The US has carried out a Mafia-style kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro, the President of Venezuela.
In the early hours of Saturday morning, an orchestrated operation to capture the Venezuelan leader followed the bombing of civilian and military infrastructure in Caracas.
Maduro is now being held in New York, with the Trump administration pressing for the leader of another sovereign state to stand trial on foreign soil according to foreign law.
Donald Trump has been crystal clear regarding his intentions. He has declared that Washington will “run” Venezuela, with American multinationals given free reign to exploit the country’s oil, as part of US imperialism’s effort to reassert its hegemony in the western hemisphere.
Had such actions been taken by a declared foe of the West, against one of US imperialism’s allies, establishment politicians would no doubt have raised a cacophony in protest against this brazen breach of diplomatic norms.
According to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, however, in the case of this gangsterism by US imperialism, we supposedly do not have sufficient “facts” to deem whether or not international law has been broken.
Instead, Downing Street is giving its Atlantic ally the benefit of the doubt. Hence the nonsense, according to the UK government, that is “not entirely clear” what is meant by Trump’s assertion that the USA will now be in control of Venezuela and its natural resources.
Like a dummy speaking the words of his ventriloquist master, Starmer’s Labour government has offered tacit support for the US overthrow of Maduro by claiming that the Venezuelan President’s rule was “illegitimate”. Not a single Cabinet minister has been able to muster a word of condemnation against this scandalous act.
Starmer’s response was as predictable as it was pathetic. What he is essentially saying is: sovereignty is conditional; Britain’s imperialist friends have a God-given right to plunder the planet as they please; the so-called ‘rules-based order’ does not apply to our allies, only our Russian and Chinese enemies.
This lays bare the utter hypocrisy of the liberal world order, and the real substance behind the ‘special relationship’ between the UK and the USA.
‘Will of the people’
Though British imperialism played no direct role in Saturday morning’s operation, it is very clear where the warmongers in Westminster stand in regards to these outrageous events.
Starmer’s words – stating that he would “shed no tears” over the illegal capture of the Venezuelan President – are carefully chosen to curry favour with his master in the White House: Donald J Trump.
The statement from the British Foreign Office speaks of a “peaceful transition” that will “reflect the will of the Venezuelan people”. This rings hollow, however, when placed next to the longstanding aim pursued by British imperialism: pushing for regime change in Venezuela.
Back in April 2002, Hugo Chavez, the colossally popular left-wing premier of Venezuela, was kidnapped in a CIA-orchestrated coup.
What was the response of the British establishment at the time? Did it call for the immediate release of the democratically-elected leader? Did it admonish the US for subverting the “will of the Venezuelan people”? Not at all.
The Labour minister in charge of relations with Latin America likened Chavez’s capture to the fall of Mussolini. And after the Venezuelan masses came out onto the streets in their millions to overturn the forces of reaction, this same British politician described the foiled coup attempts as a blow to democratic values!
Bolivarian Revolution
As part of his mandate, Chavez moved to carry out agrarian reform, as part of a wider programme of progressive social and economic measures. This directly interfered with the interests of British business, however. In 2011, for example, the Venezuelan President expropriated more than 700,000 acres from a local British subsidiary of the Vetsey Group.
This further fuelled the hatred of these big business politicians towards Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution that stood behind him.
What the British imperialists – following the lead of their Washington overlords – could not tolerate was the popular support for an insurgent anti-imperialist leader, which provided an inspiring example for the downtrodden and the exploited across Latin America and beyond.
The mass backing for Chavez was thanks to the fact that he openly and explicitly defied the naked domination of US imperialism and its lackeys. He sought to rule in the interests of the poor and the oppressed. That was his ‘crime’.
Political maneuvers
Since Chavez’s death, US imperialism has waged economic warfare on Venezuela and its people. This has been combined with constant political provocations and maneuvers.
Sensing a window of opportunity in early 2019, the first Trump administration declared Juan Guaidó – an unelected political nobody – to be the new President of Venezuela.
This pro-US, pro-privatisation posterboy was recognised as president by the so-called ‘international community’, despite having no democratic mandate whatsoever.
Guaidó did not reside in the Miraflores palace. Nor did he have any ability to pass any actual decrees or laws. But this didn’t stop those in Washington and Westminster from treating this pretender as their legitimate counterpart.
The British imperialists kicked into gear. They, too, recognised Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim leader – providing diplomatic cover for US imperialism and its attempted coup.
The UK government even rolled out the red carpet for Guaidó when he came to London. Unsurprisingly, Tony Blair, the war criminal responsible for devastating Iraq, was involved in such insidious activity.
