Camilo Lazo | National Chair of the American Party of Labor—

The American Party of Labor denounces the latest act of aggression carried out by the Trump Administration against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. After months of escalating threats—and following decades of U.S. interference, coercion, and destabilization—Washington has now seized a Venezuelan-bound oil tanker through an openly piratical operation conducted in international waters. This action, coupled with intensifying sanctions and ongoing military encirclement, represents a grave and deliberate provocation against the Venezuelan people.

The Trump Administration’s actions have nothing to do with peace, stability, or international law. They are an extension of a long-standing imperialist strategy aimed at subjugating Venezuela, dismantling its sovereignty, and delivering its natural resources—its oil, minerals, forests, and fisheries—into the hands of U.S. corporations. Trump’s own admission that the United States may simply “keep” the stolen oil reveals the true character of this campaign: outright plunder dressed in the language of “national security.”

This latest seizure takes place in the broader context of U.S. sanctions that have devastated the Venezuelan economy, naval operations that threaten civilian life, and extrajudicial killings carried out under false accusations of drug trafficking. These actions form part of a bipartisan legacy of deception and war: from the lies about Vietnam and Cambodia, to the fabrications about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, to the manufactured pretexts used in Libya and Syria. Each administration has relied on the same imperialist script—one that sacrifices working people abroad while leaving working people in the United States in poverty, unemployment, and hunger.

The Trump Administration’s criminal campaign against Venezuela endangers millions. It risks catastrophic conflict, deepens humanitarian suffering, and serves only the narrow interests of the capitalist class—those who wage wars, exploit labor, dodge taxes, and remain insulated from the destruction they create. Overthrowing the democratically elected Chavista government will not “stop drugs,” “restore democracy,” or “protect Americans.” It will tighten debt bondage, intensify resource extraction, and expand the exploitation of Venezuelan workers for the profit of U.S. oligarchs.

The American Party of Labor affirms:

• our unequivocal condemnation of the Trump Administration’s seizure of a Venezuelan-bound oil tanker and its ongoing campaign of sanctions, threats, and military intimidation;

• our rejection of all imperialist pretexts used to justify aggression against the Venezuelan people; and

• our unwavering solidarity with the working class of Venezuela and with our fraternal comrades in the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Venezuela (PCMLV) in their struggle for sovereignty, socialism, and national dignity.

The American Party of Labor and its allies will continue to build and strengthen the anti-war movement in the United States. We pledge to resist every attempt to drag our class into another ruinous imperialist conflict and to make any aggression against Venezuela politically costly and practically untenable.

Hands off Venezuela!
End the sanctions and imperialist provocations!
No war but the class war!

¡Viva Venezuela!
¡Viva la revolución!
¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!

Categories: American Party of Labor, Anti-War, Statements, U.S. Military, U.S. News