In the early hours of Saturday 3 January 2026, Venezuela’s independence and national sovereignty was brazenly and gravely violated by an armed incursion, both airborne and involving boots on the ground, by United States military and security personnel. Caracas, the capital of the Bolivarian Republic, and the states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira were targeted in the invasion, impacting civilians as well as members of the Venezuelan military.
The attack comes on the back of months of unrestrained US aggression, which has included the deadly targeting of Venezuelan boats, on the thus far unsubstantiated premise that they contained narcotic shipments bound for the US; the illegal and unwarranted seizing and confiscation of Venezuelan tankers off the sovereign country’s coastline in its own territorial waters; as well as the massive menacing buildup of US Navy vessels in the Caribbean Sea, the largest witnessed for decades.
The invasion, in a mission dubbed by the US as “Operation Absolute Resolve”, culminated in the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Venezuela’s First Lady Cilia Flores, from a heavily guarded safehouse compound in Caracas and their subsequent spiriting out of the country aboard a helicopter to the USS Iwo Jima – in turn bound for the US, where he is due to be arraigned on charges of “drug trafficking” and “narco-terrorism” pursuant to an indictment filed in the Southern District of New York in 2020 during Trump’s first term in office. Cilia Flores and Maduro’s son, Nicolás Maduro Guerra (whose current whereabouts remain unknown), are also named in this indictment.
The mission had reportedly been weeks in planning and had been first given the go-ahead by Trump four days beforehand, initially having been called off owing to suboptimal weather conditions. It’s planning and execution reportedly also involved CIA agents and traitors in Maduro’s inner circle, who were aware of the president’s precise habits, movements, and whereabouts.
In a subsequent press conference on Saturday convened at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, the US president stunned those present and audiences watching on from around the world when he vowed that the US will now “run” Venezuela “until a safe and proper and judicious transition” and that the country’s vast oil reserves – believed to be the world’s largest – will be revamped and exploited by US oil giants, servicing the US’ own interests as well as those of Venezuela. For those who remained under any doubt, it was made abundantly clear on Saturday that the Trump administration’s main angle is US access to and control of Venezuela’s oil wealth – unencumbered by any notions of Venezuelan independence and national sovereignty.
2026 will mark 50 years since Venezuela moved to nationalise its oil industry, with control of those operations still run under private arrangements seized in 2007. Trump has stated that these “stolen assets” will be reclaimed and that once oil infrastructure and production is restored, US oil companies will sell “large amounts” of Venezuelan oil to other countries – with the US “reimbursed” in these endeavours through the wealth extracted from the ground.
Trump’s remarks during Saturday’s press conference contained clear threats towards Venezuela’s Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez to go along with the US’ maldesigns regarding the country. Indeed, it was claimed that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken with Rodríguez, who seemed “gracious” and compliant. This was undermined a short time later when Rodríguez made her own televised address in which she stated that the government of Venezuela stood ready to defend the country’s sovereignty and that Maduro remained its lawful head of state.
Interestingly, Trump also seemed to put paid to the suggestion that Maria Corina Machado, the imperialist-feted Venezuelan opposition figure and recent Nobel Peace Prize awardee, be brought in to head up a post-Maduro Venezuela, stating that he believed it would be hard for her to lead and that she does not command “respect” in the country. Aside from serving as a damning indictment of the US and Western governments’ own playbook regarding Venezuela over recent years, it also further laid bare the neo-colonialist motivation and design at the core of Saturday’s developments – the desire to subjugate the sovereign nation of Venezuela and plunder its oil wealth.
During Saturday’s press conference, crude threats were also made towards Cuba and Colombia, the latter having requested that the United Nations Security Council convene an emergency meeting – which will take place on Monday 5 January with support for the request coming from permanent members, Russia and China.
Saturday’s events constitute a clear violation of the UN Charter – particularly Articles 1 and 2 – which enshrines respect for sovereignty, the legal equality of states, and the prohibition of the use of force. Such aggression threatens international peace and security, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean, and thereby endangers the lives of millions of people as well as riding roughshod over their inalienable human and democratic rights.
Liberation wholly condemns the violations of international law that the US has committed against the people of Venezuela and calls for an immediate de-escalation of the aggression and illegal uses of force that have been perpetrated against this sovereign nation and its people. We call for international law to be respected and that such imperialist designs and pursuits that invoke the pernicious Monroe Doctrine be permanently cast away for the relics of history and a bygone age that they are.
US imperialism in Latin America was explicitly condemned and rejected by the International Court of Justice in the 1984 case Nicaragua v. the United States, which held that “the right to sovereignty and to political independence possessed by Nicaragua, like any other State, should be fully respected and should not be jeopardized by activities contrary to the principle prohibiting the threat or use of force and to the principle of non-intervention in matters within the domestic jurisdiction of a State.”
The actions of the US in Venezuela constitute flagrant violations of international law and pose a significant threat to an already imperilled world peace. Liberation calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores followed by their repatriation, for the rules of international law to be upheld, and for the international community, under the auspices of the UN, to properly hold the US government to account for its brazen violations accordingly.
We furthermore lament the disingenuous and unconscionable stance adopted late on Saturday by United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer (a former Director of Public Prosecutions no less) in response to these developments, which appears to have fallen in line behind that of Washington. In a post on X, Starmer stated that the UK has “long supported a transition of power in Venezuela” and would coordinate with US counterparts in the coming days accordingly, having earlier in the day pointedly declined to condemn the apparent exercise in regime change stating he wanted to speak to Trump and allies and “establish the facts first” and that the UK government had not been involved. Despite his assertions to the contrary, Starmer has once more predictably omitted to adopt a principled position as British premier that diverges from the US in support of international law.
Liberation once more expresses its unequivocal solidarity with the people of Venezuela; calls for a definitive end to the age of US imperialism, with all the pain and injustice it entails; as well as the restoration of peace, stability, and security for Venezuela, Latin America, and the world.
Support our work – donate, become a member, affiliate your local organisation’s branch or volunteer
Attend a solidarity rally online or near you (Stop the War Coalition website) https://www.stopwar.org.uk/events/emergency-online-rally-no-war-on-venezuela/
Photo: Creative Commons
