Faced with the unacceptable military aggression and capture of the legally elected president of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro and his partner, we publish below the article recently published on the ‘Venezuela Infos’ blog. This article reports on Saturday’s facts (3 January 2026) and shows the situation in the country. It reports on the indignation and resistance of the Venezuelan population, the unity of the armed forces, the statements by the National Defence Council and those by the Vice-President of the Bolivarian Republic, Delcy Rodriguez.
In the early morning of January 3, 2026, US troops launched a criminal incursion into Venezuelan territory. They bombed various strategic points in the country, damaged infrastructure, murdered military and civilians. They kidnapped the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Moros, and his wife, Cilia Flores. This operation is the most serious, and the most violent attack perpetrated by the United States against a country in the Americas since the invasion of Grenada (1983) and Panama (1989).
There are already solidarity mobilisations in most capitalist countries in support of Venezuela*. These must be extended and coordinated, particularly in the working-class parties and movements. They must defend the engagement of Venezuela’s revolutionary process in the construction of a socialist society based on real democracy and its Government of the Municipalities. This commitment is the real political target of the Trump administration’s imperialist aggression – and not any fallacious pretext of so-called drug trafficking.
Posadists Today, 5.1.2026
Since September 2025, under the pretext of fighting drug trafficking, Donald Trump’s administration has launched a new offensive against Venezuela, which has gone from economic pressure and attacks on ships suspected of transporting drugs, to the diversion of oil tankers and the largest naval and air blockade ever seen; the aim being to overthrow the government of Nicolás Maduro and instal a puppet government that surrenders the country’s oil, water and other resources to imperialism.
The offensive against Venezuela comes in the context of Donald Trump’s launch of his corollary to the Monroe Doctrine: With the global media domination of the United States, to reassert imperial hegemony weakened at world level by the geopolitical changes.
An attempt is made to show this criminal operation as enjoying the support of the Venezuelan people. But only a few isolated and marginal demonstrations in Trump’s support have been observed in some cities in Europe and Latin America. With none in Venezuela where no influential political force has managed to speak in favour of the kidnapping of the president. In the world, demonstrators have taken to the streets everywhere to repudiate this barbarism. There were thousands in Paris.
It remains that an operation of such psychological terror does create the ideal setting for the “regime change” long intended by Trump: A Nicolás Maduro previously portrayed by media as a “narco-dictator”, can be dragged before a New York court in handcuffs and a prisoner’s outfit as if it were a new trial against El Chapo Guzmán (a former Mexican ‘drug-lord’).
This lowering of the president and leader of the revolutionary process to the rank of ordinary criminal is necessary for imperialism to get on with the promise of a “peaceful transition” between the current interim president of the Republic, Delcy Rodríguez, and the far-right oligarch María Corina Machado or Edmundo González, the former opposition candidate. This so-called “regime change” operation is nothing but an attempt to impose a “puppet” leader who will hand the country’s natural resources over to the United States.
The kidnapping of Maduro and his wife was undoubtedly made possible by mistakes in the Venezuelan intelligence and security services. There was a successful infiltration of the United States in the president’s close circle, but ‘regime change’ is still far from completed. The country shows this.
The vast majority of Venezuela’s population moved quickly from the confusion and shock of the early morning hours, to indignation, courage and a fighting spirit; as in the aftermath of the 2002 United States’ coup d’état against President Chávez, with (already then) the support of a certain Maria Corina Machado, when thousands of people took to the streets to demand the safe return of their president and condemn the US military actions.
The Armed Forces demonstrate their unity and loyalty to the people and their president. Regardless of the widespread narrative that Venezuela lives under a dictatorship that flouts civil liberties, the Bolivarian Revolution – initiated under the leadership of Hugo Chávez in 1998 and pursued today by Nicolás Maduro – deepens a socialism based on the direct democracy of the Communal self-governments. This democracy where 70% of the responsible positions are assumed by women, has forged between the people and the Bolivarian Armed Forces a unity that this January attack is not going break easily. It involves 5,336 municipalities and municipal circuits, supported by units of armed citizens deployed throughout the national territory. Beyond the state apparatus, this organisation stands as cornerstone and foundation to the only force, the popular force, that can put paid to the neo-colonial occupation.
Accompanied by ministers, magistrates and military leaders, Delcy Rodríguez reiterated the decree of External State of Emergency that Maduro had signed, and handed it over to the president of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), Caryslia Rodríguez. This decree creates a National Defence Council, bringing together representatives of the various branches of government. She also cited the Letter of Jamaica, a document written in 1815 where the liberator Simón Bolívar sets out the principles of independence of Latin American countries: “The veil has been torn. We saw the light and now they want to bring us back into the shadows. But our chains are broken. We are free and our enemies want to enslave us.”
Delcy Rodríguez called on the population to stay calm to let the government continue the political project initiated 27 years ago. As she sees it, Nicolas Maduro always wanted dialogue with the United States but the response was always that of “violence and aggression”. “This government has wanted to maintain a constructive dialogue from the beginning. However, we are witnessing a violation and aggression. We ask the Venezuelan people to remain calm so that, in perfect civic and military unity, we can defend our sovereignty and independence, united as one people, for our dear Venezuela.” In her 20-minute speech, she said that right-wing extremists “will be judged by history and justice” and that they will be “relegated to the oblivion of history”.
“We have a far-sighted government here. I take up the President’s remarks: we are committed to respect and to international legality. This is the only condition that we will accept for any relationship, after this military attack of which our nation is a victim” concluded the Vice-President of the Bolivarian Republic. A little later, the Supreme Court of Justice appointed her interim President.
Very difficult days are coming for Venezuela and for the world. While international organizations have demonstrated their inability to stop the genocide in Gaza, we are terrified to contemplate what may come. However, overcoming horror, even in the darkest hours, is a possibility. Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Russia and China have described this act as “criminal hegemonism”. The multipolar world is watching, and this aggression accelerates the union of the countries of the South against the unilateral actions of the United States. Hope can only be born from the base, the Venezuelan people, and a global movement that will take to the streets to defeat indifference and terror.
* https://English.news.cn/20260104/6c9bfae64b1345c7bd56abf70e521596/c.html
Sources: Magdiel Sánchez Quirozfor La Jornada https://www.jornada.com.mx/noticia/2026/01/03/opinion/venezuela-la-hora-del-pueblo and
Lorenzo Santiago for Brazil de Fato https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2026/01/03/vice-venezuelana-garante-que-governo-segue-com-o-chavismo-unico-presidente-e-maduro/
This document was translated into French by Thierry Deronne, and the Posadists Today checked over the automatic translation in English.
URL of this article: https://venezuelainfos.wordpress.com/2026/01/04/venezuela-lheure-du-peuple/
