In the early hours of this January 3, 2026, the United States of America cowardly bombed the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in a new act of imperialist aggression, with the objective of consummating the coup d’état that they have been attempting to promote in that country for decades, with the central goal of the control of Venezuelan oil and natural gas by the U.S. industry.

The Latin American and Caribbean Society of Political Economy and Critical Thinking (SEPLA) denounces and energetically rejects the criminal aggressions perpetrated by the United States against Venezuela, which have now reached a new level with this military aggression and with the announcement, by Donald Trump, of the illegal kidnapping of the constitutional President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and the First Lady, Cilia Flores.

The bombing early this morning represents the culminating point of the aggressive escalation developed over the last semester, marked by the mobilization of warships by the United States, the explosion of vessels on the Venezuelan coast, and direct corsair attacks aimed at the kidnapping of Venezuelan oil tankers, in flagrant violation of International Law.

By militarily attacking localities —including densely populated areas of the city of Caracas and the states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira— the government of Donald Trump violates once again, in an open and deliberate manner, the Charter of the United Nations, in particular its Articles 1 and 2, which guarantee the right to sovereignty, legal equality between nations, and the prohibition of the use or threat of the use of force.

This is a neocolonial and imperialist attack against the fundamental principle of the self-determination of nations.

The destruction of the project of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela constitutes an explicit objective of U.S. foreign policy at least since 2002, when the United States financed and supported the attempted coup d’état against the government of Hugo Chávez Frías on April 11. Since then, there have been countless destabilization attempts promoted by the United States and allied governments, including the recognition of the false government of Juan Guaidó in 2019 and the scandalous concession of the Nobel Peace Prize to María Corina Machado, now in 2025.

With the deepening of the capitalist crisis and the dispute for world hegemony, it becomes increasingly necessary for the United States to reaffirm its hegemony over Latin America and the Caribbean, a region in which this hegemony originated and which has historically been treated as its colonial “backyard,” of which they believe they can dispose at will. More than ever, the American eagle thirsts for Venezuelan oil and gas.

At the same time, the rise of ultra-right governments and the reconfiguration of the blocs in power throughout the world, including the United States, do not constitute a mere accident. They have configured themselves as a necessity for the maintenance of profit rates and for the bourgeois offensive on a global scale. The colonial and imperialist coup underway in Venezuela seeks to hand over power, in that country, to sectors internally favorable to the usurpation of Venezuelan resources by the U.S.

The current military aggression adds to the hundreds of aggressions carried out throughout history by the U.S. in Our America, particularly in the Caribbean, and puts the security of the entire region at risk. It is gravely serious that the greatest military power in the world feels entitled to bomb another independent nation to secure its geostrategic interests.

For more than 200 years, Nuestra América has resisted in its struggle for true independence. They have not achieved and will not achieve breaking us.

We recognize the right of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to self-defense, in accordance with Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations.

We join the historical resistance of our peoples, whom colonialism and imperialism have never managed to defeat. The swords, machetes, and fists of our palenques*, wars of liberation, and popular governments remain upright in struggle. May the denunciation of the crime perpetrated early this morning by the United States of America spread and blossom in struggle throughout all Our America.

All solidarity with the Venezuelan people and with the Great Homeland of Bolívar.

January 3, 2026

Latin American and Caribbean Society of Political Economy

Translator’s Note: “Palenques” refers to fortified communities of escaped slaves in colonial Latin America.

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