Attack on Venezuela

On Saturday, the U.S. military invaded and bombed Venezuela, killing an as-yet-unknown number of people. American forces kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, taking them to the United States to stand trial for alleged drug trafficking and narco-terrorism. At a press conference, Donald Trump announced, “We are going to run the country and will designate various people to run the government.” He added pointedly, “We are not afraid of boots on the ground.”

All of this because we say he is a drug dealer. We say. Not the International Criminal Court. Not the United Nations. Not even Congress. The drug allegations are a charade, of course. The real reason for the assault on Venezuela was stated plainly by Trump himself at that same press conference: “We will be strongly involved in Venezuela’s oil industry.”

Fifty years ago, Venezuela nationalized its oil industry, compensating American oil companies in the process. It was entirely legal—an act of national sovereignty. But U.S. capital has never forgiven it. Ever since, presidents—Republican and Democrat alike—have imposed punitive oil and financial sanctions on Venezuela. When it comes to empire, to oil, to keeping the Western Hemisphere “safe” for extraction, there is no opposition party. There is only the party of American business interests, draped in whatever moral justification polls best this decade. The only difference is that Trump says the quiet part out loud. Speaking like a true colonial overlord, he promised that “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.”

Opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado made the plan even clearer in an interview with Donald Trump Jr.: “We are going to kick out the government from the oil sector and privatize all our industry.” Addressing a room full of American executives, she declared that “Venezuela represents a $1.7 trillion opportunity, and American companies are going to make a lot of money.” Machado, a staunch pro-Israel ally, has become a natural partner in Trump and Netanyahu’s expanding alliance.

The American imperial elephant is now rampaging openly, trampling opposition to its policies both abroad and at home. From sending ICE agents to terrorize immigrant families, to gutting the few remaining programs that serve the poor and working class, to backing Israel’s genocidal extermination of the Palestinian people, to threatening war with Iran, and now to bombing Venezuela atund kidnapping its president—the brutal face of American power has rarely been so naked.

So it has always been, despite moments of brave and principled resistance. The imperial-capitalist colossus remains. Former Marine General Smedley Butler described its workings in his 1935 classic War Is a Racket:

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street, and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer—a gangster for capitalism. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

Butler served under Republican and Democratic presidents alike. The same bipartisan continuity has defined U.S. aggression ever since: Vietnam, Iraq, sanctions on Venezuela, unwavering support for Israeli apartheid—all executed by presidents of both parties.

In every case, these wars and interventions serve capitalism, not democracy. Butler saw it clearly. To end imperial war, we must confront its root: an economy organized not around human needs but corporate interests, and an empire built to defend them.

We must resist Trump’s loud and open aggression against Venezuela—but also the quieter liberal complicity that enables it. Across the United States, thousands have already taken to the streets in protest. From coast to coast, including right here in Flagstaff, Arizona, demonstrators have denounced Washington’s illegal takeover of Venezuela and the kidnapping of its elected president. Ira Allen, a professor of rhetoric at Northern Arizona University and author of Panic Now? Tools for Humanizing, joined the protest, saying:

“The world can no longer afford imperial wars for oil and other resources. Even when they seem militarily cheap, as here, their moral and climate costs are unbearable.”

Americans, more than any people on earth, bear both the moral responsibility and the political obligation to oppose this imperial recklessness. We cannot allow Trump and his band of fascist militarists to send troops into American cities, bankroll genocide in Palestine, or lay waste to Venezuela.

Enough is enough.

Joe Bader is a peace and immigrant rights activist and former labor union negotiator residing in Flagstaff, Arizona. He holds a master’s degree in Modern American and European History from California State University, Long Beach.