The current political situation in Venezuela cannot be explained solely by the events following January 3, 2026. We need to contextualize what has been happening over the past four decades. In the 1990s, there was total U.S. hegemony on the continent, which imposed the NAFTA agreement on us, and then sought to impose the FTAA as a space under the complete control of U.S. capital. All governments except Cuba supported the Americans.

But the people of some countries rebelled. In Venezuela, there was the Caracazo in 1989; then the military rebellion; and finally, the electoral victory of Chávez, who took power in 1999, breaking the neoliberal wave and opening a new cycle of progressive governments, continued by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil), Rafael Correa (Ecuador), Evo Morales (Bolivia), and Néstor Kirchner (Argentina), which altered the balance of forces on the continent. Now, another form of integration was proposed instead of the FTAA, which was formally defeated in 2005. We would then have ALBA.

U.S. imperialism, Democratic and Republican governments, and the U.S. ruling class never forgave Chávez’s audacity and, for four decades, used every possible tactic from the manual described by researcher Andrew Korybko, based on official U.S. Armed Forces documents, as new tactics of Hybrid Warfare.

Over that long period, they tried by every possible means to defeat the Bolivarian process in Venezuela. Let us recall the coup that removed Chávez from government for two days in 2002, where international outcry and immediate popular mobilization prevented the coup plotters from executing him. Remember that even the Cardinal of Caracas had administered last rites to him in the prison on Orchila Island, where he was being held!

There was also a political strike by oil workers to dismantle PDVSA, which caused fuel shortages and chaos. The situation was managed with the help of the then-government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso in Brazil. Then came the guarimbas with total street violence and terrorism, including the burning of schools and hospitals, manufactured shortages, and dozens of deaths. Many of those responsible for these attacks were imprisoned and have now been amnestied.

After Chávez’s death, the U.S. immediately recognized the puppet government of Juan Guaidó, to whom they transferred all of the Venezuelan state’s dollar and gold deposits, allowing that Venezuelan lumpen-bourgeoisie to enrich themselves.

They caused runaway inflation based on exchange rate manipulation from Miami. They blocked all of the country’s overseas accounts. They prevented oil investments, and production fell to below 30%, causing a 90% drop in GDP. All this caused many economic problems for the entire population and generated an unprecedented migration of Venezuelan workers.

They challenged the reelection of President Nicolás Maduro, with the support and delusion of some self-proclaimed progressives.

All this, combined with a permanent and consistent media campaign that undoubtedly cost millions of dollars in the use of networks, computers, and so-called influencers paid by the CIA and its agencies. A campaign that continues still.

The final blow came with the second Trump government, which, thirsty for oil and losing economic hegemony to Eurasia, reissued the Monroe Doctrine and, wanting once again to turn the continent into the U.S. backyard, imposed economic, political, and military control.

On January 3, after mobilizing all its military force, it invaded the country by air, kidnapped President Maduro and Congresswoman Cilia Flores. There was resistance, fighting, and more than 100 dead. Only in a few years will we know how many U.S. soldiers died. All we know is that they were mostly Latinos from the elite Delta Force, armed with the best weapons on the planet.

Venezuela, its people, and the Armed Forces were defeated. They lost lives and their president. But the empire had no one to put in Maduro’s place, since its agent María Corina Machado and the capitulationist opposition are demoralized in Venezuelan society.

The way out, then, was to keep the president kidnapped and negotiate with the Chavista government, with a noose around the neck or with a gun to the head. Some sectors of the institutional left and those who only follow politics on social media rushed to call this treason. Or to say there was no resistance. Some sectors of the institutional left and those who only follow politics on social media rushed to say there was no resistance and called it treason. Now, they are beginning to spread that there is division between the governments of Venezuela and Cuba. These theses only strengthen U.S. tactics, spread by media influenced by the CIA to divide the left and public opinion.

The Venezuelan people, the vast majority of whom are Chavista, continue with their lives, working, producing, and organizing the communes. Despite the pain, they continue to support the Chavista government, aware of everything that has happened.

Our movement has historical ties with the Venezuelan peasant movement, with the productive communes, and with the Chavista government. We have many cooperation projects in seed and food production and exchanges in the training of technical cadres.

We will be eternally grateful for the scholarships at the Salvador Allende Latin American School of Medicine, which allow dozens of poor young peasants to train as doctors. The Venezuelan people continue to be victims of the empire’s hybrid war. The Chavista government has the support of its people. Our movement will always be in solidarity with the Chavista people.

We need a change in the international balance of forces in favor of humanity and peace. We hope that the internal balance of forces in the U.S. changes, and that progressive forces manage to change its foreign policy, its warlike vocation of aggression against peoples, and defeat the Monroe Doctrine.

We hope that the Chavista government and people find the best ways to increase the production of oil and other goods they need. That they maintain sovereignty over oil, minerals, and their territory.

Defending Venezuela and Cuba is a moral and political obligation of all progressive and democratic forces on our continent. Do not be deluded: if they are defeated, the empire will increase its pressure on Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and the entire continent. Before, they used the specter of the communists and the USSR. Then, they moved on to the Islamic terrorists, whom they themselves financed. Now, they have created the puppet of drug trafficking, as if they were not the biggest market, and the repression of migrants.

We will fight for President Maduro and lawmaker Cilia Flores to be released, for they have committed no crime and the United States has neither the right nor the moral authority to condemn them for anything. On the contrary, we hope that in the future, the International Criminal Court in The Hague will judge and condemn the current leaders of the U.S. for their bombs and crimes in Gaza, Iran, Syria, Sudan, the Caribbean, Venezuela, Cuba, and within their own country, for the persecution of the poor and migrants.

The history of the class struggle moves in cycles, has ups and downs, advances and retreats, but humanity will always move forward toward building more just and equal societies, with popular sovereignty and peace.

João Pedro Stédile is a member of Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) and a leader of ALBA Movimientos and the International People’s Assembly