The Campaign for Trade Union Freedom adds its support to the growing international condemnation of Trump’s aggressive, imperialist policy towards Latin America.
Trump’s assault on Venezuela did not commence on 3rd January 2026. The war against Venezuela began in 2001, after President Hugo Chávez passed a law bringing all national oil reserves under the control of the Venezuelan Bolivarian Republic.
The new Venezuelan law disadvantaged oil conglomerates, most of them from the United States, instead allowing the Venezuelan government to redirect a larger share of oil revenue towards social programmes and long-term national development.
The illegal attack on Venezuela in 2026 and the abduction of its president and first lady are part of this long, continuous war against the working people of Latin America.
International law offers three main protections against the kind of aggressive force. Without the sanction of the United Nations Security Council it is unlawful for one country to:
- threaten or use force against another;
- interfere in the internal (or external affairs) of another;
- to violate the diplomatic immunity of the head-of-state of another country.
Trump’s statements make it clear that the US attack on Venezuela and abduction of President Maduro and Cicilia Flores is intended to allow the US to take control of Venezuelan oil and the revenue from it.
That revenue is the basis of the entire social programme underpinning the Bolivarian Revolution and since the time of Chavez has lifted millions out of poverty.
The oil industry is the largest industrial employer and historically has been one of the best union organised sectors in Venezuela.
Trump’s statements also make it clear that his aggression on behalf of US corporate interests will not stop at Venezuela. Cuba, Colombia and Greenland are similarly under threat.
The Campaign for Trade Union Freedom stands with the trade unions and workers of Latin America and calls for international law to be upheld; for Maduro and Flores to return home and, for Latin American countries to be free to determine their own social, economic and political futures, free from US interference.