Editor’s note: This is a joint statement initiated by the Communist Party of Venezuela for the International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties. The Communist Party USA signed on in addition to 54 other parties. The full list of signers is available here.

The undersigned Communist and Workers’ Parties strongly condemn the criminal bombings carried out by the United States against the city of Caracas and other areas of Venezuela in the early hours of 3 January. This military imperialist attack constitutes a serious violation of the sovereignty of an independent state and is directed against the interests of the people of Venezuela and other peoples of the region.

The operation included the illegal and violent arrest, transfer, and imprisonment in the U.S.A. of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores, an unacceptable and reprehensible act that violates every concept of international law, effectively rendering it meaningless.

Consequently, we demand their immediate release.

This attack is not an isolated incident, but rather the culmination of years of sanctions, threats, blockades, and destabilization efforts. The real objective was never the defense of human rights, nor the supposed fight against drug trafficking, nor the rhetoric of “democracy”, all of which serve merely as pretexts. The true aim has been the direct imposition of the geopolitical and economic interests of U.S. imperialism in Venezuela and the region, within the context of the struggle among capitalist powers for control over energy resources, strategic raw materials, trade routes, and markets.

In a cynical and shameless manner, Donald Trump declared that the United States would “run” Venezuela until a so-called “transition” was completed. This statement exposes the imperialist nature of his plan and confirms the real motives behind this aggression: the control of Venezuela’s oil and natural resources and the imposition of his plan for economic, political, and military control over the entire continent. We categorically reject this plan of imposition and this so-called democracy enforced through the use of armed force.

We warn that Venezuela is being used as an example, and that a strong response is required to confront imperialist aggression, which has been carried out in such a brutal manner and with barbaric military means against the people of Venezuela and all the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.

We demand an immediate end to the military aggression against Venezuela, the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Caribbean, and full respect for the sovereignty, self-determination, and territorial integrity of the Venezuelan people.

We call upon the revolutionary, working-class, and popular forces of the world to mobilize and express active solidarity with Venezuela against this new bellicose escalation of attacks by U.S. imperialism.

We condemn the direct threats issued by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio against Cuba following the intervention in Venezuela, and we express our solidarity with the people and the Communist Party of Cuba.

Unity of the peoples against imperialist barbarity!

Proletarians of all countries, unite!

Images: Thousands of Young People Marched in Defense of Sovereignt by Orinoco Tribune (CC BY 4.0).