"This is world war in slow motion"

Popular forces around the world oppose the escalating war on Venezuela — part of a renewed Global Monroe Doctrine that seeks to dismantle sovereignty and self-determination around the world. 

STATEMENT

We, popular forces from around the world, unequivocally condemn the United States’ escalating military aggression against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

This offensive represents a dangerous new phase of imperialist intervention that threatens not only the Venezuelan people but the stability of the whole Western Hemisphere and the universal right of all nations to self-determination and economic and political sovereignty.

Two years ago marked the bicentennial of the Monroe Doctrine. Progressive forces warned that we were witnessing the doctrine's renewal on a global scale — the emergence of a Global Monroe Doctrine. Its core logic endures — that Latin America exists as a subordinate sphere, that sovereignty is conditional, and that deviation will be punished. Today, that logic has expanded far beyond the Western hemisphere, as the US extends its hegemonic reach.

The military architecture of the Global Monroe Doctrine spans the planet. In Latin America, US forward bases in Colombia, Peru, Paraguay, Honduras, and the Caribbean threaten to draw nations into regional conflict. Like the 800-plus US military bases worldwide, they function as the material infrastructure of neocolonial control: staging grounds for coups, training facilities for paramilitaries, and intelligence nodes for destabilizing progressive governments.

In recent weeks, Washington has dramatically expanded its military posture in the Caribbean. It has deployed naval assets to waters surrounding Venezuela, increased surveillance flights and intelligence operations, coordinated joint military exercises with regional proxies, issued open threats of direct military intervention under the pretext of counter-narcotics operations, and even murdered civilians on fishing boats from at least two nations. The pattern is unmistakable: US imperialism is preparing for war.

This escalation deepens a campaign of hybrid warfare against Venezuela that has persisted for more than two decades. In that time, Venezuelans have faced sweeping economic sanctions designed to impoverish the population and unravel the social fabric; the sabotage of critical infrastructure; the financing and coordination of violent opposition movements and coup attempts; the seizure of national assets held abroad; and clandestine operations ranging from assassination plots to paramilitary incursions.

The renewed assault is not about narcotics, nor any individual leader. Imperial propaganda relentlessly personalizes and then demonizes movements towards sovereignty. This attack targets the Bolivarian project itself and the project of socialism in Latin America — the effort to redistribute wealth, defy neoliberal orthodoxy, and assert independence from transnational capital.

Since Hugo Chávez and the popular movements that brought him to power initiated the Bolivarian Revolution at the turn of the millennium, Venezuela has demonstrated that alternative futures remain possible — that oil wealth can finance social programs instead of foreign corporations and domestic oligarchies, that continental integration can be built on the basis of solidarity rather than domination, and that the descendants of the colonized and enslaved can exercise meaningful sovereignty over their territories and resources.

This renewed imperial offensive threatens more than just Venezuela. Like the six-decade blockade of Cuba, the economic and military aggression against Iran, and the ongoing genocide in Gaza, it forms part of a global strategy to destroy the material basis for sovereignty in the Global South. These are not discrete conflicts, but nodes in a single system of capitalist domination on a world scale.

US strategists describe this as "strategic sequencing" — a methodology of staggered global confrontation designed to isolate and exhaust centres of resistance one-by-one, preventing their consolidation into a unified anti-hegemonic bloc. It is world war in slow motion. Any defeat for the forces of human liberation advances this global descent.

Yet this logic can — and must — be challenged. Latin America has already built the foundations to do so. On January 2014, in Havana, Cuba, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), during its second Summit, declared the region as a "zone of peace," a collective commitment to resolving conflicts through dialogue rather than force, to respect sovereignty and non-intervention, and to construct an alternative regional order based on cooperation rather than domination. Never has it been more urgent to defend that vision against those who seek to reimpose the logic of military intervention and submission.

That is why we, popular forces from around the world, declare our unwavering solidarity with the Venezuelan people and their revolutionary project and our firm rejection of US militarism. We demand the closure of overseas US military bases, commit ourselves to organizing against imperialist aggression through all means available to us, and urge the member states of CELAC to uphold their commitment to continental peace as the specter of war threatens to bury it for generations to come.
Signatories:

   Abahlali baseMjondolo, South Africa
   BAYAN, Philippines
   BDS Namibia, Namibia
   Black Alliance for Peace, International
   Center for Research and Elaboration on Democracy, Italy
   Climate Vanguard, United Kingdom
   CODEPINK, United States
   Congolese Solidarity Campaign, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa
   Communist Party Marxist - Kenya (CPM-K), Kenya
   Comuna Socialista El Panal, Venezuela
   Coordinadora Mexicana de Solidaridad con Venezuela, Mexico
   Fuerza Patriótica Alexis Vive, Venezuela
   Haqooq-e-Khalq Party, Pakistan
   International Action Center, United States
   International Association of Democratic Lawyers, International
   Kuwaiti Progressive Movement, Kuwait
   Lucha Movement, Democratic Republic of Congo
   Manzese Working-Class Women Cooperative, Tanzania
   Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), India
   Mexico Solidarity Project, Mexico/United States
   National Lawyers Guild, International
   National Students for Justice in Palestine, United States
   Nodutdol, United States
   Palestine Solidarity Alliance, South Africa
   Palestinian Youth Movement, International
   Partido Popular Socialista de México, Mexico
   People's Congress, Colombia
   People's Health Movement, Global
   Pudemo, Swaziland
   Qiao Collective, International
   Socialist Movement of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe
   Sovereign Media, International
   Tanzania Socialist Forum, Tanzania
   The Freedom Movement of Uganda, Uganda
   The Marxist Group of Namibia, Namibia
   US Palestinian Community Network, United States
   Venezuelanalysis, Venezuela
   Venezuela Solidarity Campaign, United Kingdom
   Venezuela Solidarity Network, United States
   Vox Ummah, International
   Workers World Party, United States
   Youth Climate Finance Alliance, United States
   Zimbabwe People's Land Rights Movement, Zimbabwe