In a flagrant violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty, Secretary of State Antony Blinken claims Washington has the right to decide the outcome of that country’s presidential election, calling opposition leader Edmundo González the winner.
For over two decades, the U.S. rulers — under Democratic and Republican administrations alike — have sought to overthrow the Venezuelan government and impose one more subservient to Washington.
Workers and our unions should demand Washington keep its hands off! Defending Venezuela’s sovereignty has nothing to do with offering political support to the Maduro government, nor the way it conducted the election. What’s needed is unconditional opposition to all efforts by the U.S. rulers to impose their will on a sovereign nation. Only the people of Venezuela have the right to determine their own future.
Washington’s foreign policy is carried out to serve the class interests of the U.S. capitalist rulers, its exploitation of resources, markets and workers’ labor worldwide. Its foreign policy is an extension of what they do in this country, seeking to impose low wages, life-sucking schedules and dangerous working conditions to maximize their profits. Under the fig leaf of “defending democracy,” the U.S. imperialists intervene across the Americas and worldwide to maintain the weakening domination of the world’s last empire.
One of the key reasons the U.S. rulers attack Venezuela is to deal new blows to revolutionary Cuba. Washington is especially keen to seize on any pretext to slander the Cuban government and try to isolate it. Without citing a single fact, the New York Sun claimed units of Cuban special forces were flown to Venezuela after the election. The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs has categorically refuted these lies.
For more than six decades, working people in Cuba have courageously and steadfastly resisted Washington’s unremitting economic, trade, financial and political war to destroy their socialist revolution. Above all, the U.S. rulers fear the example set by Fidel Castro in leading working people in Cuba to overthrow the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and take power into their own hands.
Today, growing numbers of trade unions are speaking out against Washington’s punishing sanctions against the Cuban people, including the inclusion of Cuba on its State Sponsors of Terrorism list.
No to Washington’s interference! U.S. hands off Venezuela! U.S. hands off Cuba!