Global mobilizations reject US aggression: “Venezuela is not alone”

Demonstrations of rejection of the military aggression of the United States (USA) against Venezuela and the kidnapping of the Constitutional President, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores, multiplied in different cities around the world during the first days of January, with simultaneous mobilizations in Belgium, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Italy, France, Spain and several American cities.

The protests expressed solidarity with the Venezuelan people, condemned the bombing of sovereign territory and denounced what social organizations and political leaders have pointed out as a serious violation of international law.

In Brussels, hundreds of people demonstrated in front of the US embassy to reject the military attack against Venezuela and the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro, while demanding that Belgium and the European Union unequivocally condemn the events. According to local media, more than 400 demonstrators participated in the protest, organized by anti-imperialist and pacifist groups such as Vrede vzw and Intal Globalize Solidarity, who denounced European silence in the face of military escalation.

During the rally, activist Ludo De Brabander, of the organization Vrede vzw, warned that the US operation is “a flagrant violation of international law” and warned that allowing such actions sets a dangerous precedent. “If a country can attack another for no reason, the law of the jungle prevails,” he said.

De Brabander also described Europe's lukewarm reaction as “scandalous”, pointing out that Spain is the only European country that has shown some resistance to US intervention. The convening organizations demanded that the EU and Belgium break their “complicit silence” and act immediately.

The mobilization was called for by the Intersocial, made up of trade union federations, student organizations and social movements, which unanimously condemned the US military intervention and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. During the event, it was reported that Washington's action reinstates a logic of domination based on force, jeopardizes regional peace and revives the principles of the Monroe Doctrine.

In the proclamation read during the rally, it was stated that the aggression against Venezuela threatens the sovereignty, self-determination of peoples and the Charter of the United Nations, and that the real objective of the operation is the control of Venezuelan strategic resources, in particular oil. The mobilization was also replicated in at least seven departments of the Uruguayan interior, confirming widespread rejection at the national level.

Political leaders of the Uruguayan Broad Front (FA) agreed to describe the events as a historic setback for Latin America, a region that for decades had been kept out of direct armed conflicts.

The president of the FA, Fernando Pereira, argued that the military operation and the capture of the Venezuelan president lack legal evidence and constitute an unacceptable precedent. Along the same lines, Senator Óscar Andrade warned that declining empires tend to resort to aggression and called for strengthening regional anti-imperialist consciousness.

In Puerto Rico, thousands marched in San Juan in front of the Federal Court, denouncing the use of the Caribbean as a military platform and chanting slogans against U.S. interventionism. Artists, students and social organizations participated in a peaceful mobilization that called for respect for Venezuelan sovereignty.

Demonstrations took place in Spain, with one of the most numerous rallies taking place in front of the US embassy in Madrid. There, social organizations, trade unions and left-wing political forces described the operation as “completely illegitimate”, denounced the complicity of NATO and singled out the Spanish Government for maintaining an ambiguous position in the face of what they considered to be a flagrant violation of international law.

In parallel, mobilizations were also reported in Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador and several cities in the United States, where Latin American groups, pacifist organizations and social movements expressed their rejection of military escalation and demanded an immediate cessation of hostilities. In several of these protests, slogans against war, the looting of resources and the use of force as a mechanism of political imposition were repeated.

The mobilizations, the organizers agree, not only seek to express solidarity with Venezuela, but also to defend the principle of peoples' sovereignty and reject war as an instrument of domination, at a time they consider critical for the political future of Latin America and the international order.