CPA (M-L) condemns US kidnapping of Maduro

Written by: Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninst) on 5 January 2026

(Above: Venezuelans in Caracas condemn US imperialism)

The Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) unequivocably condemns the US kidnapping of Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife and their transfer to a gaol on US territory.

We also condemn Albanese, Wong and Marles, the most craven puppets of the US in Australia, who have failed to condemn the US actions. 

It is pointless to “urge all parties to support dialogue and diplomacy” without condemning the illegality of the US actions and stating the principles on which a call for “dialogue and diplomacy” are based. Those principles must be based on the UN Charter, and not some alternative version of a spurious “international rules-based order” constructed by the US to serve its own interests.

Oil, not drugs

Trump’s motivation for the kidnapping of Maduro is seizure of Venezuelan oil, not stopping the flow of cocaine and fentanyl to the US. He is also determined to impose a new Monroe Doctrine and freeze out competitors like China.

Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves and supplies BRICS countries like China and Russia.  China now has extensive investments and projects in South America. Indeed, just hours before US Special Forces invaded his country and kidnapped him, Maduro was meeting with Qiu Xiaoqi, Special Envoy of President Xi Jinping. According to Maduro, “We reaffirmed our commitment to the strategic relationship that is progressing and strengthening in various areas...”

US imperialism has committed acts of piracy in international waters, bombing alleged drug smuggling boats and killing over 100 people, and has illegally seized two tankers of Venezuelan oil.

According to various sources, estimates of the amount of cocaine smuggled into the US from Venezuela vary between 0 and 8%.  The latter figure was derived from a 2020 report from the US Drug Enforcement Administration. Overwhelmingly, cocaine is produced in neighbouring Columbia, the reputed source of 90% of US supplies. A few percent are sourced from Peru and Bolivia.

Fentanyl is not produced in or smuggled from Venezuela.

These murderous actions are extraordinary. The catalogue of breaches of international law are desperate efforts to shore up declining American power. The US hasn't been able to get its way with soft power, abuse, sanctions, tariffs, bribery and corruption, nor financial threats and bullying. Rather than showing US strength, it concedes US inability, its weakness. It strikes at the emerging world, where the US no longer predominates relying on its financial and industrial muscle. It marks another stage of American resort to imperialist military aggression.

“We will run Venezuela”

Trump has stated that the US will now run Venezuela.  He means that ownership of Venezuela oil will be transferred to the US companies which were nationalised by former President Chavez, and that Venezuela will have to compensate US oil companies for their nationalisation.

None of this will benefit the Venezuelan people. The hunger suffered by Venezuelan workers is directly the result of over a decade of US-led sanctions. Imperialists have crippled Venezuela economically, undermined their political structures through numerous failed coup attempts and laid the ground work for the recent direct aggression. 

The US is also running Australia.  Its puppets have signed up to the AUKUS arrangement and the Force Posture Agreement, which give the US unrestricted access to bases on our territory for which there is no accountability to the Australian government and people.

In solidarity with the Venezuelan people, we demand:

Break the US “Alliance”!
End the AUKUS arrangements!
Cancel the Force Posture Agreement and close Pine Gap and all US bases!
For an anti-imperialist free and independent Australia!

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