On Jan. 2, Donald Trump posted a threat on Truth Social that should alarm anyone paying attention. “If Iran shots [sic] and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”

Read that again. The president of the United States just promised to invade Iran if its government kills protesters — something U.S. state forces have done many times from the Civil Rights movement to police and National Guard killings at Jackson State and Kent State in 1970 to the 2020 Black Lives Matter uprisings.

This isn’t empty bluster. 

Last June, while U.S. and Iranian diplomats were still talking, U.S. and Israeli warplanes launched coordinated strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities in a 12-day assault. The United States deployed B-2 bombers to strike the underground sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan with bunker-buster bombs specifically designed to penetrate the fortified facilities. 

The conflict killed over 1,000 people in Iran and injured thousands more, most of them civilians, according to Iran’s Health Ministry. In December, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Iran “didn’t get the full message.”

Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met at Mar-a-Lago that month to coordinate the next strike. Trump told reporters afterward that he could “knock out their missiles very quickly” and that the consequences for Iran would be “maybe more powerful than the last time.”

So when Trump says “locked and loaded,” he means it. The question is why.

The economic vise

The protests Trump claims to care about started in early December when shopkeepers in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar went on strike. The Iranian currency, the rial, had hit a record low against the dollar. Prices for basic goods were soaring. The strike spread. People took to the streets, furious about the cost of living.

This didn’t happen by accident. For decades, the United States has waged economic war against Iran through sanctions that target its oil exports, its banks, its shipping industry. In late 2025, Washington reimposed United Nations “snapback” sanctions, tightening the noose further. Economist Jeffrey Sachs calls this “economic strangulation” — a form of collective punishment aimed at an entire population.

The numbers tell the story. According to the International Monetary Fund’s projections from October, Iran’s economy is expected to grow just 0.6% in 2025, down from 3.1% the year before. Inflation is forecast at 42.4%. The rial has collapsed, wiping out people’s savings and their ability to buy food, medicine, fuel. Then came the June airstrikes, which caused billions of dollars in damage on top of everything else.

So yes, Iranians are protesting. They’re angry. Many blame their own government for corruption and mismanagement, and they have every right to. But the crisis itself — the currency collapse, the runaway inflation, the shortages — was engineered in Washington. The sanctions are designed to create exactly this kind of desperation, to turn people against their government, to make the country ungovernable.

Trump’s offer to “rescue” Iranian protesters is a sick joke. The U.S. created the economic disaster that drove them into the streets. Now it wants to use their suffering as a pretext for war.

The response from inside

Here’s what makes this moment different from past U.S. threats: Iranians aren’t playing along.

After the June airstrikes, something unexpected happened. People who had been protesting the government rallied against the foreign attack. In January, massive counter-protests erupted in Fars and Hamedan provinces. Demonstrators chanted “Death to America” and condemned what they called the “destructive actions” of rioters. The message was clear: We have grievances with our government, but we won’t let you use them to destroy our country.

The most striking example came from death row. Pakhshan Azizi is a Kurdish social worker sentenced to death by the Iranian government. The U.S. State Department made her case a cause célèbre, holding her up as proof of Iran’s brutality. 

From her cell, Azizi smuggled out a statement rejecting what she called “American sinister instrumentalization of her case.” She wrote: “If the United States government truly believes in the principles of human rights and humanity, it must first cease its warmongering, aggression, and crimes in the region. It must also end its explicit support for the Zionist regime, which has committed genocide against the people of Gaza.”

A woman facing execution told the U.S. government she doesn’t want its help. That tells you everything about how Iranians see this offer of “rescue.”

Iran’s government, for its part, has responded with defiance. The Foreign Ministry called Trump’s threat a “gross violation of the fundamental principles of the UN Charter” and “incitement to violence.” Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf warned that any U.S. attack would make “all American centers and forces across the entire region” legitimate targets. President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran is in a “full-fledged war with America, Israel, and Europe.”

What this is really about

The official story is that the U.S. opposes Iran because of its nuclear program, its support for regional militias, its human rights record. These are pretexts. The real issue is that Iran refuses to be controlled.

Since the 1979 revolution, when Iranians faced the Shah’s bullets to overthrow a dictator installed by CIA coup, Iran has refused to return to its former status as a U.S. client state. It trades with countries the U.S. wants isolated. It supports movements the U.S. wants crushed. Most importantly, it sits at the crossroads of two major projects that threaten U.S. dominance: China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which would create a land route from China to Europe through Iran, bypassing U.S.-controlled sea lanes, and Russia’s International North-South Transport Corridor, which would connect Russia to India via the Caspian Sea and Iran, giving Russia access to the Indian Ocean.

Both projects depend on a sovereign, stable Iran. That’s what the U.S. cannot allow.

