Attack on Venezuela: Mexico's Response
mexicosolidarity.com
An interview with Daniela González López of Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de Los Pueblos.

It’s well-known that Big Trump loves Big Macs from McDonald’s. He even ordered fast food for a White House banquet! Is it just because he’s a regular guy? Michael Wolff’s *Fire and Fury,*about the inside of the Trump White House, explains: Trump is confident that a takeout order from McDonald’s isn’t poisoned. Like most autocrats, he constantly watches his back.

Cartoon: Pinche Einnar

But anyone else’s security? Like most autocrats, spilling other people’s blood is as inconsequential as spilling ketchup. In shock and horror, we watched the videos of ICE murdering in cold blood Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Trump’s lackeys around the banquet table smugly proclaimed, between bites of their Big Macs, that Good and Pretti got what they deserved.

Pass the ketchup.

The murders, without any follow-up criminal charges, of white US citizens as they defend their non-white neighbors are new. But a straight line runs between the deaths of Good and Pretti by ICE and the US military blasting 100 Venezuelan fishermen into the sea while killing another 100 people in the kidnapping of Venezuelan president Maduro in Caracas. Trump unleashes gangs of thugs to terrorize the US population so they will accept a white nationalist state and uses drone strikes and boots on the ground to force Latin America to relinquish its sovereignty at gunpoint.

Trump lies when he says that Venezuela traffics drugs into the US and that Good and Pretti are domestic terrorists — but no one’s buying it. The people know blood from ketchup, wherever it is spilled.

Daniela González López Photo: Jay Watts

Daniela González López founded and coordinates the international Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de Los Pueblos, the Human Rights Observatory of the Peoples, and is a general advisor to the Committee for the Defense of Women’s Rights (CODEM). She reports for the Plurinational Radio Station of Abya Yala Soberana de los Pueblos. As an organizer supporting international struggles, particularly in Palestine, she frequently participates in forums that advocate for the human rights of peoples and women.

How did Mexican citizens react to the US military attack on Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Maduro?

The mainstream media did not extensively cover the attack on Venezuela. Ordinary citizens of Mexico are not much interested in international politics, and any mentions that did occur were probably disinformation.

But among progressives, leftists and anarchists, some of us have long-standing relationships with Hugo Chavez’s Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

The day after the kidnapping, several organizations called for a demonstration, but that certainly wasn’t our first event. Maduro’s opposition has been waging a media war, a destabilization war and a legal war against Venezuela’s elected leadership for decades. We’d been calling these attacks a “war” even before the military invasion.

The military attack was brutal. The US ambassador and former CIA agent, Ron Johnson, was happy to announce, “No American lives were lost.” But what about the lives of the Venezuelans, the lives of the Cubans helping to guard the president in international solidarity?

From the Mexican perspective, for those of us who understand the history of US domination in Latin America, including the bloody repression of left-wing opposition movements, we were concerned about Venezuelan and Cuban lives, not the invading US military personnel!

Daniela González López Photo: Jay Watts

The organization you lead, the Human Rights Observatory, helped to organize the protest. When was it formed, and why?

The Observatorio isn’t an NGO and doesn’t have a vertical structure; it’s an international network of groups, mostly from Latin America. It includes members from Guatemala, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Panama, Chile, Uruguay, Honduras, Bolivia, Costa Rica and Mexico, but also from the United States, Switzerland, Spain and Palestine. In 2016, I was in CODEM, the Committee in Defense of Women’s Rights, one of the founding organizations. I was elected as the coordinator of the Observatorio at the founding assembly, and I’ve been re-elected at annual assemblies.

We have no funding. We are all volunteers, and participants from various countries play different roles, depending on their capacity and expertise.

Since the Israeli genocide began, we’ve focused on Palestine.

Rally for Palestine at the Monument to the Revolution Photo: Jay Watts

Did many of the people who support Palestine organize and turn out to protest what the US did in Venezuela? That didn’t happen in the US.

In Mexico, yes! Those opposing the genocide in Palestine also came out and protested the US kidnapping of Venezuela’s president. We understand our fight isn’t against one country or to defend one people. It’s not just moral outrage about Israel committing mass murder with US weapons. In Mexico and Latin America, we have experienced the theft of our resources and political coups against elected presidents through military actions and economic sanctions. We are clear that ours is a struggle against imperialism, capitalism and war wherever they threaten, from Gaza to Caracas to Greenland.

In the United States, many who opposed the attack don’t support president Maduro. That made organizing harder. Is that the case in Mexico?

Those of us who are part of the Observatorio support Maduro. But the progressive movement doesn’t agree on the nature of Maduro’s presidency — some call him a dictator, others don’t. It can be divisive. However, we all support the Bolivarian Revolution initiated by Commander Hugo Chávez. That vision promotes the unity of Latin America and its independence from US influence while implementing internal social programs to help the poor.

Many Venezuelans in Mexico hate Maduro, and they physically attacked us during the demonstration because they considered our protest to be in his defense. But our solidarity is with Venezuela as a sovereign nation. Whether you think Maduro is a dictator or not — Trump clearly IS a dictator! He must be opposed.

Some on the left believe that Presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum didn’t take a strong enough stand on Palestine, and her position on the Venezuela kidnapping is also weak. What do you think?

We weren’t happy with her stance on Palestine. The International Criminal Court determined that Netanyahu had committed war crimes and issued an arrest warrant against him, but Sheinbaum’s government didn’t join that effort.

She didn’t cut ties with Israel, as we demanded, and as President Gustavo Petro of Colombia did.

In the case of Venezuela, she didn’t challenge the right of the United States to prosecute Maduro. He was kidnapped! That was illegal under international law, and the Trump Justice Department itself admitted that Maduro was not head of a drug cartel. In fact, the alleged “Cartel del Soles” doesn’t exist! Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, must be released immediately. But Sheinbaum only called for a “fair trial.” By not firmly defending Venezuela’s sovereignty, she undermines her own demand for respect for Mexican sovereignty.

We are not supporters of presidenta Sheinbaum.

Trump has completely altered the global agreements in place since World War II. What role should Mexico play?

International relations and global norms are irreparably broken. For left-wing organizations and all those who oppose fascism and imperialism, this is a time to strengthen international ties and organize conferences, events and protests. Many international meetings are being organized for 2026.

On January 24 and 25, an international conference met in Bogotá, called by Progressive International, an organization that includes Colombia’s president Petro. A few weeks later, an international anti-fascism conference will meet in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Pedro Gellert Frank of Mexico Solidarity Project & Daniela González López Photo: Jay Watts

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