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
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