On 3 January 2026 the US armed forces invaded Venezuela through intensive bombing, to kidnap its sitting president, Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. Donald Trump and his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, used trumped up drug trafficking accusations against Maduro and Flores to abduct them. Trump and his far-right minions bluntly restated their aims in Venezuela: seize the country’s oil wealth, decapitate the country’s leadership, plunge the country into chaos and impose a regime under far-right imperialist control. With this forthrightness, warmongering Trump follows the script of his predecessors who fabricated the ‘weapons of mass destruction’ lie to overthrow a government.
APDUSA condemns this heinous assault on the Bolivarian Revolution. We stand in solidarity with the Venezuelan workers and peasants who continue to defend the gains of their anti-neoliberal revolution against far-right imperialist attacks.
For almost 2 decades Venezuela has been suffering in the stranglehold of US-driven sanctions without caving in to the diktats of imperialist brutality. In recent months, Trump has tightened this grip by means of a naval blockade around Venezuela, bombing small fishing vessels and hijacking oil tankers transporting Venezuelan crude oil. The Trump regime hoped that the Venezuelan government and key state institutions would automatically collapse if Maduro was kidnapped.
Contrary to their hopes, the invasion has resulted in massive protests in Caracas, across Latin America and several US cities, as well as an immediate worldwide backlash. Venezuela has received messages of solidarity from movements resisting US imperialism across the world. The people of Latin America have demonstrated a deep-seated sense of anti-imperialism.
The Venezuelan government remains intact, with the vice-president, Delcy Rodriguez immediately sworn in as interim president. Rodriguez has insisted that Nicolas Maduro, who remains the president, be returned to Venezuela. She also indicated that Venezuela will be defended through an alli-ance of civilians, military and police. This is the well-established grassroots system of ‘Bolivarian Circles’ which forms part of the political strategy initiated by the late Hugo Chavez, the historic leader of Chavismo.
Trump’s aggression has resulted in millions of people across the world uniting in support of defending Venezuelan sovereignty. People from across Latin American have never been united like this before. The US has historically been interfering relentlessly in the domestic politics of Latin America and to determine political outcomes favourable to US corporate interests in the region. The struggle of the Venezuelan people is part of our struggle against the oppression and exploitation of workers and landless peasantry in South Africa. We are joining hands with the movement of international resistance against imperialist aggression and the Bolivarian movement in resisting imperialism and fascism in Latin America.
Long live international solidarity with the Venezuelan working people!
Long Live the Bolivarian Revolution!
Defeat the imperialist assault on Venezuela!