VENEZUELA

Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Venezuela (PCMLV)

The situation in Venezuela and the aggression of US imperialism

Background and current situation

The lackeys who ruled Venezuela for much of the 20th century acted as direct representatives of the US government; contrary to their programs and demagogic electoral promises, once in government they applied the policies most suited to the plans of the Yankee ruling elites; therefore, its intervention in our internal affairs has been something normal. Such interference is a daily practice of the imperialist powers, which claim the right to take actions to intervene in the internal politics in order to preserve their economic and strategic interests.

Relying on its hegemonic practice and force, the President of the United States issued an executive order that declared Venezuela an unusual and extraordinary threat and requested special powers to confront it. He based his argument on the alleged violation of human rights and high levels of corruption by officials of the Maduro government. However, regardless of the motives, real or fictitious, for issuing such an order, we must be clear that on previous occasions this kind of internal standard of the US only served as “legal” justification for military aggression, which should attract our attention, mainly because the indirect interventionist action is already a reality. There has been a constant attempt to retake total control of the economy of Venezuela and of all the dependent countries in the interests of Yankee big capital.

Obama’s executive order is a declaration of war, regardless of how far direct aggression gets, since Venezuela is defined as a threat against which all resources are mobilized to face this danger. This can go to any conceivable extreme, according to the interests of US imperialism in this particular global economic and political situation, in which they have decided to use war as a way of resolving contradictions. In recent years they have done this in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, and other countries on three continents: Asia, Europe and Africa. With these measures they propose to reactivate their industrial-military apparatus to try to overcome the economic crisis, to position large military contingents in military actions as an occupation force in strategic areas (now also in the Americas) in preparation for a global war against the China- Russia imperialist bloc, and to take advantage of their NATO allies, in addition to plundering the peoples and appropriating the enormous resources as spoils of war. They are updating the Monroe Doctrine, the Nazi criterion of living space and looting the peoples whom they consider “inferior.”

In the case of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, during the failed coup d’état of April 11, 2002, as well as in 2014 throughout the violent offensive of the “guarimbas” [street actions and barricades set up by the Venezuelan right-wing opposition – translator’s note], it was made apparent that the United States was exerting the ideological, political and economic leadership of the most reactionary opposition. But besides that, it has also been shown that it is directing the irregular, overt and covert military actions carried out by the opposition forces, making it clear that they have now passed over to a higher level of confrontation. They are providing all the support that the Venezuelan right-wing requires to carry out its anti-democratic, anti-popular, fascist plan, to repeat the models used in Guatemala, Indonesia, Chile and Nicaragua as a means of direct intervention, as a higher level of aggression against the people of Venezuela. They have already incorporated all options in their arsenal to put an end to Venezuela’s democratic process and its revolutionary potential.

The so-called “guarimbas,” with an escalating level of street violence, have managed to organize internal shock forces, to indoctrinate and train them to consolidate them into their fascist elements. These groups are applying tactics of urban warfare, combined with the mobilization of their followers and special operations carried out by paramilitary Colombian and Venezuelan mercenaries, concentrated in the border regions with Colombia, but moved towards the interior of the country to position themselves in strategic areas according to their operational requirements. This indicates that there already exists on Venezuela territory a large contingent acting as the spearhead of the reactionary forces.

Obama’s order affects the destiny of Venezuela and the region, expressing the sharpening of the class struggle, which is on the rise, surpassing what took place in 2012, 2013 and 2014. These were years in which the threat of violent aggression did not have the legal endorsement by US imperialism that exists today, and despite that, the levels of reactionary violence were quite high and increasing.

The scenarios

Our Party has analyzed several key scenarios:

Obviously things will not remain focused solely on the political and verbal level. The US State Department is working for the progressive forces to lose their majority in the National Assembly in the 2015 elections; by means of political actions and statements they are trying to create the conditions to call for a referendum to recall the president in 2016, while carrying out the economic blockade and preparing their forces to promote violent sabotage and direct military intervention if this scenario does not work out for them.

Violence is part of the US aggressive plan for the region, which at this phase is continuing to position its combat forces on all continents as a means of creating a strategic encirclement against the advance of the Russia-China bloc. The latter has occupied strategic areas in Latin America and other regions of the world, at the same time as it is striking the revolutionary sectors, the people and the working class to prevent them from consolidating as a proletarian alternative to the capitalist crisis.

