Venezuela and Trump’s Hemispheric Power Grab

Foreign aggression and domestic repression march together

Protestors gather in Times Square against the invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro by the U.S. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

The Trump administration’s bombing of Venezuela and kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores marks a dangerous new stage in U.S. intervention and militarism in the Americas. This is a fluid situation, with information becoming dated almost as quickly as it comes out. Within that uncertainty, Liberation Road’s International Team offers these initial brief, provisional points to help comrades and allies make sense of how to orient and to act.

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By the International Work Team of Liberation Road

1. This is an assault on national sovereignty and the self-determination of the Venezuelan people.

Trump’s decision to bomb Venezuela, abduct its head of state, and openly declare that the United States will “run” the country is a direct violation of national self-determination and international law. No foreign power has the right to seize or detain another country’s leaders by force, nor dictate its political direction or economic policy. The Venezuelan people alone have the right to decide their future.

2. This is one step in a broader authoritarian project to dominate the Western Hemisphere.

Much like Project 2025 lays out a plan for domestic authoritarian takeover, Trump’s national security strategy—released in December 2025—sketches a vision of U.S. supremacy over the Americas, enforced by military might. Venezuela is not an aberration or a distraction. It is the opening move in a project driven by varied interests inside the MAGA coalition—from oil profiteers eager to seize resources, to neocon hawks seeking hemispheric dominance over Russia and China, to ideologues intent on breaking the Latin American “pink tide,” to those eager to distract from domestic crises. If MAGA forces succeed—if there is no political consequence—further aggression is almost certain. The next targets may be Colombia, Cuba, Greenland, or Mexico.

3. Trump’s war on Venezuela is cut from the same cloth as his war on Black, Brown, immigrant, and working-class communities at home.

By rebranding an illegal war as a mere “law enforcement operation,” the administration is normalizing the idea that the president can deploy military violence without oversight. This mirrors the escalation of ICE raids, deportations, and extrajudicial repression in the U.S. Taken together, these moves attempt to build a “dual state” in which the president wields unaccountable force against whomever he chooses, wherever he chooses. Foreign aggression and domestic repression have always marched together in U.S. history; they are marching together now. Yet some establishment Democrats, while opposing aspects of MAGA’s domestic agenda, will rally around the flag when military action begins. We must challenge these positions directly, bring more people into the fight to defend Venezuelan sovereignty against U.S. aggression, and make clear that stopping Trump’s war abroad is inseparable from resisting his authoritarianism here at home.

4. We can stop this authoritarian project.

Trump’s assault on Venezuela depends on the silence, resignation, and passive or active cooperation of Congress, the courts, the military, and the public. But compliance is not inevitable. We need to bring anti-war demands fully into the next No Kings mobilization and other mass protests. Yet marches alone won’t stop a war—2003 taught us that. Breaking compliance requires action on multiple fronts: courts enforcing constitutional limits; Congress reasserting war powers; military personnel refusing illegal orders; and, above all, sustained public resistance. We must integrate anti-war efforts into our broader anti-MAGA strategy: building people power inside workplaces and organizations, pairing that social resistance with political defense in courts and government, and building toward a social and political counter-offensive capable of defeating MAGA’s authoritarian project.

5. Opposing U.S. aggression does not require agreeing on Venezuela’s internal politics.

Venezuela’s internal political landscape is complicated, and people on the left—both within and beyond Venezuela—hold a variety of principled positions on Maduro and the current government. Those debates will continue, but they are not the task of the moment, and they are not ours to resolve from the United States. We must build the broadest possible front around one essential principle: only the Venezuelan people have the right to decide their future, free from external coercion, imperialist aggression, and U.S. interference.

Actions to take:

• Support, join, and organize protests against U.S aggression. Incorporate anti-war demands into broader protests and organizing.

• Urge Congress to act now to stop Trump’s war on Venezuela. (Sign the Win Without War petition and call your representatives and senators.)

• Talk to your friends, neighbors, coworkers, and comrades about what’s happening. Get groups you’re involved with (unions, IPOs, civic and social organizations) to take action.

• Connect with groups like Grassroots Global Justice Alliance to hear from social movement leaders in Venezuela and across the Americas.

Key Points to Highlight:

• Trump is acting like a mob boss. He is trying to seize another country so he and his oil allies can profit.

• Trump’s attacks on the Venezuelan people are part and parcel of his attacks on Black, Brown, poor, and working-class communities at home.

• U.S. communities are exhausted from endless wars and don’t want leaders “running” other countries while our economy is faltering and healthcare costs skyrocket.

• Only Congress has the power to declare war. Congress must act now to stop this.

• The Venezuelan people alone have the right to determine their future.

Traps to Avoid:

• Don’t get dragged into defending Maduro or debating the internal political situation in Venezuela.

• Don’t treat this like a one-off crisis. Tie it to Trump’s larger authoritarian project both domestically and abroad.

• Don’t center U.S. power as the answer. The answer to Trump’s overt imperialism is not a softer, gentler U.S.-led “humanitarianism.”

• Our key principles must be support for Venezuelan self-determination and solidarity with the Venezuelan people.