GMDSA Condemns Trump’s Illegal War Against Venezuela

The Trump Administration has started an illegal war against Venezuela. This is a nakedly imperialist war to install a US puppet government that will give Venezuela’s oil resources over to US corporations and to force US hegemony over Latin America — the new “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine. This war is illegal both under international law and the laws governing the declaration of war within the United States.

Trump’s war has nothing to do with drug trafficking. There is no substantiated evidence that high-level members of the Venezuelan government are “narco-terrorists.” Yet, the Trump administration is using this claim as the pretext for this illegal war. This is another regime-change war to steal another country’s oil, just like the failed war against Iraq, and to crush any resistance to US imperialism. Trump’s war will only impoverish the people of Latin America.

DSA demands:

• a return of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores to Venezuela

• an immediate end to the war and an end to all US military violence against Venezuela

• a total withdrawal of all US warships, fighter jets, and military assets from the Caribbean and an end to any operations with intervention purposes driven by SOUTHCOM

• an end to the illegal unilateral sanctions against Venezuela, and the end to the use of unilateral sanctions anywhere in the world, which kill an estimated half a million people every year worldwide

• an end to the failed “war on drugs” framework that has already led to massive human and environmental tragedies in countries such as Colombia and Mexico

• the restoration of diplomatic relations with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, including the reopening of the embassy and consular offices in US territory

• a US foreign policy centered on peace, multilateralism, and respect for national sovereignty and self-determination

Democratic Socialists of America calls on the people of the United States to protest and resist this illegal war and to stand in solidarity with the sovereign people of Venezuela, including participating in the anti-war actions called for January 3.

Additionally, DSA calls on the public to contact their representatives in Congress to demand the passing of a War Powers Resolution blocking Trump’s military aggression.

DSA also encourages members to organize within their chapters against this war and in the International Committee’s Venezuela Working Group.