Trump has just declared military control of all air space above and around Venezuela. He has defined Venezuelan drug dealers’ boats bringing drugs to the USA as ‘terrorists’. Trump has grotesquely labelled this as dangerous threat to the American people and has invoked an imaginary military conflict to bomb and kill on sight. Apart from breaking all forms of national and international law this offensive is aimed at regime change in Venezuela. Whatever our opinions about the nature of the Maduro regime we stand full square behind the Venezuelan people and its government against US imperialism. We call on the British government to demand Trump immediately stop these barbaric attacks on the boats and the threat to Venezuelan sovereignty. Find here at the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign petitions to sign and motions that can be raised in the Labour movement: https://www.venezuelasolidarity.co.uk/2025/11/07/briefing-trumps-war-escalation-against-venezuela/

We also re-post here a recent article from International Viewpoint that gives some more detailed context. (Dave Kellaway)

Between Trump’s imperialist offensive and Maduro’s repression

Friday 21 November 2025, by Y.B. and F.G

Since August, at least 70 people have been killed by strikes by the U.S. armed forces on boats mainly from the Venezuelan coast, in the Caribbean Sea, under the pretext of the fight against narcoterrorism.

This imperialist offensive, which does little to hide the United States’ desire to bring about regime change in Venezuela, is also instrumentalized by the authoritarian government of president Nicolás Maduro in that country.

Imperialist advance

With the arrival of Donald Trump in power, and in particular Marco Rubio, representative of the Florida neoconservatives as Secretary of State, US imperialism is returning to its “natural zone of influence” with the aim of regaining control over Latin America. The installation of more than ten thousand troops in the region, in addition to six warships and an aircraft carrier, is an unwavering demonstration of US imperialism’s willingness to impose its political and economic agenda by force. This is particularly the case in Venezuela, a country declared an “exceptional threat” to the security of the United States since the Obama administration, a policy that was subsequently deepened by the first Trump administration, which in 2019 imposed economic sanctions on the state and on the Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA, heavily aggravating the consequences of a catastrophic economic crisis already underway since the years 2014-2015.

A policy legitimized by the conservative opposition, including María Corina Machado, recent Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who openly supports Trump’s warmongering policies, as well as the expulsion of Venezuelan migrants sent to Bukele jails in El Salvador, under the pretext of belonging to “criminal gangs.”

Social and political repression

On the ground, the Maduro government, under pressure, excels in social and political repression. The disappearances or arrests of journalists, human rights activists, trade unionists, researchers, intellectuals and artists are part of everyday life. The president himself is calling on the population to use applications on phones to make denunciations without risk.

Finally, recently, it is environmental researchers and activists who have been targeted by the executive, accused of promoting a false left-wing discourse while working in the service of foreign interests. The instruction is simple, as the hashtag now present on all government communications says: dudar es traición (to doubt is to betray). In return, the critical left rejects the government’s façade of anti-imperialism and a furiously extractivist economic policy, in the service of a new ruling caste.

Internationalist solidarity

As internationalists, we denounce the new manoeuvres of the United States against the sovereignty of Venezuela, which could — moreover — destabilize the entire region, against a backdrop of fierce competition with China for control of the subcontinent. In this context, diplomatic initiatives and international mobilizations that could help make Trump back down in his warlike desires will be welcome.

Our solidarity goes to the Venezuelan people, who are the only ones capable of resolving the political and geopolitical conflict that afflicts them and that has caused the departure of more than eight million people, or a third of the country’s population.

In the face of Maduro’s imperialist attacks and authoritarianism, we call for support for the comrades and social movements that are mobilizing, in a difficult context, to promote struggles for emancipation from below, without giving in to the sirens of the far right.