Left and communist parties across Asia issued a statement expressing solidarity with the people of Venezuela, who are facing unprecedented attacks from the United States with an aggressive military build up in the Caribbean, as well as open threats of invasion.
The statement, dated December 16, notes the concerns over ongoing “military escalation in the Caribbean and the aggression against Venezuela by the imperialist US” and demands the immediate cessation of all such hostile activities.
The statement was signed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM), the Party of the Laboring Masses of Philippines (PLM), and Indonesia’s Partai Pembebasan Rakyat.
The US deployed a large contingent of war ships in the Caribbean starting in August this year and has amassed over 15,000 military personnel. President Donald Trump claims it to be the largest naval mobilization in the region ever. This was purportedly to fight alleged drug trafficking from the region.
The US has threatened war with Venezuela, accusing its government, led by President Nicolás Maduro, of supporting the drug cartels.
US forces have killed several Venezuelan citizens by attacking and blowing up several boats, claiming them to be drug traffickers. The US has failed to provide any evidence for all its accusations against the Maduro government or the targeted boats.
Last week, the US illegally seized a large tanker carrying oil from Venezuela to Cuba, which several people have called an act of piracy.
Trump also announced a naval blockade of Venezuela earlier this week, saying no sanctioned ships would be allowed to sail from its coast.
“We strongly condemn the US military deployment in the Caribbean and its military build up and operations in the Caribbean Sea, blowing up boats and resulting in extrajudicial killings,” the statement says.
“The military build-up in the Caribbean under the pretext of combating drug trafficking and ‘narcoterrorists,’” the left parties claim, “is the latest attempt of the imperialist US to conduct a regime change operation in Venezuela.”
Venezuelan people’s right to sovereignty
The Maduro-led government in Venezuela has been targeted by the US with unilateral punitive measures (or sanctions) for years, although under different “justifications”. In the past decade, the US has justified such aggressive measures against Venezuela by accusing Maduro of being authoritarian, allegedly suppressing political opposition in the country and manipulating elections to stay in power, and most recently declaring that Maduro is the head of an international drug trafficking organization.
Such attacks and media campaigns have been consistently condemned by Caracas that has deemed them part of an attempt by the US to subvert Venezuela’s democratic process and install a government that is more subservient to US interests.
“The intention of the imperialist US is clear, which is to remove the current Venezuelan government led by Nicolás Maduro, to reverse the gains of the Bolivarian Revolution, and to restore the pro-US oligarchical rule in the country,” the joint statement underlines.
All this effort is made “in order to serve the geopolitical interests” of the imperialist power both in the region and beyond.
Read More: In Venezuela, we have not been invaded
Citing how the US illegally seized the Venezuelan super tanker last week, the statement accuses that “[the US] seizing Venezuela’s oil deposits, one of the largest in the world, is a critical consideration” of this.
Trump, on several occasions, referred to Venezuelan oil as significant for US interests, even while announcing the naval blockade. Trump claimed Venezuela’s oil belongs to the US and vowed to “take back” control over it through the present military maneuvers.
The Maduro government has defied American claims and threats and has resolved to resist what it calls the US attempts to recolonize Venezuela in every way possible.
The left parties in Asia also asserted that “the people of Venezuela have every right to defend their sovereignty and to determine their own path of development, without any intervention from foreign imperialist powers.”
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