Version imprimableBut we were mistaken in thinking that to achieve this, the United States only needed to place María Corina Machado (MCM) and Edmundo González Urrutia (EGU) at the head of the Venezuelan government, two characters historically allied with the White House, with social leadership, but with absolute inability to govern a country as divided as Venezuela. On 3 January 2025, the day of the military attack on Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Maduro along with his wife, US President Donald Trump brought the Venezuelan right-wing opposition down to earth and pointed out that MCM “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country” and was excluded from the “transition”.
Trump said that from that moment on Venezuela would be governed by him and his closest team, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Secretary of Defense |Pete Hegseth, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and General Dam Caine of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, opening a situation of real, tangible and unusual colonial threat to Venezuela. What has happened in the following days confirms this.
The new Gipuzcoan company
The Royal Guipuzcoan Company of Caracas was the Spanish mercantile company founded in 1728, which operated between 1730-1785, as part of the colonial relationship with Venezuela. Its main purposes were: to control exclusive trade between Spain and Venezuela, exporting products (cocoa, tobacco, cotton, indigo and leather) and importing European goods (tools, fabrics, wines and so on), to combat Dutch, English and other smuggling, as well as to guide local economic development to increase the profits of the Spanish Crown.
What Trump proposes for Venezuela is a new situation of territorial and commercial control that is reminiscent of this colonial enterprise. But it will do so with another more modern figure, the U.S. embassy, hence the haste with which it has announced the reopening of the U.S. diplomatic representation in Caracas. The gringo embassy will fulfil that role, only now it will be for the appropriation of oil, gold, rare earths and other riches, as well as to continue capturing data and information on the ground, vital for the full development of the predictive control model based on innovative technologies.
Recently, Karoline Leavitt, the White House spokesperson, has stated that “we obviously have maximum leverage over the interim authorities in Venezuela right now” while Marco Rubio stated that “Venezuela cannot move oil unless we allow it to do so”. This has been complemented by Trump’s statement that the interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez “will only buy products made in the United States” while there are rumours of threats about government leaders such as Diosdado Cabello to discipline their due obedience to the Rodríguez government.
The three phases of colonization
On the evening of 5 January, Trump announced that the US would forcibly take 30-50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil. On 7 January, Rubio announced the three phases of Venezuela’s recolonization. The first phase is to take available oil production by storm in the short term, until it reaches 50 million barrels of oil. This is not a forced purchase from Venezuela, but the announcement of the public theft of Venezuelan wealth, using its military might and expecting little local opposition.
The second phase, assuming the role of colonial administrator, involves the US selling Venezuelan oil directly on the world market, abrogating the use and administration of the spoils of war. To soften the communicational impact of this violation of the capitalist trade order, Marco Rubio pointed out that the United States would administer those resources for the reconstruction of Venezuela and US interests. Obviously, they want to recover some of the military spending generated in the months of naval blockade in the southern Caribbean, and use Venezuela’s own resources to repair the oil infrastructure that will now be used for colonial oil extraction by oil companies summoned by the Trump administration.
Third phase, to initiate the Venezuelan governmental transition, which seems to be the announcement of evaluating, based on the post-aggression behaviour after 3 January, what to do with the Rodríguez government, as well as the moment of construction of political representations (with “good people”) that guarantee the sustainability of its colonial relationship with the country.
Rubio knows that he will not be able to turn a Republic into a colony without local resistance, so this augurs a stage in which the U.S. military-police-intelligence power will have a leading role, surely aspiring to achieve collaboration from the local military-police forces, something that remains to be seen.
Protectorate or nationalist government
The Venezuelan government that was installed on 3 January will have to overcome some internal storms, to demonstrate that it has the necessary strength to contain imperialism or assume a collaborationist role. In any of the scenarios it needs to consolidate its capacity to govern.
The possibility of uniting a broad national unity against gringo colonialism involves overcoming the trauma of the capture and kidnapping of the Maduro-Flores couple, which occurred with so little military resistance, which has generated the shadow of internal betrayal. Locating and making credible those who embodied this felony is a challenge of the current Bolivarian administration. This is linked to the urgency of raising the morale of the national armed forces, who suffered dozens of casualties - as did the 32 Cuban combatants in the presidential entourage - without being able to do the same to the invading forces.
On the other hand, Donald Trump, as part of an objective strategy or reality – time will tell – has repeatedly pointed out that the interim government led by Rodríguez is collaborating with his administration and “does not want to make the same mistakes as Maduro.” Rodríguez has timidly denied these statements, however, pointing out that the oil that leaves Venezuela will do so under ordinary commercial sales and payment conditions. This ambiguity, understandable because it is still emerging from the impact of the deployment and military actions of 3 January, must be overcome, either to organize anti-colonial resistance, or to assume the role of colonial administration board. We hope that the decision will be the first.
Nationalist sentiment is sweeping the country, but it does not find a clear political direction to channel it. The Venezuelan left, especially the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) and the Corriente Comunes have clearly expressed their opposition to the colonial attempts of the Trump administration, while pointing to Madurismo (which Delcy Rodríguez was part of until recently) leading the country to this terrible situation, with the application of an anti-working class program and liquidation of the minimum democratic freedoms for those who wish to organize autonomously. But a nationalist front capable of changing the current defensive situation cannot be built only with the radical left. The possibility of effective resistance to U.S. military aggression and colonialism involves building a broad national front, which does not have a two-sided policy against imperialism. The government of Delcy Rodríguez has not yet shown that it wants to assume that role to its ultimate consequences.
The revolutionary tasks
Up to 2 January, the main task of revolutionaries was to recover the minimum democratic freedoms that would allow the working class to express its opinion and organize itself to confront the imperialist offensive and the authoritarian drift of the Maduro government. Since 3 January, and after the White House’s announcements of turning Venezuela into a gringo colony, the priority has become the defence of national independence with the broadest regime of political freedoms for patriotic forces. The facts will tell if the situation evolves towards a stage of national liberation.
There can be no doubt about promoting the broadest unity of action, with all the political and social forces that place sovereignty and national independence as the priority at this stage. It is time to focus on the coincidences around the defence of the nation, its sovereignty and independence.
8 January 2026
Translated by International Viewpoint.
