Trump, Bolsonaro and Macri: out of Venezuela and Latin America!

Partido Obrero's (FIT) declaration against the Group of Lima

Argentina and almost all of the so-called Group of Lima (Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Canada, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Guyana and Saint Lucia) have issued a statement calling on President Maduro from Venezuela to desist of the new mandate, for which he was elected in last May, and to transfer the government to the National Assembly to call for new elections. It bases its demand on the proposition that those elections would have been fraudulent, without the presence of international observers. It also requires the delivery of humanitarian aid via international organizations to be viable. It threatens with economic reprisals in case these claims were denied. The summons by Macri and the Group of Lima to Venezuela was immediately supported by the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and President Trump.

Latin America and workers from all over the world are witnessing a totally extraordinary ultimatum on the part of imperialism and its lackeys, such as the consecration of a double power in Venezuela, which as a rule is the initial kick of a civil war. The National Assembly, with an absolute majority of the parties that pay tribute to international imperialism, avoided signing these extremes, limiting itself to demand the resignation of Maduro to start a new presidential term.

What distinguishes this action against Maduro's regime from similar ones in the past is, also, the assumption, in Brazil, of a new president of defined fascist affiliation, who does not hide his intention to promote the installation of American bases in his country, establish a military siege against Venezuela and insert Brazil into an international political-military axis with the United States-Israel and Colombia. For Brazil's brand new 'civic-military' regime, this policy aims to strengthen its internal support bases and the implementation of its reactionary agenda.

The bellicose wrapping of the ultimatum on Venezuela should not obscure the goal of promoting a campaign of 'democratic' agitation in Latin America, in view of the electoral processes that will take place this year in Bolivia, Argentina and Uruguay.

The "Venezuelan chaos" and the social, economic and political washout of Maduro's military clique will be used with the intention of extorting the electorate to impose rightist exits.

The leaders of the Group of Lima and Trump, its mentor, have turned their eyes away from the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding, right now, on the border between Mexico and the United States, and Trump's determination to build a wall against all Latin America. This has provoked a political crisis inside the United States itself and promoted an increasing indignation of the American workers and the youth.

Venezuela is indeed going through a huge humanitarian crisis; it is proved by the extraordinary number of people who leave the country, despite the fact that madurism denies or restricts the documentation to leave. This humanitarian crisis is the expression of the collapse of a political regime, which defends the class interests of an uprising bourgeoisie and an out-of-control clique, at the expense of the suffering of the workers of Venezuela. The PO can characterize reality as it is, because of the authority it gets from having early raised the insurmountable limits of the nationalist military attempt of Chavism; having opposed the independence of the working class and the workers' government; and having characterized in time the collapse of madurism as a result of an inability to develop an independent alternative to the ravages of the global crisis in a country where the monoproduction of oil was accentuated in the Chavist period, parallel to a completely parasitic external debt.

Our party, Partido Obrero, warns about the seriousness of the humanitarian crisis, but opposes the imperialist proposal to implement emergency aid to infiltrate the country politically and turn Venezuela into a colony. We call on workers, especially in Latin America, to organize international humanitarian aid under the control of the workers' federations and elected workers' representatives in their workplaces. In opposition to the political exit of Trump and Macri, we propose the expulsion of the chavist clique of the unions from the State; the full validity of democratic freedoms; the integral nationalization of oil and gas, under workers' control, and by a government of workers. Only a workers' government can guarantee clean and democratic elections - be it Venezuela or all of Latin America.

Last April, an international conference of left parties, convened by the Coordinating Comitee for the Refoundation of the Fourth International (CRFI) and organized by Partido Obrero in Buenos Aires, warned that "one of Trump's central objectives is to discipline the Latin American governments in a diplomatic and commercial offensive against Venezuela and its government" and denounced that  "behind the economic boycott of trade with Venezuela, the preparation of an eventual military invasion is insinuated" and that its objective "is to advance in the privatization of Venezuelan oil, auctioning off its state-owned company, one of the world's largest hydrocarbon reserves."

Venezuela has also become a special scenario of Trump's imperialist government's offensive against the "predatory" presence (Bolsonaro dixit) of Russia and China in Latin America. This does not prevent, but even favors, a reactionary association for the distribution of influences worldwide and against the struggle of Latin American peoples for political independence. We warn the workers about all the damages that this struggle of interests will cause between the existing powers, in the framework of an increasingly severe world capitalist crisis. The ultimate goal of this offensive is to fight the social revolution in Latin America and to return Cuba, through the capitalist restoration under development, to the orbit of imperialism.

Based on this overall characterization, we claim:

• For an international mobilization against the imperialist boycott to Venezuela and Cuba and the warmongering threats, let's organize marches and rallies.

• Rupture with the OAS, the IMF and the entire imperialist political-diplomatic apparatus.

• Repudiation of the external debt in all countries.

• Down with reactionary and anti-worker labor and pension reform plans.

• For the withdrawal of the Yankee bases in Colombia, the triple Argentine-Paraguayan-Brazilian border, Guantánamo in Cuba and the cessation of all types of joint military operations.

• For the withdrawal of Latin American troops acting as Yankee police in Haiti.

• Repudiation of the Group of Lima and its counterrevolutionary proposals; for a consistent class struggle against the governments that make it up in each of the countries; for the right to self-determination of Venezuela; for worker and peasant governments and the socialist unity of Latin America.