The People Over Profit network condemns the aggression and plunder of Venezuela by the United States. The recent bombings carried out by US forces in Caracas and other strategic locations, along with the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores by US special forces, have nothing to do with so-called “narco-terrorism.” They represent a dangerous escalation of Washington’s months-long pressure campaign to destabilize the Venezuelan government – a campaign that included the interception and seizure of oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela.
This marks an intensification of the decades-long war on Venezuela, waged through military force and crippling sanctions alike. Driven by the US hunger for profit, this aggression places capitalist and imperialist interests over the lives and sovereignty of the Venezuelan people.
Venezuela holds the largest proven oil reserves in the world, with an estimated 303 billion barrels, or a fifth of global crude reserves. Yet it produces only around 1 million barrels of oil per day, just 0.8% of global production. Venezuela’s oil is largely heavy crude – harder and more costly to extract and refine, requiring advanced technical capacity. Unlike US’ light crude, Venezuela’s heavy oil is especially valuable for producing diesel, asphalt, and fuel for factories and heavy machinery.
Trump’s plan to “run the country,” open Venezuela to US oil companies to “fix” its “badly broken” oil infrastructure, and “make money for the country” strips away any pretense of drug-trafficking or “illegal migration” and exposes the real objective that is the plunder of Venezuela’s oil reserves for the profit of US capital.
This drive for profit now knows no bounds. It manifests in open military aggression, economic strangulation through sanctions, and the normalization of regime change and foreign intervention. In doing so, it tramples international law, violates national sovereignty, and regards human life as expendable, revealing a brutality that is no longer hidden but increasingly open and unapologetic.
People Over Profit calls on all our friends and network to condemn the blatant aggression and plunder of Venezuela by the US. Workers and all other toiling people across the world share the same struggle against capital, the driving force behind the atrocities done towards Venezuela by the US.