International Statement: We Denounce the Imperial Offensive on Venezuela

From Black Rose Anarchist Federation

This statement was prepared and signed by member organizations of the Latin American Anarchist Coordination – Coordinación Anarquista LatinoAmerica (CALA). Black Rose/Rosa Negra (BRRN) was invited to sign the statement as a sibling organization.


The Latin American Anarchist Coordination and sibling organizations condemn the threats of direct intervention in Venezuela by the US government, driven by the Trump administration.

These attempts and threats of intervention are not isolated incidents, nor are they a temporary response to alleged problems of “security,” “drug trafficking,” or “terrorism.” On the contrary, they are part of a long history of imperial interference in Latin America and the Caribbean, the effects of which have systematically fallen on the oppressed peoples and classes of the region.

The story is well known: every time the United States has invoked these pretexts, the result has been social devastation, loss of sovereignty, and violence. Panama in 1989, Iraq in 2003, and multiple interventions in our region show that this is not about “defending democracy,” but rather about political, military, and economic control. In the case of Venezuela, these threats come on top of more than a decade of economic blockade that has hit the daily lives of the people hard, deepening shortages, precariousness, and the deterioration of material conditions of existence.

In this respect, it is essential to emphasize that imperialist aggression does not punish ruling elites, but instead falls directly on the popular sectors. Blockades, sanctions, military intimidation, and financial suffocation are not “surgical” tools: they are mechanisms of economic warfare that seek to break the resistance of an entire people, discipline them, and force them to accept a subordinating order.

A recent and striking example of this logic is the act of piracy and blatant theft of a Venezuelan oil tanker by armed US military personnel, which was detained and appropriated under the protection of unilateral sanctions. Beyond the legal technicalities with which Washington attempts to justify these actions, what is evident is an exercise in modern piracy: the use of military, judicial, and financial power to appropriate resources. This is not only an attack on the Venezuelan state, but also a direct aggression against the people, because every shipment seized, every asset retained, and every property confiscated deepens the living conditions imposed by the blockade.

What’s more, their disregard for the lives of the people is evident in the absolute ease with which they launched explosives at fishing boats off the Venezuelan coast, taking away not only those people’s livelihoods, but also their lives and their right to defend themselves against unproven accusations. The massacre was televised and celebrated by those at the top.

These types of actions clearly reveal what the “international order” defended by the United States means today: a system in which major powers arrogate to themselves the right to decide who can trade, who can produce, and who deserves to be punished. International law is selective, flexible for allies, and brutally rigid for those who do not submit. In this context, the seizure of ships, the freezing of assets, and economic sanctions function as weapons of war, even though they are presented as administrative measures.

The recent awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to María Corina Machado follows the same logic of cynicism and double standards. These types of awards do not express universal values, but rather geopolitical alignments. Far from representing a genuine defense of the rights of the Venezuelan people, this recognition operates as a political gesture by imperial powers toward a leader who has openly endorsed sanctions, economic blockades, and threats of intervention. The Venezuelan right wing, far from offering a way out for the working classes, thus presents itself as a necessary partner in a strategy that deepens social suffering and dependence.

The explicit reappearance of the Monroe Doctrine in recent US government documents and statements only confirms this course of action. The old slogan “America for Americans” — that is, for Washington’s interests — is once again being asserted without euphemisms, reinstating the idea of Latin America as a natural zone of domination. This threatens not only Venezuela, but all the peoples of the continent, by legitimizing interventions, economic pressure, coups d’état, and the forced alignment of governments that stray from imperial interests. A prime example of this has been the Trump administration’s unprecedented intervention in Argentina in recent months, specifically in domestic economic policy, the foreign exchange market, and even the electoral process, giving a sudden boost to Milei’s government.

In the current context, the United States is no longer an unchallenged power, but it remains a central player in a world order based on violence, plunder, and imposition. Its growing aggressiveness also reflects its own internal crises and its need to reaffirm its control over strategic territories rich in oil, minerals, water, and biodiversity. Latin America, once again, appears as the spoils and rear guard of an imperial project that remains deeply dangerous.

Defending people’s self-determination—dominated, exploited, and oppressed classes within so-called “national” contexts—does not imply idealizing governments or denying internal contradictions inherent in the Venezuelan process, of which we are critical, but rather rejecting foreign intervention outright and affirming the right of every dominated, exploited, and oppressed class to fight for the improvement of their destiny without threats, blockades, or occupations. In this sense, we affirm that organization in the face of this situation cannot come from above or be delegated to state structures, but can only be built from below, through popular organization and the direct participation of those who sustain daily life under conditions of siege.

The case of the looted ship, like the economic blockade as a whole, shows that imperialism does not seek to “correct” governments, but rather to subjugate entire peoples through hunger, isolation, and collective punishment.

In Venezuela, as in the rest of Latin America, even amid the difficulties caused by bureaucratization, limitations, and tensions with the state that tend to weaken grassroots organization; communes, territorial spaces, and forms of popular organization sustain daily material and social resistance in the face of the blockade, shortages, and imperialist aggression.

