After Venezuela, Trump tells Colombia they’re next: how do we fight imperialism?

The kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro, and the subsequent press conference held by Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, represent a declaration of war against Latin America and a direct threat to the reformist governments elected in Colombia and Mexico.

During the press conference and in subsequent statements, Trump declared that Colombian President Petro should “watch his ass” because Colombia is being “controlled by a madman who sends cocaine to the United States.” It is clear that the White House wants to increase pressure on Bogota as part of its drive to reestablish the domination of US imperialism in the Western Hemisphere.

Petro's reforms (especially wage increases) threaten the profits of US multinationals operating in Colombian territory. These reforms, together with the increase in trade between China and Colombia, are the reasons behind the threats against the government.

Over the past year, the Colombian oligarchy has revealed its submissive nature to US imperialism. On this occasion, its highest representatives, such as Lina Maria Garrido (senator for the Cambio Radical party), declared their support for a US attack, saying, “Welcome to #Colombia, President @POTUS. The Colombian people eagerly await you. Please don't take too long.”

Gustavo Petro's response is commendable. On 4 January, Petro stated that “if they arrest the president [of Colombia]... they will unleash the popular jaguar” and asked “the people to defend the president from any illegitimate violent act against him. The way to defend me is to take power in all the municipalities of the country.”

We emphatically agree. Only the Colombian masses can organise the defence against a possible attack by US imperialism.

Petro has also called on the UN to condemn these attacks. We have no illusions whatsoever in so-called international law or in the multilateral institutions that US imperialism has used for decades to justify its military interventions, coups, and sanctions. The UN is just an empty talking shop. How many resolutions has it passed against the US blockade on Cuba? None of them have been implemented.

The only way to defend against these threats from US imperialism is through the armed organisation of the working class and the peasantry. To this end, it is necessary to organise neighbourhood defence councils, with officers appointed and elected by the masses, as well as to immediately train volunteers to defend the working class and the peasantry from a possible military invasion.

It is also imperative to expropriate the US multinationals and the companies of Colombian billionaires who have openly (or clandestinely) invited US forces to invade Colombia, straight away. To put it bluntly, these oligarchs are willing to sacrifice as much Colombian blood as possible to defend their wealth and privileges.

The defence of Colombian sovereignty lies solely in the hands of the Colombian working class and peasantry. The masses are the only force willing to fight this struggle to the bitter end. The Colombian capitalist class is bound by a thousand threads to US imperialism. They exist solely to manage Washington's local interests.

Serious and well-organised resistance against imperialist bullying and aggression in Colombia should be combined with an internationalist appeal to the masses of workers and peasants throughout Latin America, one which would certainly find an echo. Such a movement should also extend a hand of friendship to the working class in the US, calling on them to break with their own capitalist class.

As revolutionary communists, our duty is to be on the front lines, fighting shoulder to shoulder with our class. But this struggle is not in defence of the status quo or the Colombian capitalist system, whose representatives welcome this invasion with open arms. This struggle is for socialism and for the power of the working class. If the Colombian working class takes control of the upper echelons of the economy, it will be able to mount a defence against the invasion and open the way for the working classes of Latin America to fight openly for a socialist federation of the Americas.

HANDS OFF LATIN AMERICA

DOWN WITH THE OLIGARCHY THAT SELLS OUT THE COUNTRY

DOWN WITH US IMPERIALISM