The conflict with Iran is fundamentally about preventing countries from building economic and political systems outside U.S. control. Any nation that seeks real sovereignty — the ability to trade with whom it chooses, build the infrastructure it needs, control its own resources — becomes a threat to Washington’s dominance. General Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor, said the quiet part out loud when he admitted the ultimate goal of a war on Iran is to “weaken China” and ensure “U.S. global dominance.”

The preferred outcome is regime change — installing a government in Tehran that will take orders from Washington the way the Shah did before 1979. Analyst Behrooz Ghamari Tabrizi describes the goal as forcing Iran back into being a “client state” that “lacks the authority to challenge American regional influence.” 

But if that proves impossible, the fallback is a failed state. Think Syria or Libya: a country torn apart by civil war, no longer capable of challenging anyone. U.S. planners have discussed this option since the 1970s, when internal documents floated the idea of breaking Iran “into ethnic parts” to neutralize it as a regional power.

This is what’s at stake. Not preventing nuclear weapons or protecting protesters. Control. The U.S. empire requires that Iran remain weak, divided, and compliant. An Iran trading freely with China and Russia, helping to build new infrastructure and new financial systems outside U.S. control, aligned with other countries resisting Washington’s dominance — that is the real threat.

Where we stand

Trump’s threat is reckless and dangerous, but it’s also a sign of weakness. The U.S. has been trying to break Iran for more than 40 years through coups, sanctions, assassinations, cyberattacks, proxy wars. Iran is still standing. Its alliances with China and Russia are deepening. New trade routes, financial systems, and economic partnerships are being built despite U.S. opposition.

The danger is that Washington, facing the limits of its power, will lash out. The June airstrikes killed a thousand people. Another attack could kill many more. A ground invasion — which Trump’s threat implies — would be catastrophic.

The lie is transparent. This has nothing to do with human rights or democracy. It’s about empire, oil, and a desperate attempt to maintain dominance over countries building economic ties outside Washington’s control.

When workers in Tehran go on strike because they can’t afford food, the answer isn’t U.S. bombs. The sanctions strangling their economy come from Washington. The military threats hanging over their heads come from Washington. The same forces of capital and empire that exploit workers in Iran exploit workers everywhere. The fight against imperialist war abroad and the fight for justice at home are one fight.

New Orleans, Jan. 2 – In downtown, dozens marched against Trump’s National Guard and ICE occupation. The action started with a rally in front of Armstrong Park. The march went through busy parts of the French Quarter and Central Business District, briefly shutting down several blocks of Canal Street.

Unlike Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry – who asks “how high?” before Trump even says jump – these protesters are not happy with the federal government rampaging through our communities with armed agents.

This is happening as violent crime in the city continues to drop: 2025 saw one of the lowest violent crime rates since the 1960s. And other crimes like burglary were down 50%. The National Guard is not here because of an out-of-control crime situation. Trump has sent them as a threat to the people. He has never made it a secret that he wants mass repression against anyone resisting his rule. 

And they are here to protect ICE, which is clearly not going after violent criminals, either. Independent analyses have found that only 5% of the people ICE is kidnapping had a violent crime conviction. Seventy-three percent had no criminal conviction whatsoever. They are arresting parents bringing their kids to school and our neighbors who work hard for low wages, just hoping for a better life for their families. This is not about keeping anyone safe. It is about dividing and repressing working-class people.

And none of this is making grocery prices lower, by the way. Tech billionaires and private prison owners with ICE contracts laugh all the way to the bank when we fall for the lies and believe that our immigrant neighbors are the ones somehow keeping us down. But anything to keep us from looking at what said billionaires are doing.

At the rally before the march, Toni with Freedom Road Socialist Organization drew a connection between the occupation of majority-Black New Orleans and the violence committed by the declining U.S. empire abroad. She began with the chant, “No boots on the ground, no bombs in the air, U.S. out of everywhere!,” then continued:

“That includes Palestine, that includes Africa, that includes Asia, that includes New Orleans, because we don’t need military occupation. The white supremacist militarism that says that they can take their guns, bombs, and tanks, and GIs, and just send them all over this world and use them against the masses of the people – because they think they have divine right – that’s over.

“That time of empire and white supremacy is over. Now is the time of the people. Now is the time for us to take a stand.

“They like to say that us Brown people and people from oppressed nations in this country are a minority, to be subjugated to the rules of their racist minoritarian rule. But in New Orleans we are not a minority. Black people, Brown people – we are the majority in this city! 

“And in our movement, we take from the tradition of Malcolm X, who also fought for Black self determination. Brown people, Black people, we are not minorities. We are the majority of this world! We are the majority of this city! And we are not going to sit idly by while some few people want to pillage our city, pillage our nations for the benefit of the billionaires. That’s why we’re standing up and fighting back.” 

This protest was endorsed by Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Queer and Trans Community Action Project, Communist Party USA, Workers Voice Socialist Movement and other organizations.

On Christmas Eve day in Glen Burnie, Maryland, ICE officers shot an unarmed man who was driving a van, causing him to smash into a tree. 

