STATEMENT / HANDS OFF VENEZUELA 03/01/2026

STATEMENT / HANDS OFF VENEZUELA 03/01/2026

The Irish Communist Party/Páirtí Cumannach Éireann forthrightly and unequivocally condemns the US attack on Venezuela and the abduction of the country’s president Nicolas Maduro, as well as the cynical killing of an as yet unknown number of Venezuelan victims in an indiscriminate bombing raid which included the targeting of civilian institutions such as the national legislature.

This is a blatant act of international piracy and shows, once again, that for the United States and its allies international law is just to be ignored when the US wants to.

It must be remembered that this is not the first time an attack of this nature has occurred against Venezuela with the United States briefly ousting Chávez in 2002. However, Venezuela has consistently defied this aggression, having re-elected Chávez to power within 48 hours and elected Bolivarian candidate Maduro in 2013, 2018 and 2024. The Chavismo movement emerged from the Venezuelan working class, and will continue to enjoy popular support all the more in the face of imperialist aggression.

It does not and must not come as a surprise that Venezuela has endured such aggression in recent times. Being a country with the world’s largest oil reserves and a consistent defiance of American global hegemony, the arrest of Maduro and a brutal policy of regime change by overwhelming force is but another in the long list of American imperialist attacks.

Trump has declared a second version of the so-called Monroe doctrine which in the 1820s asserted that European powers should stay out of affairs in the American continents. It is now asserting, by force, that these continents belong to the US.

This is all happening against a background of war hysteria actively being pursued by the European Union, with Britain and the supine Dublin government both playing a role in drumming up the call for war.

Throughout the world, democrats are condemning the US attack, and demanding Maduro’s freedom. Maduro is the legitimate leader of the Venezuelan people, for it is they who elect their president not the US or European administrations.

The shameful silence of the Dublin government is to be condemned, but the ICP/PCÉ welcomes the condemnations issued by Left parties, including the Labour Party and People before Profit.

Now is the time to speak out against US aggression throughout the world, and demand that the sovereignty of the countries of Latin America be respected. We stand with the Venezuelan people and the Bolivarian revolution.

Our party wholeheartedly supports their continued fight for independence, national self-determination and control of their country’s resources for the benefit of their people.

The duty of communists and anti-imperialists the world over is to recognise the unwavering strength and determination of the Venezuelan people and the Bolivarian revolution.

We condemn imperialism in all of its forms and offer our full support to Venezuela in their continued resistance.

Freedom to all in their struggle against American imperialism. Freedom to Venezuela. Onwards to revolution.