oil and the ships. The next day, the U.S. attempted to seize a third oil tanker that was heading toward Venezuela. This tanker refused to stop and instead reversed course and headed back out to open sea. CNN reported that the U.S. may send “a specialized Maritime Special Response Team with experience in boarding vessels that do not submit to seize control of it.” Trump has declared a “total and complete” blockade of all oil tankers in and out of Venezuela that he claims are under U.S. sanctions.

Within hours of the first seizure, Venezuelan navy warships began escorting ships carrying petroleum products as they leave Venezuela and go into international waters. So far, none of the ships being escorted were on the list of ships sanctioned by the U.S. (as we have noted, the U.S. has no legal right to seize sanctioned ships in any case). There have been no direct clashes between U.S. and Venezuelan armed forces up to this point. But that could change at any time.

These acts of imperialist piracy are a major escalation of Trump’s criminal aggression toward the sovereign state of Venezuela and its people. Given that income from oil exports is what keeps Venezuela’s fragile economy afloat, the U.S. oil blockade is deliberately aimed at causing economic collapse. Such a collapse would bring tremendous suffering to the masses of Venezuelan people. Tens of thousands of Venezuelans died because of sanctions imposed on the country during the first Trump regime—and now Trump is aiming to use the threat of even worse mass starvation and death to oust the Maduro government and replace it with a more obedient regime. 

U.S. Continues Serial Murders on the Seas

In the latest in the deadly series of attacks on civilian boats in the waters off Venezuela and Colombia, the U.S. carried out a strike on December 19, killing five people, and another on December 22, killing one person. Since these attacks began in early September, U.S. forces have sunk at least 29 boats and killed 105 people. 

Trying to “justify” these latest attacks, the U.S. Southern Command claimed, “Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were engaged in narco-trafficking." They claimed that every single passenger killed was a "male narco-terrorist.” This is the same “justification” from the Trump regime for all these serial murders—and they have never produced a shred of evidence. In fact, investigations have shown that among those killed were fishermen in boats that were on known fishing routes. But even if it were true that some of these boats carried illegal drugs, drug trafficking is not a a crime you get the death penalty for. And killing people simply accused of being involved in the drug trade—without any evidence and legal process—is cold-blooded murder. Beyond those already killed, the U.S. attacks have spread fear throughout fishing villages along the Venezuelan and Colombian coasts, where people now face an impossible choice: risk being killed without trial by U.S. strikes when they go out to sea, or stay ashore and watch their families go hungry as their livelihoods collapse.

Other War Moves

In addition to the oil blockade and illegal strikes on boats, other war threats by the Trump regime against Venezuela include:

• “The Defense Department on Monday [December 22] deployed aircraft designed to transport special-operations forces, troops and equipment as part of an ongoing military buildup in the Caribbean that could signal imminent strikes against the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.” (The Hill, 12/24)
• In a Christmas Eve call to troops on the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford, which is the centerpiece of the massive military force the U.S. has positioned near Venezuela, Trump said in relation to Venezuela that the U.S. would be “going after the land.”
• In a phone interview with NBC News, when asked whether the possibility of war with Venezuela is on the table, Trump answered, “I don’t rule it out, no.”

Trump has also issued threats against Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, accusing Colombia of “producing a lot of drugs” that get sent to the U.S. He said on December 10 that Petro “better wise up or he’ll be next. He’ll be next soon.” 

Imperialist Contention in Latin America

The larger strategy behind Trump’s moves and threats against Venezuela is aimed at firming up U.S. imperialist domination over the whole of Latin America and the Caribbean, in the face of the growing influence of China in the region. China—the top imperialist rival of the U.S. globally—is now South America’s top trading partner and a major source of both foreign direct investment and energy and infrastructure lending. Venezuela, in particular, has grown very dependent on China, which buys 90 percent of Venezuelan oil production. Nearly half of all Chinese loans in Latin America go to Venezuela.

In early December, the Trump regime released its 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS), which is supposed to lay out the executive branch’s strategic vision for U.S. foreign policy and defense planning globally. The strategy puts great stress on consolidating Latin America into an economic, political, and military fascist bloc with the U.S. at the head.

As we noted previously:

The NSS says the regime's strategy is to “restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere, and to protect our homeland and our access to key geographies throughout the region.” In the words of the NSS document: “We will deny non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets, in our Hemisphere.” They don’t mention China (or anyone else) in this context, but in a document that clearly sees China as the main strategic rival, the intent is clear.

The NSS calls this strategy for Latin America the “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine. Under the Monroe Doctrine, originated in the 1820s, Latin America was to be considered America's “back yard,” for the U.S. to dominate and exploit and to keep other foreign powers out. This has in fact been U.S. imperialism's treatment of Latin America ever since.

What is new here is NOT U.S. military domination of and aggression against Latin America. The U.S. has made major invasions of other countries in the hemisphere at least 41 times, as well as pulling off brutal coups and—as they have done with Venezuela and Cuba—using economic warfare and CIA financing of opposition. That’s imperialism, and this IS an imperialist system.

What is new is the shift away from even the barest pretense of legality—congressional oversight? NO. Revealing the findings on which these murders are supposedly based? NO. Totally ignoring any international bodies organizations, treaties or laws? YES. Crowing about murder and cultivating bloodlust? YES. 

No U.S. Imperialist War on Venezuela!

The illegal gangster moves by the U.S. under Trump pose extreme danger to the people of Venezuela, Colombia, all of Latin America, and the whole world. Any war launched by the Trump fascist regime would be a criminal outrage, and we cannot wait for them to cross that line—everything we covered above about what this regime has already done is more than enough. Everyone needs to speak out. 

Trump's fascist threats against Venezuela are part of a foreign policy that is not just imperialist, but part of a fascist remaking. As the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian said last spring: 

Trump fascism is a regime that openly and aggressively strips away basic rights and blatantly declares that there is no rule of law and due process of law other than what it dictates, and that raw destructive power is what must rule in the international arena, without even the pretense of adherence to international law or concern about the sovereignty, or even the right to exist, of less powerful peoples and countries. (from REVOLUTION #114 @BobAvakianOfficial, Defeating Trump/MAGA fascism: Looking to some future elections... or working now to mobilize millions around this powerful unifying demand: The Trump fascist regime must go!)

Stop ALL Attacks on Venezuela! 
The Fascist Trump Regime Must Go NOW!