The overall number of deaths from two devastating earthquakes 100 miles west of Caracas, Venezuela, are not known, with close to 2,000 found dead and thousands more still missing. What is certain is the scale of the deaths and destruction were not inevitable.
Working people in Venezuela are bearing the brunt of the catastrophe, despite the initiatives and solidarity they have organized to help each other try to find relatives and friends. Large numbers of volunteers have come to join the rescue effort, grabbing whatever tools are at hand. Others donate or deliver food, water, tools and medical supplies.
“In their moment of direst need,” the Washington Post reported, “ordinary people have been leading the rescue and recovery themselves.”
In a cruel irony of fate, some of those killed had only reached Venezuela that day after being deported from the U.S. They were placed in state-run holding facilities that collapsed in the earthquake.
The drive for profit by Venezuela’s ruling capitalists, alongside decades of U.S. imperialist exploitation and crippling sanctions, ensured the people of Venezuela, a resource-rich country, were utterly unprotected when the disaster hit and unprepared to mount the rescue effort that’s needed.
Houses for the toiling majority, unlike for the ruling class, are not built to withstand earthquakes. They’re constructed from unreinforced brick masonry and adobe blocks. For years public services have been left to rot. Sporadic running water, periodic blackouts and poorly supplied hospitals all hamper the relief effort. Excavators and other heavy machinery to rescue survivors are in desperately short supply.
Years of crisis conditions for workers were made worse in the wake of the U.S. rulers’ invasion and seizure of President Nicolás Maduro. Washington’s openly stated goal is for the U.S. government and giant oil corporations to “run the country.” Since then the U.S. government has seized control of billions of dollars of revenue from Venezuela’s oil exports.
The Venezuelan government announced last week it will embark on a $240 billion debt restructuring program, the largest in history. The plan, drawn up in collaboration with U.S. financial institutions, will be sure to put the burden of paying off the bondholders onto the backs of working people. What’s actually needed is the immediate and unconditional cancellation of the country’s debts.
Washington is seeking to use the social disaster following the earthquake to deepen its domination of Venezuela. U.S. officials say they’re planning to finance a “reconstruction” effort. But it will be organized as a boon for the U.S. banks that put up the loans, while deepening Venezuela’s dependence on the empire in the north.
The U.S. rulers are driving to reestablish their domination over the Western Hemisphere, to gain greater leverage as they contend with rivals worldwide, from Beijing to ruling classes in Europe. Cuba’s socialist revolution is a special target. Washington’s oil blockade, escalating sanctions, charges against Cuban leader Raúl Castro and threats against Cuba are aimed at reducing Cuba to colonial status once again.
It was against these conditions that workers and peasants in Cuba rose up, joining Fidel Castro and the Rebel Army in overthrowing the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship in 1959. Washington aims to wipe out the example the Cuban Revolution sets for working people in the face of today’s capitalist crisis and deepening drive toward world war.
Defense of the national sovereignty of both Venezuela and Cuba is in the interests of working people in the U.S. and worldwide. U.S. forces out of the Caribbean! U.S. hands off Venezuela! U.S. hands off Cuba!