As 2025 draws to a close, a year marked by the worsening of the national crisis and the dangerous escalation of imperialist aggression, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Venezuela (elected at the 16th National Congress in November 2022) addresses the working class, the Venezuelan people—both within and beyond our borders—and the revolutionary and democratic forces of the world to warn of the magnitude of the threats to our sovereignty and to reaffirm a principled position in the face of the projects that today dispute the destiny of the country.
U.S. imperialism has even abandoned the hypocritical discourse of “democratic restoration” and opted for the frankness of looting and direct confiscation. By attempting to label the Venezuelan state as a “foreign terrorist organization,” Washington seeks to strip the country of its status as a subject of international law, with the aim of justifying piracy, asset theft, and open military aggression. In this context, the order to impose a “total and complete blockade” on tankers transporting Venezuelan crude oil constitutes, in political and legal terms, a true act of war. This is not a matter of economic sanctions, but rather a military siege aimed at completely suffocating the national economy in order to force a capitulation that will allow imperialism to appropriate the resources that Trump cynically claims are “stolen.”
The assertion that Venezuela’s oil, land, and other assets belong to the United States and must be “returned” expresses the crudest essence of the Monroe Doctrine: the conviction that the natural wealth of Latin America and the Caribbean is a private strategic reserve of US capital. What imperialism calls “theft” is nothing more than the exercise—albeit limited and today seriously distorted—of national sovereignty. This discourse reveals without ambiguity that the militarization of the Caribbean and the accumulation of forces in the region are not in response to any fight against drug trafficking or humanitarian concerns, but rather to a project of violent recolonization.
This imperialist threat also looms over a country whose capacity to respond has been seriously weakened by internal factors that cannot and should not be silenced. The PSUV leadership’s drift toward surrender and authoritarianism has advanced in the cession of sovereignty and the subordination of the country to the interests of transnational capital and traditional and new local economic groups. At the same time, a repressive policy has been intensified which, especially since July 28, 2024, has effectively nullified the political, social, and labor rights enshrined in the Constitution, closing the democratic channels for a political solution to the crisis. The working class arrives at this scenario of war threat with wages and pensions pulverized and rights suspended, which weakens the social cohesion indispensable for authentic national defense. However, for imperialism, even this policy of surrender carried out by the ruling elite is insufficient and demands unconditional capitulation and total operational control of the territory and its wealth.
When we communists say no to foreign military interference and no to internal authoritarianism, we are not being neutral or lukewarm. We have a clear position: we are on the side of the impoverished majority, who today are the main victims of both the anti-worker and anti-popular policies of the illegal and illegitimate government of Nicolás Maduro and of a possible imperialist military aggression. The defense of the homeland cannot be confused with support for the authoritarian bloc in power, but neither can it be confused with indifference to the foreign boot.
Faced with the threat of a naval blockade and military escalation, the PCV calls for international class solidarity, appealing to the communist and workers’ parties of the world, including the American proletariat, to denounce imperialist piracy and the neocolonial offensive against Venezuela and against all of Latin America and the Caribbean. Venezuela is presented today as an “exemplary case”: if the Trump Corollary prevails here, no country in the region will be safe from the confiscation of its resources and military imposition.
We reiterate the urgent need for a broad national debate that will allow for the construction of a political solution to the crisis that is popular, sovereign, constitutional, and democratic. This must include the removal of Nicolás Maduro from office and the immediate calling—within a period of no more than 30 days—of new presidential elections with an independent and credible National Electoral Council; the full restoration of the political rights of illegally intervened organizations—including the Communist Party of Venezuela—and democratic guarantees for all political currents and, in general, for the electorate inside and outside Venezuela; the immediate release of those who are currently imprisoned for fighting and defending rights; and the restoration of wages and pensions in accordance with Article 91 of the Constitution, so that the Venezuelan people can sovereignly decide their destiny.
The Communist Party of Venezuela reaffirms its historic commitment to the working class, to the defense of national sovereignty, and to the restoration of the Constitution and the rule of law.
No internal capitulation, no imperialist occupation!
Out with the imperialist boot from Latin America and the Caribbean!
For a sovereign, democratic, popular, and constitutional solution to the crisis!