The story the Anne Arundel Police Department tells is that Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins, a migrant from Portugal, tried to run down the officers with the van. Salomon Antonio Serrano-Esquival, a migrant from El Salvador, was a passenger in the van and suffered injuries as a result of the crash.

ICE’s official statement was its usual fascist rhetoric, run-on sentences and all: 

“This incident, which is still under investigation, comes as the extremist anti-ICE rhetoric and outright lies of politicians, the news media, activists, and violent agitators continue to fuel a more than 1,150% increase in assaults against ICE officers. Our brave officers are risking their lives every day to keep American communities safe by arresting and removing illegal aliens from our streets. Continued efforts to encourage illegal aliens and violent agitators to actively resist ICE will only lead to more violent incidents, the extremist rhetoric must stop.”

However, witness accounts reported by local media contradict ICE’s characterization of a high-threat situation. According to the Baltimore Banner and other outlets, ICE agents followed Sousa-Martins from a nearby Walmart before confronting him in a parking lot where witnesses said he was playing a game on his phone. One neighbor who saw the shooting told reporters that Sousa-Martins was shot three times. The confrontation occurred in a residential neighborhood on Christmas Eve morning, with witnesses expressing shock at the level of force used in a populated area.

Baltimore’s People’s Power Assembly responded with a rally and press conference the following Monday, Dec. 29. The media advisory issued to local press strongly condemned ICE’s brutal shooting and raised demands:

“It is time for the Maryland Governor’s office and the Maryland General Assembly to act. Both institutions have the power to ban cooperation agreements between Maryland counties and ICE, like the joint ICE-Anne Arundel County police ‘Criminal Alien Program.’ Further, the State of Maryland should declare all 287(G) agreements between ICE and Maryland counties to be defunct as they violate the basic constitutional and human rights of Maryland citizens.”

Adrian, a representative of Malaya Movement Baltimore, an organization also participating in the Tanggol Migrante (Defend Migrants) Movement, was invited to speak about how Trump’s immigration policy affects the Filipino community. “ICE is a clear and present danger in our communities,” said the representative. “They violate our rights, terrorize people based on their skin color, and once they detain us, subject us to inhumane living conditions.”

“In line with Trump’s fascist immigration policy,” he continued, “the Customs and Border Protection have also struck fear into the hearts of Filipino cruise workers docking at the Maryland Cruise Terminal. Since September, CBP agents have unjustly targeted Filipinos and detained them over crimes they did not commit.” 

Members of the International League of People’s Struggles (ILPS) Baltimore-DMV regional chapter, the Greater Baltimore Democratic Socialists of America, the Free State Coalition, and the Baltimore Party for Socialism and Liberation were also in attendance to support. 

The crowd drew overwhelming support from passing cars and passersby. 

All in attendance committed to building a fighting mass movement that can bring down not only ICE, but the whole system that makes ICE both possible and profitable. 

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is scheduled to appear in New York City at the federal court on Monday, Jan. 5, after being illegally abducted by the Trump administration during an illegal large-scale military strike on Venezuela on Saturday, Jan. 3.

But New Yorkers won’t stand for illegal wars and kidnapping the president of a sovereign country. We say NO!

Join us tomorrow to stand up against the illegal actions of the Trump administration in their quest to profit from Venezuela’s oil and dominate Latin America.

Monday, Jan. 5
11:30 a.m.
Foley Square, Manhattan
(Outside the federal courthouse where Maduro will be arraigned)

Statement denounces invasion as pattern of imperialist violence, connects to historical enslavement of Africans

Editor’s note: The following statement was issued January 3, 2026, by the Global Afrikan Congress (GAC), a Pan-African organization dedicated to the liberation and self-determination of African people worldwide. Founded in 2002 in Barbados and organized in 35 nations, the GAC describes itself as the largest Pan-African Black Nationalist group in the world. The organization operates as an umbrella network of grassroots organizations across Africa, the Caribbean, North America, and Europe, and holds consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The GAC emerged from the African-African Descendants Caucus, which played an instrumental role in getting the transatlantic slave trade declared “a crime against humanity” at the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism.

The statement addresses both the U.S. military strikes on Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro, as well as the months-long campaign of U.S. military strikes on vessels in Caribbean and Pacific waters.

Prior to the January 3 invasion of Venezuela, the Trump administration conducted Operation Southern Spear, a series of military strikes beginning in September 2025 on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean. According to reports compiled by the Washington Office on Latin America and documented in congressional testimony, at least 115 people were killed in these strikes through early January 2026. Legal experts have characterized these strikes as extrajudicial killings carried out without authorization or due process.

The statement’s reference to Trump pardoning a “drug-dealing President of Honduras” refers to Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted in March 2024 of drug trafficking charges for facilitating the transport of over 400 tons of cocaine to the United States and sentenced to 45 years in prison. Trump pardoned Hernández on December 1, 2025, and he was immediately released from federal prison. The pardon exposed the Trump administration’s stated justification for attacking Venezuela as based on drug trafficking allegations against President Maduro.

