The latest acts of aggression by the United States have once again confirmed what Lenin elucidated over a century ago: that imperialism is not an accident of policy, but the highest stage of capitalism. The U.S. ruling class exports its contradictions outward through war and domination.

Today, Venezuela faces this aggression directly. Three Aegis-equipped destroyers have been deployed off the coast of Venezuela under the hollow pretext of a “counter-narcotics” operation. This is not defence — it is imperialist intimidation, a show of force designed to encircle and destabilise the Bolivarian Republic.

From Iraq and Afghanistan, to Libya and Syria, to sanctions strangling nations across Latin America, Asia, and Africa, the pattern is unmistakable. These are not defensive measures; they are instruments of coercion to secure resources, markets, and strategic dominance. The cost is borne by the workers and peasants of the Global South: millions killed, displaced, and impoverished; entire societies left in ruin.

In Venezuela, this military posturing is paired with open political interference. The U.S. has placed a $50 million bounty on President Nicolás Maduro and branded Venezuelan organisations “terrorist groups.” Yet the response of the Venezuelan people has been decisive: 4.5 million militia members — workers, peasants, students, veterans — have mobilised to defend their homeland. Venezuela is not a victim waiting to be conquered; it is a people in arms safeguarding their sovereignty.

This aggression is part of a long history of imperialism in Latin America: the coup in Chile (1973), the invasion of Grenada (1983), the backing of coups in Honduras (2009) and Bolivia (2019). Today, Venezuela faces the same arsenal of sanctions, demonisation, and threats, all aimed at suffocating an independent nation that refuses to bow to Washington.

Economic warfare has hit hardest. Sanctions have deprived Venezuela of food, medicine, and vital resources. These so-called targeted measures are a collective punishment designed to break the will of the Venezuelan people: sanctions and blockades that inflict material suffering, undermine public services, and reshape national economies to the benefit of transnational capital.

Since the Bolivarian Revolution of 1999, Venezuela has asserted sovereign control over its oil wealth and channeled it into housing, healthcare, literacy, and food programs. In this struggle, Venezuela has found support from China, whose solidarity is rooted in Marxism-Leninism and the long project of building socialism, as well as tactical backing from Russia and Iran, who themselves are resisting US Imperialist onslaught. Washington views all of these with hostility, but what it fears most is the long-term convergence of nations like Venezuela with the Chinese people’s efforts to construct a democratic alternative world order beyond U.S. imperialism.

If the U.S. succeeds in subjugating Venezuela, no independent nation is safe. The same playbook of sanctions and gunboat diplomacy can and will be deployed anywhere.

We therefore call on governments, civil society, and people’s movements across the world to reject U.S. imperial coercion and uphold the sovereign right of Venezuela to determine its own future.

Here in Australia, our responsibility within the imperial core is clear. Our ruling class collaborates with U.S. militarism through bases like Pine Gap, through AUKUS, and through unquestioning obedience to Washington’s line. To oppose imperialism abroad is inseparable from struggling against our own rulers at home. Solidarity with the current Venezuelan government means defending and understanding the people’s fight for self-determination, free from the stranglehold of imperialism.

Our demands must be clear and uncompromising:

• End U.S. sanctions and bounties against Venezuela;
• Withdraw warships and halt military intimidation; and
• Respect the sovereign right of the Venezuelan people to chart their own course.

Hands Off Venezuela!
Down with U.S. Imperialism!