We wrote last week: “[Trump’s] policy of open fascist thuggery and threats of war is rapidly escalating in the Trump regime's military offensive against Venezuela, while they declare their intention to much more fully and openly control the whole of Latin America.” In the week since, both their thuggery and threats of war toward Venezuela have intensified even more. 

On November 18, the New York Times and others reported that Trump had signed off on CIA plans for covert actions inside Venezuela. There was no explanation about what kind of operations, or when they were to begin. Are they preparing to capture or assassinate Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro? Are they planning to commit an act of sabotage, a cyber attack, or something else in preparation for a U.S. military strike? 

Nobody is saying, at least to the public. But what we do know is this: the CIA is responsible for horrific crimes over many decades that have caused the deaths of millions of people throughout Latin America and around the world, in service of U.S. imperialism's brutal domination of countries throughout Latin America, and around the world. (Go to the revcom.us series American Crime to learn about many of these CIA atrocities.)

At the same time, the U.S. has been further ramping up, as publicly as possible, military preparations for a possible direct strike against Venezuela: 

• Troops from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit completed a week of nighttime training operations on November 21 in Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean island nation just seven miles off the coast of Venezuela.
• On November 19, the U.S. engaged in the largest military display near Venezuela since the Trump fascist regime started threatening military action in September. At least six U.S. combat aircraft appeared off the coast of Venezuela. CNN reported that this included a supersonic F/A-18E fighter jet, a B-52 strategic bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, lasting over the course of several hours. A statement posted by the U.S. Air Forces Southern Command characterized the drill as a “bomber attack demo” to "deter illicit trafficking."
• On November 21, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration warned commercial airlines to “exercise caution” while flying over Venezuela because of the “potentially hazardous situation” in the region. 

U.S. Accuses Maduro of Heading a “Foreign Terrorist Organization”

Marco Rubio's State Department said that it will officially designate what it claimed was a Venezuelan narco-trafficking group, “Cartel de los Soles,” as a “foreign terrorist organization,” which they claim is headed by Maduro and other high-ranking members of his government. With this designation, Maduro and his regime have been put in the same category as groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda.¹ Trump’s “War Secretary” and dark ages Christian fascist Pete Hegseth said that “It gives more tools to our department to give options to the President.”

But the truth is: Cartel de los Soles” doesn't exist! It is a figure of speech used by Venezuelan journalists for decades to refer to military officials corrupted by drug money. “Cartel of the Suns” in English is a phrase that mocks corrupt officers by referring to the “suns" that Venezuelan generals wear to show their rank, like the stars worn by U.S. officers.

It is still not clear whether all of the military buildup and operations by Trump and his “War Department" are aiming to pressure Maduro to resign—or if they are a lead-up to actual bombing/missile attacks or even a ground invasion. But Trump has declared that he can wage war anywhere he sees fit, without congressional approval or oversight. On October 23, Trump said: “I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war [from Congress]. I think we are going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We are going to kill them, you know? They are going to be, like, dead.”

As we wrote previously: 

Trump's bloody serial murders on the seas, his declaration that he can murder anyone he wants to at any time, and the threats of even bigger war crimes against Venezuela and other countries in the region, are completely lawless and illegitimate. These moves pose extreme danger to the people of Venezuela, Colombia, to all of Latin America, and the whole world. And they represent an even further leap in the consolidation of a fascist America, and underscore why millions must rise up to demand:

IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY, we refuse to accept a fascist America!

Trump Must Go Now!