STATEMENT BY THE GLOBAL AFRIKAN CONGRESS Condemning U.S. Aggression Against Venezuela and Extrajudicial Killings in Caribbean Waters

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 3, 2026

The Global Afrikan Congress or GAC unequivocally condemns the Trump Administration’s unlawful invasion and military aggression against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela earlier this morning, Saturday, January 3, 2026.

In this context, we energetically condemn the kidnapping of the President of the Bolivarian Republic, Nicholas Maduro and his wife, the First Lady of Venezuela as well as the multiple reported extrajudicial killings of innocent fishermen in the Caribbean Sea that preceded the cited violation of Venezuela’s sovereign territory!

We also specifically condemn Trump’s declaration that the “U.S. will now run the country” of Venezuela which is a confirmation of what we always suspected that U.S. imperialism wanted to destroy Venezuela’s nationalist revolution to steal Venezuela’s oil and other resources!

We also firmly believe that these actions constitute grave violations of United States domestic law, international law, and the fundamental principles of sovereignty, human rights, and the sanctity of life.

We in the GAC also believe that the Trump Administration’s conduct reflects a dangerous pattern of state terrorism carried out under the false pretext of “border security” and a deliberately broken U.S. immigration system.

The GAC also believes that in practice, this action against Venezuela and its government is not about drugs and democracy but is instead about stealing Venezuela’s oil and other resources. If Trump’s invasion of Venezuela was about drugs, Trump would not have pardoned the former drug dealing President of Honduras who was tried and imprisoned for his drug trafficking of over 400 tons of cocaine in the U.S. for 45 years by a U.S. court.

The GAC also believes that Trump’s action against Venezuela is partly about deflecting from his government’s manifest failures of his domestic agenda to provide affordable housing, groceries, health care for tens of millions of Americans as well as the President’s own implications in the Epstein files.

We also observe that the attack on Venezuela and the kidnapping of its President and First Lady is consistent with Trump’s and the US empire’s war against people of color within the U.S. and beyond its borders.

We also believe that Trump’s actions against Venezuela also violate the U.S. Constitution, the War Powers Resolution, and binding international legal frameworks, including the United Nations Charter, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and customary international law prohibiting extrajudicial killings and acts of aggression against all sovereign peoples.

We in the GAC also raise concerns about the inevitable violations of human rights, the likely use of U.S. military aggression and the dehumanization of the people of Venezuela who will be resisting U.S. occupation of their country and in defense of their anti-imperialist revolution.

We also uncompromisingly condemn the silence—or complicity—of much of the international community in the face of these crimes. In this context, we specifically condemn the compromised non-position of CARICOM led by the U.S. lackey, the Jamaican Prime Minister, Andrew Holness who have said and done nothing in defense of Venezuelan sovereignty leading up to the violation of its territorial integrity and the kidnapping of its President and First Lady!

The GAC notes that the kidnapping of Venezuelan President, its First Lady and the theft of Venezuelan oil tankers, the violation of Caribbean and Latin American territorial waters are not isolated acts. They are part of a long continuum of imperialist violence that are not disconnected from the invasion of Africa and the systematic kidnapping of tens of millions of Africans, their enslavement, and centuries of colonial exploitation carried out for European and American imperial gains.

The Global Afrikan Congress affirms that the sovereignty of Venezuela, the Caribbean, and Latin America is not and will never be up for negotiation.

Here, we in the GAC also fully condemn U.S. imperialism under Trump and Rubio who are intent on remaking Latin America and the Caribbean as its geopolitical backyard. That’s what the attack on Venezuela’s nationalist revolution is largely about!

As such, we call upon regional governments, CARICOM, CELAC, the African Union, and the United Nations to break their silence and to act decisively to uphold international law and protect civilian life.

We further call upon the peoples of the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, and the global African diaspora to resist these criminal policies through principled, organized, and collective action—just as our ancestors resisted enslavement, colonial domination, and apartheid.

Our history teaches us that dignity, freedom, and self-determination are never granted by empire; they are claimed through unity, courage, and unwavering commitment to justice.

The Global Afrikan Congress stands in solidarity with the people of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and with all countries and peoples resisting imperial violence, racism, and terror.

We demand accountability, reparative justice, and an end to U.S. aggression in our region and across the world.

Respect sovereignty!

End imperial violence!

Defend Sovereignty, Peace, Life and Human Dignity!

Minutes from a video conference with international solidarity organizations outline mobilization strategy

Editor’s note: The following are minutes from a videoconference held by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) with international solidarity organizations on January 3, 2026, following the U.S. military strikes and capture of President Nicolás Maduro. The meeting was led by Tanía Díaz, Vice President for International Affairs of the PSUV and member of Venezuela’s National Assembly. More than 3,000 participants from international solidarity organizations joined the call.

CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) is holding an emergency ministerial meeting on January 4, 2026, convened by Colombia, which currently holds the CELAC presidency. The UN Security Council will meet in emergency session on Monday, January 5, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. EST.

Minuta de la reunión con el PSUV sobre la situación en Venezuela

[English translation follows]

La compañera Tanía Díaz resaltó que la videoconferencia tenía como objetivo fundamental decir que Venezuela se mantiene de pie, firme y exige que se libere al presidente Maduro y sea devuelto a Venezuela, sano y salvo; así como también a la primera combatiente Cilia Flores. Se recalcó que Venezuela tiene un solo presidente, se llama Nicolás Maduro y está secuestrado.

Informó que la Vicepresidenta Delcy Rodríguez asume como encargada de la Presidencia de la República, ante el secuestro del Presidente Nicolás Maduro Moros por parte del régimen de EEUU. NO hay falta temporal ni absoluta. La Vicepresidenta asume encargaduría por la ausencia forzosa del Presidente.

Solicitó que sigamos movilizados y activos:

• La Solidaridad internacional debe mantenerse activa. Pedimos no parar hasta que nuestro presidente esté de vuelta en su patria y en sus funciones.
• Que mañana se activen con acciones y pronunciamientos en el marco de la reunión que hará la CELAC.
• Mencionó que hay un Canal de información oficial de telegram. Clave para tener información de primera mano: info psuv internacional https://t.me/InfoPSUVInternacional
• Se va a difundir una Carta de legisladores de la región exigiendo respeto al derecho internacional para hacerla llegar al Congreso Norteamericano. Importante que los más de 3000 conectados hoy a la videoconferencia la puedan suscribir.
• Consignar los documentos, comunicados, pronunciamientos que estamos haciendo, a instancias de ONU, Parlamentos, Academias, etc. Un ejercicio profundo de Diplomacia de Pueblos.

Agradeció la profunda y masiva solidaridad del mundo con el pueblo de Venezuela y su presidente Nicolás Maduro Moros.

Minutes of the meeting with the PSUV on the situation in Venezuela

Comrade Tanía Díaz emphasized that the videoconference had the fundamental objective of declaring that Venezuela remains standing, firm, and demands the liberation of President Maduro and his safe return to Venezuela, as well as the release of first combatant Cilia Flores. She stressed that Venezuela has only one president, his name is Nicolás Maduro, and he is kidnapped.

She reported that Vice President Delcy Rodríguez assumes responsibility as acting President of the Republic, in response to the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro Moros by the U.S. regime. There is no temporary or absolute absence. The Vice President assumes the acting role due to the forced absence of the President.

She requested that we remain mobilized and active:

• International solidarity must remain active. We ask that you not stop until our president is back in his homeland and in his functions.
• That tomorrow [January 4] you activate with actions and statements within the framework of the meeting that CELAC will hold.
• She mentioned there is an official Telegram information channel. Key for having first-hand information: info psuv internacional https://t.me/InfoPSUVInternacional
• A letter from legislators of the region demanding respect for international law will be circulated to be delivered to the U.S. Congress. It is important that the more than 3,000 connected to today’s videoconference can sign it.
• Submit the documents, communiqués, statements that we are making to UN bodies, Parliaments, Academies, etc. A profound exercise of People’s Diplomacy.

She thanked the profound and massive solidarity of the world with the people of Venezuela and its president Nicolás Maduro Moros.

International labor movement denounces U.S. strikes and capture of President Maduro as violation of UN Charter and regional Zone of Peace

Editor’s note: The following statement was issued January 3, 2026, by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA) in response to U.S. military strikes on Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro.

The ITUC represents 191 million workers in 169 countries and territories through 340 national affiliates, making it the world’s largest trade union federation. TUCA is the ITUC’s regional organization for the Americas, representing 55 million workers across the hemisphere through 48 affiliated organizations in 21 countries.

The statement references the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) proclamation declaring Latin America and the Caribbean a “Zone of Peace,” signed by 33 heads of state in Havana, Cuba, on January 29, 2014. That historic declaration committed member nations to resolve disputes through peaceful means, reject foreign intervention in internal affairs, respect each state’s right to choose its own political and economic system, and promote nuclear disarmament. The proclamation explicitly called on “all Member States of the International Community to fully respect this Declaration in their relations with CELAC Member States.”

The Trump administration’s military operation represents the most significant U.S. intervention in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama, directly violating both the CELAC Zone of Peace proclamation and the UN Charter’s prohibition on the use of force against sovereign nations.

Statement from the International Trade Union Confederation and Trade Union Confederation of the Americas

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA) express their absolute and unequivocal rejection of the military operation carried out today by the government of the United States of America on the territory of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Given the gravity of the events, which include the bombing of facilities in Caracas and confirmation by the U.S. government of the capture and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro, the international trade union movement declares:

1. Condemnation of military intervention: We denounce this action as a flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the fundamental principles of international law. The use of military force and the incursion into the territory of a sovereign nation constitute an unacceptable act of war that jeopardizes the peace and stability of the entire region.

