Grass grows around a mural of the late President Hugo Chavez's in his home state of Barinas, in Barinas, Venezuela, January 7, 2022. Photo: Morning Star.
By Matt Willgress – Jun 23, 2026
Over 1,000 hostile US sanctions remain in place on Venezuela, while Britain continues its colonial theft of gold, writes MATT WILLGRESS
DONALD TRUMP’S attack on Venezuela and kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro nearly six months ago (January 3 2026) marked a dangerous and deadly escalation in Washington’s long-running campaign against the Venezuelan people.
This is an ongoing war for Venezuela’s oil — the largest proven oil reserves in the world, and the attacks followed the seizure of numerous tankers carrying Venezuelan oil.
It is also the first step in a new strategy to turn the whole of Latin America back into a US colony, seeking to reassert total domination in the region.
It’s now 100 per cent clear, less than six months later, that this will not stop with Venezuela. Trump is openly threatening Colombia, Mexico, and Cuba, among others.
The latter in particular has been in Trump’s sights since the deadly attack on Venezuela, with a new “executive order” against the revolutionary island aiming at an even greater tightening of the US’s deadly and illegal blockade. Before this, Cuba has also been readded to the ridiculous (yet extremely dangerous) so-called State Sponsors of Terrorism list.
More recently, on April 13, Trump said that his administration could “focus on Cuba” once the war with Iran is over, adding: “It’s possible we’ll make a stop in Cuba after we finish this.”
Additionally, speaking with USA Today after this, US government officials said the Pentagon is awaiting orders from the war-happy Trump to attack Cuba and is finalising plans for a military strike.
On the left, and across the peace and labour movements, it is vital that we understand that while the bombing of Venezuela marks a dangerous new phase, the war on Venezuela itself is not new.
In fact, for more than 25 years, since the first election of Hugo Chavez at the turn of the century, the country has faced US-backed coups, destabilisation, economic sanctions, and violent far-right opposition campaigns to restore the old order that served US interests.
Chavez was elected on — and carried out as part of a radical transformation of the country — the promise to take back control of Venezuela’s oil and use it to fund social programmes in healthcare, education, housing and poverty reduction.
Venezuela also worked to challenge Washington’s long-standing treatment of Latin America as its “backyard,” including through the work of the Alba (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America) bloc with Cuba, Nicaragua and others.
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On the global stage, it became — and has continued ever since to be — a vocal voice for the Palestinian people, expelling the Israeli ambassador and speaking up for justice again and again. Venezuela also fiercely opposed the illegal wars on Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.
In the eyes of the United States, these were the real “crimes” committed by the Venezuelan people — and this why the US has repeatedly sought to overthrow the government of president Chavez and later of Nicolas Maduro, who was first elected in 2013 to carry on this work, and has faced ever-greater, murderous economic sanctions aimed at isolating and collapsing the country’s economy, causing immeasurable suffering to the people of Venezuela.
A recent briefing from Venezuelan Deputy Minister for Anti-Blockade Policies William Castillo outlined how the “sanctions caused a 98 per cent drop in the country’s income between 2015 and 2020, meaning that for every $100 that came into this country, we lost $98.”
Additionally, “Between 2015 and 2020, the gross domestic product fell to a quarter of its value … This affected economic transactions, contracts, services, and salaries … An unprecedented migratory phenomenon in our history was triggered, the public budget collapsed, public services deteriorated. In less than a decade, the economic strangulation of Venezuela, oil production, and public finances — alongside the theft of our assets abroad — generated this crisis.”
The economic situation has started to turned around in recent years, but the effect of the sanctions is still enormous.
It is important to also note that Britain has fully supported this agenda, including through the Bank of England holding billions of pounds’ worth of Venezuelan gold, which could be used to help the people of Venezuela — the gold currently has a value of £3.5 billion ($4.74bn.)
The theft of this gold was directly part of the tough international economic sanctions on Venezuela from the US, Britain and other countries.
Today, this longstanding US war against Venezuela continues, as the US “holds a gun to the head” to the country, even threatening further military action if Venezuela doesn’t comply with its demands.
The continued jailing, and accompanying show trial, of Nicolas Maduro and his wife, fellow United Socialist Party of Venezuela leading figure Cilia Flores, is a particularly clear illustration of that.
Another is the astonishing extent of US sanctions that remain on Venezuela deeply damaging its economy, and with severe human consequences. Specifically, the country has seen 1,088 measures imposed against its economy and state in just 10 years, of which 1,040 remain active at the time of writing.
Now more than ever, we must support Venezuelan national sovereignty (including by being part of international calls for an end to the show trial of Nicolas Maduro, plus calling for the return of the gold) and stand with Cuba — demanding US Hands Off Latin America and peace across the region.
