The sequence of events triggered by the imperialist aggression against Venezuela led to the Venezuelan National Assembly’s approval, on 29 January, of a partial reform of the country’s Chávez-era hydrocarbons law. Immediately afterwards, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which is responsible for sanctions, published General License 46, partially lifting sanctions on Venezuelan oil, albeit with very strict restrictions. 

Every day that passes since the imperialist aggression of 3 January, and the kidnapping of the Venezuelan president and his wife, brings new information that clarifies the picture and needs to be analysed.

Press reports on January 14 revealed that the United States is already proceeding with the sale of Venezuelan oil and will control the money raised. This is an outrageous semi-colonial arrangement which gives Trump control over the resources of a formally sovereign country. What is the Venezuelan government’s response to this blackmail?

Since 3 January and US imperialism’s criminal assault on Venezuela, comrades of the Revolutionary Communist International have been out on the streets and in the media, emphasising that only the organised resistance of the working class has the power to put an end to imperialism.

Events in Venezuela are unfolding at breakneck speed following the attack on 3 January and the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores. The US is moving very quickly to assert control over Venezuela and its natural resources, while the Venezuelan government seems unwilling or unable to push back. Naturally, there are many questions which are being asked.

The criminal US military incursion into Venezuela and the kidnapping of a sitting foreign head of state is the first practical manifestation of Trump’s new National Security Strategy. Washington is determined to establish its domination over the Western Hemisphere, which it considers its backyard, and to kick any “non-hemispheric actors”, mainly China, out of the region.

At 2am Caracas time, US imperialism launched a criminal military attack on Venezuelan soil. There are reports of about six large explosions in the capital, Caracas. There have also been military strikes in El Higuerote, Miranda, La Guaira, and also in Aragua. US military helicopters have also been seen flying over Caracas. Trump has announced that they have captured Maduro together with his wife, and that they have been flown out of the country. Delcy Rodríguez, the Executive Vice President of Venezuela has confirmed this. This is what is known so far.

On 16 December, US president Trump took to social media to announce “A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela”. The day after, the world was awash with rumours that he was going to announce war on the South American nation. This represents yet another escalation in the five-month old campaign of imperialist bullying against the oil-rich country. If truth is to be told, the US regime is alreadyat war with Venezuela.

Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution was a watershed moment in the history of the class struggle. It was a ray of light in the dark years following the collapse of Stalinism. Long before the 2008 crisis, Occupy, BLM, or the rise of Sanders or Mamdani, it gave credibility to anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism, and socialism.

In the afternoon of 10 December, a US military helicopter took control over an oil tanker travelling from Venezuela. Not content with this act of piracy, when asked what the US was going to do with the oil it was transporting, Trump casually said “Well, we keep it, I suppose”, like a man who has found a ten dollar bill on the floor. This represents a major escalation in the US campaign of imperialist aggression against Venezuela and Latin America.

We have now entered month five of an unprecedented US military build up in the Caribbean aimed at bullying Venezuela, and also Colombia. Over 80 people have already been killed in criminal attacks against speedboats, which Washington claims are narcotraffickers. But so far, Trump’s aim – regime change in Venezuela – has not been achieved. What follows?

The escalation of US imperialist bullying against Venezuela, which started in August, has reached fever pitch and now involves the bullying of Colombia as well. As well as a military build-up in the Caribbean, the blowing up of speedboats, provocative bomber plane flights off the coast of Venezuela, we now see the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the Caribbean.

Over the past 10 months, Donald Trump has used the enormous weight of the relationship between the United States and Colombia to increase pressure on Gustavo Petro's government. The most recent example has been his scandalous denunciation of the Colombian president as a “drug trafficking leader” and the imposition of 25 percent tariffs.

Since 15 August, the United States has deployed a large military force in the Caribbean near Venezuelan territorial waters, with the presence of marines and amphibious troops, destroyers armed with guided missiles, an attack submarine and advanced air and naval surveillance technology.

The US Government has announced the deployment of around 4,000 troops off the coast of Venezuela. On August 14, 2025, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that US Naval and Air forces have been sent near Venezuelan waters. The RCA and RCI stand firmly and unequivocally against this blatant act of imperialist aggression.