2. Defense of sovereignty and self-determination: In line with our historic position of defending the autonomy of peoples and supporting the statements issued by the governments of the region demanding unrestricted respect for Venezuelan sovereignty, we reject any attempt at regime change by force or through foreign interference. The fate of Venezuela must be decided exclusively by the Venezuelan people through democratic and peaceful mechanisms, without imperial tutelage.

3. Demand for human guarantees: We join the immediate international demand for proof of life, respect for physical integrity, and the release of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, as well as any other citizens detained in this illegal operation. Their current status must be made transparent to the international community without delay.

4. Call for peace and dialogue: We agree with the position expressed by the governments of Brazil, Mexico, and other countries in condemning violence and urging a return to diplomatic channels. The region must remain a zone of peace; we will not allow Latin America to be dragged into a military conflict for geopolitical interests that do not represent our peoples.

“These acts in no way defend democracy; they are clear acts of aggression as part of a militarized foreign policy agenda motivated by unilateral economic interests,” said ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle. “Threats of kidnapping and the misuse of the courts to attack a sovereign government undermine the international rule of law and set a precedent of imperial coercion that jeopardizes peace everywhere.”

“We, the trade union movement of the Americas, condemn the military aggression and kidnapping of President Maduro and his partner Cilia Flores, a violation of the sovereignty and integrity of the Venezuelan people and of all Latin America and the Caribbean, declared a Zone of Peace by Community of Latin American and Caribbean States since 2014,” said Rafael Freire, TUCA General Secretary. “We are activating mechanisms of international solidarity with the people and workers of Venezuela. We defend Venezuela and all of Latin America as a territory of peace. We do not accept invasion and violence against our peoples and territories. The trade union movement, as always, is on the front line of defending sovereignty and self-determination, democracy and human rights.”

The ITUC and the TUCA remain mobilized against imperialist, military or economic interference by one country in another, against wars, and in firm defense of peace, democracy and multilateralism.

For the sovereignty, peace and self-determination of peoples.

The following are remarks by John Parker of the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice and the Struggle for Socialism Party, delivered at a Jan. 3 emergency protest in Los Angeles organized by Unión del Barrio, the Community Self-Defense Coalition, and other organizations.

Introduction by Ron Gochez, Unión del Barrio

We’re going to get started. Good morning to everyone, or good afternoon for those just joining us.

Thank you all for being here. The reason we’re here today, on behalf of Unión del Barrio, the Community Self‑Defense Coalition, and several other organizations that are present, is because we know what happened early this morning in Venezuela. We’re very concerned about what happened, and we’re here to share statements from various organizations.

Up first, we want to bring up someone who was just in Venezuela a couple of weeks ago and had the chance to see things firsthand. I’ll let him talk about it, but I want to bring up John Parker from the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, and also from the Struggle for Socialism Party. John Parker.

John Parker, Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice / Struggle for Socialism Party

It’s so inspiring to have this action right here, and it’s so important, the things that we do. We absolutely condemn the brutal assault and the kidnapping that the U.S. government — the criminal U.S. government — is carrying out right now. One of the things we should demand is that Trump be jailed and that they free Maduro.

That’s right. What is the Democratic Party doing right now? Are they saying anything about it? Is the Republican Party saying anything about this criminal behavior, these war crimes that are going on right now?

I can tell you, a couple of weeks ago I was in Venezuela as part of a U.S. delegation to try to stop the war on Venezuela. And I can tell you why they don’t want Venezuela, why they kidnap Maduro. It has nothing to do with drugs. That’s a lie, and they know it’s a lie.

What they don’t want you to know is what the Venezuelan people and the government are doing right now to try to stop the horrible attack on the economy by the U.S. government, its sanctions, and things like that. What are they doing? They’re trying to build socialism in Venezuela.

I was there. I saw what they were doing. I saw the love that the people in Venezuela have for their president, for Maduro, and for the vice president who is now in charge. They have a great love. I saw Maduro walking around in crowds and not being afraid, not surrounded by heavy security, because he is secured by the love of the people and their love for socialism.

And that’s their “crime.” That’s why they’re trying to stop it — and we will not tolerate that.

We need food. We need health care. We need all the things required to feed our children. We don’t need war in Venezuela. We need allies. Venezuela was giving oil; they were helping poor people and poor communities in this country meet their basic needs, to stay warm through CITGO and things like that. That’s what they don’t like. They don’t like solidarity.

We’re going to build solidarity, and we’re not going to stop until this administration — whoever is collaborating with genocide in Gaza or wherever — is held accountable, until those folks are in jail and the real leaders of this community are able to take charge.

