U.S. OUT OF VENEZUELA

TRUMP MUST GO NOW!

In the Name of Humanity, We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America!

This Whole System Is Rotten and Illegitimate. 
We Need and We Demand: A Whole New Way to Live, a Fundamentally Different System!

In an outrageous, unprecedented and fascist gangster press conference, Trump declared that the U.S. is "going to run" the sovereign nation of Venezuela. This came hours after the U.S. sent their military in the dark of night to kidnap the Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. turned the power off in parts of Venezuela's capital city, Caracas, and bombed two military bases, a naval port and an airport.

The criminal fascist thug Donald Trump is claiming the "right" to take over an independent country of 30 million people—maybe for years! He said that "for a period of time, the people that are standing right behind me. We're going to be running it." The people standing behind him were the fascist yes-men, Marco Rubio, General Dan Caine and dark ages Christian fascist nutcase Pete Hegseth.

Three points on why this is happening, and what the people in the U.S. must urgently understand and do to stop this:

1. In an illegal and illegitimate violation of international law and the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people, the fascist Trump said the U.S. would be directly controlling Venezuela, with U.S. oil companies seizing control of Venezuela's vast natural resources:

As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust for a long period of time. They were pumping almost nothing by comparison to what they could have been pumping and what could have taken place. We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country. 

Who the fuck is the U.S. to be invading a foreign country because they're not "exploiting their own oil" in the way Trump see fit?! This is the American gangsters trying to violently enforce the idea that the U.S. has the "right" to wage wars, murder civilians, and violate international law if it sees it is in their imperialist interests. They are doing so based on easily refutable lies of drug smuggling or stealing "America's oil"—oil that just happens to be under Venezuelan soil! As for the idea that “this is our [that is, the U.S.’s] oil,” go here for an understanding of gangsterish way that the U.S. came to dominate the oil industry in Venezuela, what that has meant for the people of Venezuela, and why in fact the U.S. has NO legitimate claim on this oil.

In addition to violating international law, Trump is violating U.S. law by waging a war without congressional oversight! They are trying to legitimize war crimes because "we say they're legal." And they've been doing this for months—killing over 100 civilians in international waters with no due process!

The fascist regime is also moving to crush all protest and dissent against it inside the U.S., labeling anti-fascists as “domestic terrorists.” Everyone should stay attuned and be ready to oppose further leaps in repression, now in the context of war.

As the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian wrote months ago: 

Trump fascism is a regime that openly and aggressively strips away basic rights and blatantly declares that there is no rule of law and due process of law other than what it dictates, and that raw destructive power is what must rule in the international arena, without even the pretense of adherence to international law or concern about the sovereignty, or even the right to exist, of less powerful peoples and countries.

This invasion of Venezuela poses an extreme danger to the people of Venezuela, Latin American and the people of the world. And it poses a sharp moral and political challenge to those who hate this but are standing aside: Are you alright living in—and benefiting from—a world where the U.S. can openly invade other countries because the U.S. imperialists see it in their interests? Are you alright living in—again, and benefiting from—a world where the U.S. can send its military to murder people and kidnap people who stand in their way?

If not, then don't you have an urgent and special responsibility to stand up against these bloody war crimes being committed in our name?! 

2. While Trump focused on illegally and blatantly seizing Venezuela's natural resources, this invasion is about much more than "oil profits." This is about qualitatively stepped-up imperialist domination and control of an entire continent at a time when the U.S. is contending for global domination with its main imperialist rival, China. Especially now with the U.S. seizing control of resources that China relies on, this contention holds extreme danger for the people of the region and could spiral out into nuclear war. 

For over 100 years, the U.S. has dominated Latin America through invasions, coups, torture and backing extremely repressive puppet governments. But as revcom.us wrote in an article on the Trump regime's National Security Strategy Statement (NSS), "A Strategy for a Fascist America Dominating the Planet": 

China has over the past decade significantly upped its trade, investment and aid in Latin America. It has funded infrastructure projects including roads, telecommunication networks, etc. The U.S. now intends to undermine, limit and roll this back. As the NSS contends, "The United States must be preeminent in the Western Hemisphere as a condition of our security and prosperity."

This fascist section of the imperialist ruling class feels the need to shore up the entire Western Hemisphere—including Canada and Greenland—as the U.S.'s "neighborhood" where they have total military and economic control. At this press conference, Trump and Rubio openly threatened Cuba and Colombia to fall in line, or else.

These fascists are attempting to deal with what they see as existential problems in maintaining the U.S. as top dog in a world of tremendous upheaval and volatility. This is part of the larger fascist program they see as their last chance to "rescue their system": rule through open violence and terror, the crushing of dissent and gutting of the rule of law, unleashing vengeful white supremacy, ethnic cleansing of immigrants, the patriarchal enslavement of women, purging of LGBT people from public life—wrapped together with Christian fascist lunacy and America-first belligerence.

These extreme moves have created sharp divides within the dominant ruling institutions of this system and throughout society, with many feeling that what the Trump regime is doing will destroy the U.S. and its standing in the world. But while they oppose this, those forces need to be compelled and enabled to drive this regime from power—through the sustained nonviolent protest of millions, uniting all who can be united behind the demand, The Trump Fascist Regime Must Go NOW! 

3. "We, the people of the world, can no longer afford to allow these imperialists to continue to dominate the world and determine the destiny of humanity. They need to be overthrown as quickly as possible. And it is a scientific fact that we do not have to live this way." –Bob Avakian

What this regime is attempting is extreme, and while they are very far along in installing all-out fascism, they do not have everything sewn up. Because of big changes in a world of extreme volatility and upheaval, and the shredding of the traditionally oppressive social fabric in the U.S., the imperialists can no longer rule in the old way that people have been conditioned to accept.

This has led to what Bob Avakian has recognized as a rare time when revolution has become more possible, even in this powerful country. People should go here and here to learn about this. 

Now is the time—urgently—to come together with others. Join in uniting all who can be united to defeat this fascism, to stand with the people of Venezuela, and to get organized for an actual revolution to get rid of the system that has given rise to this fascism—and so many other atrocities, including the danger of human extinction through nuclear war and climate catastrophe.

As we have said in the Declaration, We Need and We Demand: A Whole New Way to Live, A Fundamentally Different System:

A whole different way of living is possible: a whole different way to organize society, with a radically different economic foundation and political system, emancipating relations among people and an uplifting culture—all of this oriented to meeting the basic needs and fulfilling the highest interests of the masses of people.

With the world in the balance, this is what people need to raise their sights to, and be part of bringing into being.