Regime change
This was only the tip of the iceberg. In 2019, the British Foreign Office set up a special unit to oversee the ‘reconstruction’ of Venezuela and promote the interests of British business in the event that Maduro was ousted – an outcome that the British establishment were doing all they could to bring to fruition.
Declassified revealed that the UK government – in the years prior to this – had also set up a media-influencing project in Venezuela, as part of its so-called ‘democracy promotion’ programme. £750,000 was spent by the Westminster Foundation for ‘Democracy’, in an effort to boost the reactionary Venezuelan opposition.
There was obvious financial gain for the British imperialists if all went to plan. As an article by The Canary concluded, based on revelations from a number of relevant documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act:
“…‘regime change’ in Venezuela is following the typical procedure: the countries that contribute most during the destabilisation phase can expect to share the financial spoils in the ‘reconstruction’ phase.”
British financial services and consultancy firms in the City of London would be well-positioned to skim a little off the top ‘in the event’ of Venezuela being flooded by US capital. Meanwhile, with the grace of American Big Oil monopolies, UK big business stood to benefit from the plunder of Venezuela and its resources.
As Alan Duncan, then Tory minister of state for the Americas, stated: “The revival of the oil industry [in Venezuela] will be an essential element in any recovery, and I can imagine that British companies like Shell and BP, will want to be part of it.”
There you have it – straight from the horse’s mouth.
Gold heist
In the end, Guaidó’s botched coup attempt failed. Subsequently, the US disposed of their political pawn. But the game was not yet up.
Remaining resolute to Washington’s endgame of regime change, in 2022, the British state refused to return gold that was being kept in the Bank of England for safe-keeping.
The Venezuelan central bank sought to recover their country’s assets. But this request was scandalously repudiated by a foreign bank and sanctified by a foreign court. As we wrote at the time, in regards to this act of piracy:
“In fact, it is not even Britain which took the decision in the first place. It was merely acting as the loyal lapdog of US imperialism. This was confirmed by former US Secretary of State John Bolton in his memoirs, where he explained how the US requested that Britain block access to Venezuelan gold.
Bolton’s book The Room Where It Happened lifts the lid on how the US orchestrated Guaidó’s coup d’etat, with him even admitting in an interview recently that it was ‘necessary to protect [US] interests’.”
Through its refusal to return Venezuela’s gold, the British state has exposed its utter contempt for supposed sovereign rights.
At the same time, through its continuous use of sanctions, the UK has contributed towards the very ‘humanitarian crisis’ in Venezuela that it cynically wails about.
For decades now, the Venezuelan people have been treated as small change by the British establishment and its political representatives, in their attempts to appease their masters in the White House.
Starmer’s response to the criminal actions of the Trump administration are only the latest episode in this long-running saga. The Labour leader knows who his boss is, and obediently plays his reliable role as a faithful sidekick of US imperialism.
Down with imperialism!
Keir Starmer – the human rights lawyer turned Prime Minister – tries to pride himself as a sworn believer of ‘international law’. At every turn, he has hidden behind this smokescreen in order to justify his imperialist policies to a domestic audience.
But Starmer’s hypocrisy and cynicism is clear for all to see. After all, the UK PM is a staunch supporter of the Zionist state of Israel, which takes pride in defying international law.
All the resolutions reprimanding it for its occupations over the years – as well as the expansion of the illegal settler movement in the West Bank – are not worth the paper they are written on. Israel’s allies in Washington and London are more than happy to ignore these toothless statements and ride roughshod over these meaningless admonishments.
Starmer’s words will fool nobody. The truth is that the ‘rules-based order’ is a fig leaf for the rule and interests of the mightiest and most reactionary power on the planet: US imperialism.
From their illegal invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq; to their joint ventures in turning Libya and Syria into carnivals of barbarism: the US imperialists and their British lackeys have never cared one dot for international law.
The left and labour movement in Britain must not confine itself to making moralistic appeals to ‘our’ government, imploring those in Downing Street to abide by ‘legality’.
After all, it is those in power who help orchestrate illegal coups; who sabotage and subvert democracy; and who have the longest record of leaving behind a series of failed states.
The fact is that British imperialism has a history of promoting regime change in Venezuela, as part of its wider history of crimes against the working class of the world.
It is the task of communists to expose the crimes and hypocrisy of our own ruling class, and organise to bring down the warmongers and imperialists in Westminster and Washington.
That’s why we say:
- Hands off Venezuela! Yankee go home!
- The UK is not innocent!
- Down with imperialism!
- Workers of the world, unite!