Our struggle goes beyond the borders imposed by states and unites us with all oppressed classes. The imperialist government of the North has taken a xenophobic, racist, and persecutory stance toward migrant communities within its territory. The attack on Venezuela is ideologically based on the racism that is inherent in the US state—as in other states—and that radiates internally and externally in favor of the dominant classes of that country.

In the face of this offensive, as anarchists we denounce the US government and maintain that the solution will not come from stronger states or disputes between powers, nor from the so-called international organizations created by and for states, but from the construction of a strong people, organized from below, with political independence and a real capacity to contest power.

The history of Latin America shows that every advance of imperialism has encountered resistance even in adverse conditions. This sustains dignity and the capacity for a collective response. It is the material basis of popular power from below.

In the face of imperialism neutrality is not possible. Either you are on the side of domination, plunder, and war, or you are on the side of the oppressed.

Our commitment is long-term but clear: to strengthen popular organization, deepen resistance, and build from below an emancipatory horizon for the oppressed classes of the world.

Imperialism will not pass!

Long live those who fight!

Coordinación Anarquista Latinoamerica (CALA)

  • Federación Anarquista Uruguaya (FAU) – Uruguay
  • Federación Anarquista Santiago (FAS) – Chile
  • Coordenação Anarquista Brasileira (CAB) – Brazil
  • Federación Anarquista Rosario (FAR) – Argentina
  • Organización Anarquista Resistencia (OAR) – Argentina
  • Organización Anarquista Tucumán (OAT) – Argentina
  • Organización Anarquista Cordoba (OAC) – Argentina
  • Organización Anarquista Santa Cruz (OASC) – Argentina
  • La Tordo Negro – Organización Anarquista Enterriana – Argentina
  • Organización Anarquista Impulso – Argentina

Sibling Organizations

  • Black Rose Anarchist Federation / Federación Anarquista Rosa Negra (BRRN) – USA

Comments

anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/30/2025 - 17:24

The usual pious posturing nothing-burger -- presumably vegan, gluten-free, and minus the fries. And heavily salted with the usual at least borderline Latin America nationalist stuff.

What do you pious pontificators propose to do in practical terms?

Hammer (not verified) Sun, 01/04/2026 - 00:13

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

Organization is power and the collective statement is made by groups that fucken organize and do shit daily. They put theit money where their mouths are daily.
They Fucken Organize! Build popular power and connections across borders and fucken fight the power!

So shut your cowardly mouths you fucken silly goons calling it nationalistic or empty language.
You keyboard mouth breathers go get organized or go get fucked. This whole cultural war baiting, vegan baiting shit has to go.
Internet Feds, that means you too! You pull that shit these days your cover is blown, we fucking see you!

All power to the people! Long live anarchy! Long live the struggle of the people for self determinarion in Venazuela and everywhere.

anonymous (not verified) Sun, 01/04/2026 - 08:04

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

I need to immediately join the Venezuelan army, perhaps the cartel, and die for Mr. Maduro's self-determination. And I need to send some money. Money is a must.

Wayne Price@ (not verified) Thu, 01/08/2026 - 14:45

As of right now, I count four comments which sneer at the original statement by anarchist organizations from five countries. There is one comment which supports the statement (and one, Wed, 12/31, which I can't figure out). Written on Dec. 30, it forecast the U.S. invasion of Venezuela, the bombing of its cities (heavier than what the U.S. did when invading Iraq!), and the kidnapping of its ruler.

The very first comment calls the statement a "pious posturing nothing-burger" and asks "What do you pious pontificators propose to do in practical terms?" I am sure that the writer (a "pious pontificator" if there ever was one) knows nothing whatever about what these various Latin American anarchists actually do in their practical actions. But obviously they will continue to organize in neighborhoods and workplaces, and to educate workers and others about anarchism and about U.S. imperialism. What would you have them do?

A few others sneer at anarchists who believe in the importance of working people and aim at an international libertarian socialist revolution. One even whines, "Why not power to ME?" Because (1) anarchists don't believe in dictatorship, and (2) power to YOU won't change the world; only popular, massive, movements can do that.

Sun, 01/04, sneers, with irony, "I need to immediately join the Venezuelan army... and die for Mr. Maduro's self-determination." I doubt that they are actually living in Venezuela. Anyway, the question is not the "self-determination" of the dictator Maduro, but the self-determination of the Venezuelan people. It should be up to them to get rid of Maduro and his minions, not the U.S. army.

For some time the majority on anarchistnews has rejected national self-determination for Ukraine when invaded by imperialist Russia. Now we see writers rejecting self-determination for Venezuela, when invaded by the U.S. At least these anarchists are consistent with themselves, if not with freedom.

I am Makhno (not verified) Thu, 01/08/2026 - 21:08

There is nothing here that hasn't already been said much better by a variety of leftist intellectuals who make no pretense of being anarchists. What I would like to know is just what these Latin American anarchists were doing or saying in opposition to the Venezuelan state under Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro before this latest attack by the US?

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