“Every day it is increasingly clear that Maduro’s government is not homogeneous, it is composed of different currents, it is multiclass, and facts show that the course it will follow is still not clear...” (Acero Revolucionario [Revolutionary Steel] No. 30, March, 2015). This diversity of criteria as to how to address the threat, and the lack of strong leadership, is bringing these contradictions to the surface in different ways: 1. Among the sectors of the emerging (pro-China-Russia) bourgeoisie who only want to defend their property and maintain their privileges given a possible change of government, perhaps by negotiating what would be a sharing of natural resources, mainly oil, gas and minerals, among the contending powers. 2. The petty-bourgeois sectors that are not yet enriched, who are trying to gain time to adjust and prepare their departure along with the first group. 3. The grassroots revolutionary sectors, which are willing to be at the tail of the emerging bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie, who are willing to fight against a violent attack of the Yankees, seeking the support of China and Russia, calling on the people to defend “the legacy of Chavez” against the “empire,” even if this means selling out to the Chinese and Russians. All these outline a nationalist, patriotic discourse, but really their goal is to continue deriving benefits from the privileges acquired from being in the government, whatever the cost, independently of whether they are to be handed over to another imperialism, with little willingness to truly develop a resistance struggle to the ultimate consequences. They are filled with bourgeois pacifism, and not disposed to carry forward the proletarian revolution that from within and with the most advanced sectors is capable of leading the real national-popular resistance. 4. Finally, we are the majority of people, who know that no form of imperialism is good, that certainly some level of agreement is needed with those who are willing to confront Yankee aggression with a popular response. This revolutionary resistance and advance simply means creating an accelerated process of production of food, activation of all industries, expropriation and prison for the saboteurs, workers’ control of production, revolutionary popular power through the communes, disarming of the bourgeoisie and its lackeys, arming of the people and intensification of work for a resistance that is not only national but regional.

Our response

The proposal that can really defend the people’s interests against a Yankee aggression must be clear that the struggle for genuine national liberation in our countries of necessity demands taking accelerated measures for building socialism, developing these two aspects of the same emancipation process at the same time. Such a process would apply harsh revolutionary measures, for which only the working class organized in a party can have the clarity and willingness to move forward without hesitation or fear.

Given the acceleration of the actions of imperialism and its internal lackeys, the immediate preparation of the popular, national, regional and international forces becomes necessary.

It is necessary to denounce the fact that the aggression of US imperialism is part of its efforts to revive its economy, overcome the crisis and regain control of the region, which stands as an expression of a period of exacerbation of all the contradictions: 1. The inter-imperialist contradiction, expressing the struggle between the US-EU bloc and the China-Russia bloc in their process of establishing a new redivision of the world; this is preparing the next stage of the general crisis of capitalism with wars and revolutions at a world level. 2. The contradiction between the imperialist powers and the dependent countries, according to which what the imperialists want, beyond the bloc they represent, is quite simply appropriating the natural resources, strategic advantages and labor power of the dependent countries to guarantee their sources of supply and to better face the economic crisis that affects them; therefore these reasons come into conflict. 3. The contradiction between capitalist and socialist proposals; despite the defeats of the past century the latter still exists in the minds of the exploited and in struggles. 4. The contradiction between capital and labor within all countries, both imperialist and dependent, and worldwide this spurs on and leads to the struggle of large contingents of people oppressed by capital.

These four contradictions are at their height in Venezuela, first because it has been opened to Russian and Chinese investment because the emerging bourgeoisie has associated itself with the capitals of these countries. The government has sought their military, technological and economic protection, confronting US capital from that position, favoring primarily on China in the economic arena and Russia in the military sphere. Similarly, the oil and mining business with these powers is growing, trying to displace the companies of the US-EU bloc. On the other hand the socialist discourse is more acceptable among the ruling circles in China and Russia, which even flaunt their revolutionary past, while the US is openly hostile to socialism. Finally the Venezuelan and Latin American working class in general rejects the US and European bourgeoisie, Yankee imperialism, which has traditionally been the direct exploiter of our labor power, in addition to the historical actions of all revolutionary organizations against imperialism, defined in many cases directly and only as Yankee imperialism.

All this creates conditions favorable to now calling on our peoples to close ranks against US intervention in Venezuela and other countries in the region, to unify efforts regionally and continentally in all fields, to prepare a regional revolutionary counter-offensive to confront Yankee imperialism, to create conditions for a series of Vietnams led by the most consistent organizations, by the Marxist-Leninists, at a time when the violent US plan is entering its most aggressive phase. This should be the signal to mobilize the genuinely revolutionary, small and large parties, movements, collectives and groups, mainly Marxist-Leninists, from every corner of Latin America, to strike with all resources at hand at the Yankee aggressors and their capitals wherever they are found.

In our newspaper Acero Revolucionario No. 21, of April-May, 2013, we stated that “the Venezuelan working class is faced with a huge challenge: to definitively take up its historical role; to be the revolutionary vanguard, to organize itself into its own party and stop tailing the bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie, to establish a close alliance with the peasantry, to unify the other revolutionary sectors to curb the bourgeois offensive and take the initiative at the head of the exploited.” Such an assertion is even more relevant today, and obliges us to continue following this course if we are to have a clear response to the complex events of the immediate future.

CC of the PCMLV
Venezuela 2015

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