Version imprimableDemocrats and a few Republicans as well immediately criticized the president. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who called the attack “reckless” and said the administration “must brief Congress immediately on its objectives, and its plan to prevent a humanitarian and geopolitical disaster.” Senator Tim Kaine said that he’d force a vote next week on a bipartisan resolution stipulating that the U.S. “should not be at war with Venezuela absent a clear congressional authorization.”
"Trump must be impeached," said Representative Delia Ramirez. She called for the passage of legislation to restrain executive war powers and reassert congressional control.
Zohran Mamdani, the new democratic socialist mayor of New York City said, “Unilaterally attacking a sovereign nation is an act of war and a violation of federal and international law. This blatant pursuit of regime change doesn’t just affect those abroad, it directly impacts New Yorkers, including tens of thousands of Venezuelans who call this city home.”
Anti-war protests immediately sprang up in cities around the country from New York to Chicago, to San Francisco and Los Angeles, but there were protests in some small towns organized by local groups. There were also protests at the White House in Washington, D.C.
Most Republican Party legislators quickly declared their support for Trump, who rules the party through favors and fear. Republican Representative Don Bacon, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said he thought the operation would be good for Venezuelans. But, he added, “My main concern now is that Russia will use this to justify their illegal and barbaric military actions against Ukraine, or China to justify an invasion of Taiwan.”
Some in Trump’s Make America Great Again Movement (MAGA), such as Marjorie Taylor Greene said, “This is what many in MAGA thought they voted to end. Boy, were we wrong.”
Trump, who calls himself “the president of peace” and promised he would end “forever wars,” seems rather to be following in a long tradition of U.S. coups, armed interventions, and wars in Latin America. From 1846-48 the United States made war on Mexico and took half of its territory. In the Spanish-American War of 1898, the United States made Cuba a protectorate and made Puerto Rico a colony. In 1903 the United States organized the separation of Panama from Colombia in order to build and control the canal. The U.S. Marines invaded and occupied Cuba from 1906-09 and 1917-33, the Dominican Republic from 1916-24, and Nicaragua from 1912-33. The United States organized coups that overthrew the government of Guatemala in 1954 and Chile in 1973, invaded and overthrew the governments Grenada in 1983, and Panama in 1989. And these are only the most blatant U.S. aggressions in the region.
Trump himself intervened in Brazil in support of rightwing coup leader Jair Bolsonaro and arranged a $20 billion loan to rightwing Argentine President Javier Milei. And now he says he’s taking over Venezuela.
We socialists don’t support Maduro, who established a dictatorship in Venezuela. But we condemn and oppose Trump’s attack on Venezuela, kidnapping of Maduro, and attempt to control Latin America. We will be in the streets with our signs: “Hands off Venezuela” and “No War for Oil.”
4 January 2025