On Jan. 3, people across the United States protested Trump’s war on Venezuela. There were actions in over 100 cities, including New York, Denver, and Baltimore.

In a talk at the Baltimore rally, Peoples Power Assembly organizer Jace Carter said:

“The U.S. bombing of Venezuela and kidnapping of President Maduro is not only a violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty. It is an attack and threat to all oppressed and working-class people around the world.

“Here in the belly of the beast, and specifically here in Baltimore, people are struggling to keep food on the table, keep heat to stay warm, and keep their jobs to provide for themselves and their families. All while the drones produced at the Old Bethlehem Steel location are sent to aid in the U.S. terror blockade of the entire Caribbean.

“Corporate politicians have made it clear time and time again that they will always have money for death machines and occupation, not for people’s needs.”

Organizer Colby Byrd with the PPA added:

“The violence carried out by the fascist pigs abroad is the same violence carried out by fascist pigs here in the U.S. Maduro and his family were kidnapped out of their land and thrown on a boat in chains.

“Is this not the same story of those who have been victim to brutal ICE raids? Is this not the same story of our Black ancestors who were stolen from Africa for the sake of the overseers back in the U.S.?

“The fascist bombing of Caracas, the capital of the revolutionary government, is no different from the fascist bombing of Black Tulsa. Both were more than just cities. They were symbols of defiance against white supremacy. They were places where those who did the labor controlled their fate and that very idea scares the U.S. empire.

“The violence is the exact same. Pigs over from the U.S. bomb Venezuela and leave them with no resources while pigs here kill Arabbers [Baltimore street vendors with horse-drawn carts] and leave West Baltimore with no resources.

“It is the same fight. It is the same pigs.

“If we want to put an end to wars in the name of white supremacy and the pillaging of resources, we must pull the plug on the system designed to run on it. If we want our money to go to food, housing, education, transportation, and health care and other people’s needs, we must not only reject imperialist war but actively work to bring the whole machine down.”

Miguel Díaz-Canel, President of Cuba, has condemned the military aggression perpetrated on Saturday, January 3rd, by the U.S. government against Venezuela and the kidnapping of his counterpart in that South American country, Nicolás Maduro Moros, as an act of state terrorism.

Díaz-Canel asserted that the armed action constitutes a criminal assault against Our America, as a Zone of Peace; a violation of the sovereignty of a nation that is a symbol of independence, dignity, and solidarity; and an unacceptable attack on International Law.

The threat is not only to Venezuela, but to all of humanity, and is based on the fallacious doctrine of peace through force, the Cuban president warned during his address at the event condemning the aggression and expressing support for the Venezuelan president.

Due to its importance, Radio Havana Cuba brings you, in its entirety, the text of the speech delivered by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba at the event held at the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribune in Havana.

Speech delivered by Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, at the event condemning the military aggression against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and expressing support for its legitimate president, Nicolás Maduro Moros, and the Popular, Military, and Police Unity, held at the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribune, on January 3, 2026, “Year of the Centenary of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz”

(Stenographic Versions – Presidency of the Republic)

Down with imperialism! (Exclamations of: “Down!”)

Down with imperialism! (Exclamations of: “Down with it!”)

Down with genocidal, immoral, and fascist imperialism! (Exclamations of: “Down with it!”)

Brothers and sisters of Venezuela and all of our America;

Citizens of the world;

Brother Maneiro, Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to Cuba;

Compatriots:

Our Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, analyzing the dangerous behavior of imperialism in its predatory advance on independent nations of the Middle East, said more than twenty years ago:

“Never before have all the nations of the world been subjected to the power and whims of those who govern a superpower with seemingly limitless power, whose philosophy, political ideas, and notions of ethics no one has the slightest idea about. Their decisions are practically unpredictable and unappealable. The force and capacity to destroy and kill seem to be present in each of their pronouncements.”

These words seem perfectly suited to describe today’s brutal and treacherous attack by U.S. military forces against Venezuela and the unacceptable, vulgar, and barbaric kidnapping of our brother, President Nicolás Maduro, and his partner, Cilia Flores (Applause).

Cuba condemns and denounces these actions as an act of state terrorism; a criminal assault against our America, a Zone of Peace; a violation of the sovereignty of a nation that is a symbol of independence, dignity, and solidarity; and an unacceptable attack on International Law.

No, imperialist gentlemen, this is not your backyard, nor is it disputed territory! We neither accept nor recognize the Monroe Doctrine, nor outdated kings or emperors! The land of Bolívar is sacred, and an attack on its children is an attack on all the worthy children of our America! (Applause.)

And as Abel mentioned, for Venezuela, and of course also for Cuba, we are prepared to give even our own blood, even our own lives, but at a very high price! (Applause.)

The attack in the early morning hours on a peaceful and noble people can only be described as cowardly, criminal, and treacherous.

