Socialist Workers Party: ‘US hands off Venezuela!’

Militant/John Studer

NEW YORK — “We demand the U.S. capitalist rulers keep their hands off Venezuela!” Socialist Workers Party leader Róger Calero said at an April 14 Militant Labor Forum here. “Working people across the United States need to stand with our brothers and sisters in Venezuela against the pressure, threats and provocations from Washington and its Organization of American States.

“Far from being a paragon of democratic virtues,” Calero said, “The Washington-led OAS has a long record of backing coups and imperialist-backed invasions to overthrow regimes that stand in its way since its was founded in 1948. It backed the overthrow of the Arbenz government in Guatemala in 1954, the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, the U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965, the overthrow of the Allende government in Chile in 1973 and the invasion of Grenada in 1983.

“The U.S. government says that ‘we Americans’ have an interest in changing Venezuela. But there is no ‘we,’” Calero said. “The ruling capitalist class is seeking to regain control over the resources of Venezuela, just as they seek to increase the profits they can make off our backs here. Our interests lie with our fellow working people in Venezuela, with the working class of the world.”

— JOHN STUDER