And it is an act of state terrorism, insofar as it is carried out arbitrarily and abusing military supremacy, on the orders of a foreign leader, as an unequivocal expression of fascism or, better said, of the neo-fascism that they seek to impose and establish on all of humanity in these turbulent times.

Therefore, the threat is not only to Venezuela; the threat is against all of humanity. And it is based on the fallacious doctrine of “peace through strength.”

This act of state terrorism that has just occurred in Venezuela is a scandalous violation of the norms of International Law: military aggression against a peaceful nation, which poses no threat whatsoever to the United States, and the kidnapping of a legitimate President sovereignly elected by his people. This is outrageous, and that is why we, the outraged, are here!

There can be no silence or acceptance of this act of state terrorism, comparable only to the crimes against humanity committed by Israeli Zionism in the Gaza Strip (Applause).

This morning we witnessed a chilling confirmation: the most fervent contender for the Nobel Peace Prize is, in reality, the greatest threat to peace on the continent (Applause). His treacherous attack on Venezuela shatters the stability that has characterized our Latin American and Caribbean region for years.

Those who celebrate the terrorist and fascist act, as Gerardo explained, that the United States has just committed against a sovereign nation on the continent can only do so from a place of hatred that clouds their judgment. No one even remotely informed can ignore or underestimate the grave implications of such criminal acts for regional and global peace.

That is why it is urgent that the international community mobilize, organize, and coordinate in denouncing this flagrant act of state terrorism and the illegal, immoral, and criminal kidnapping of a legitimate president to bring about regime change, as if someone foreign to the Venezuelan people had that right.

The target is not our brother Maduro, nor the Venezuelan military, nor even the fallacious narrative of drug trafficking that was cynically perpetuated for weeks and months by the worst kind of bandits like Marco Rubio. The very dark object of imperialist desire is Venezuelan oil, Venezuela’s land, and its natural resources.

Only cynics and cowards can close their eyes and ears to the declarations of Trump and his cronies, who just days ago admitted, without the slightest shame, that what they seek are Venezuela’s riches—riches openly and without limits promised to them by the empire’s candidate. And now, news is circulating that they will support her to become president of Venezuela.

The objective is also to extinguish that bastion of resistance to imperialism and defense of regional integration that is the Bolivarian Revolution since Commander Chávez’s rise to the presidency of this heroic nation.

The Bolivarian Revolution has proven to be a mass movement, with deep popular roots, and we have no doubt that the people will come out to defend their sovereignty, their democracy, and their President, as they did in April 2002 against the coup d’état also instigated by the US empire, which has never abandoned its attempt to seize Venezuela’s oil. (Applause)

The United States has no moral or legal authority whatsoever to forcibly remove the Venezuelan President from his country! But the United States is indeed responsible to the world for Maduro’s physical safety! (Applause.)

We join the call of the Venezuelan authorities demanding proof that Maduro and Cilia are alive.

For months, they have been fabricating the false accusation of narco-terrorism against the Venezuelan government and have been unable to present a single shred of evidence to support it. They haven’t done so because such evidence doesn’t exist, because such practices don’t exist, because it all stems from a narrative designed to justify this outrageous act of state terrorism they have just committed.

From within their own federal agencies, US analysts and researchers have been offering opinions and information that refute the false narrative of narco-terrorism and debunk these accusations against Venezuela and its President.

It is outrageous that Trump, Rubio, and their cronies don’t care about the truth. They are the ones who should be condemned by an international anti-fascist tribunal! (Applause.)

The fascists who are in power in the United States today learned very well from their Nazi role models the Goebbelsian principle that a lie repeated a thousand times can become the truth. But the truth will prevail, and the people will defend it as they triumphed and defeated Hitlerian fascism in the past.

Neither the Venezuelan people, nor the American people, nor the international community believe the string of lies they have been constructing.

These are not times for half measures; these are times for defining our positions and taking a stand against fascism and imperial barbarism! (Applause.)

Let us close ranks, peoples of the Americas, let us not allow the seven-league giant to pass us by!

Let us not forget what Che Guevara warned six decades ago: “…imperialism cannot be trusted, not even a little bit” (Applause).

Nicolás and Cilia are from Venezuela, and they must be returned to the Venezuelan people who elected and demand their legitimate President (Applause).

Down with imperialism! (Exclamations of: “Down!”)

Down with imperialism! (Exclamations of: “Down!”)

Down with imperialism! (Exclamations of: “Down!”)

The people united will never be defeated! (Exclamations of: “The people united will never be defeated!”)

Cuba and Venezuela, united they will win! (Exclamations of: “Cuba and Venezuela, one flag!”)

Patria o Muerte!
Homeland or Death!

Socialism or Death!
Socialism or Death!

Venceremos!
We will win!

IMAGE CREDIT: ACN | Photo: Omara García Mederos

[ SOURCE: AGENCIA CUBANA DE NOTICIAS ]

Source: Radio Havana Cuba/Ed Newman