Venezuela, Memory, and the Long Arc of U.S. Imperialism

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist

29 Jul 2026

🖨️ Print Article

The author facilitated a session during the July 2023 fact finding mission in Venezuela convened by the International People's Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism.

Memories of a sovereign Venezuela collide with the reality that it is now a U.S. vassal state.

The U.S. subordination of the Venezuelan state did not occur in a vacuum and cannot be discussed without mentioning the awful toll imperialism has taken on people all over the world. The list of recent imperialist victories against sovereignty and self-determination of peoples is a long one, even if one begins as late as the 21st century. George W. Bush led a U.S. invasion of Iraq which killed 1 million people, and the occupation continues to this day. In 2011, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton achieved regime change against the Libyan state, which resulted in the deaths of thousands and a divided nation. The humanitarian crisis caused by the U.S. continues and not just for that country but for the entire region.

Fresh off of that diabolical victory, the U.S. and its NATO co-conspirators began the same strategy of using jihadist proxies against the Syrian Arab Republic, and they succeeded in its destruction in 2024. The Ukraine proxy war began with a U.S. coup against the elected Ukrainian government in 2014. Now a four-year-long war using that country against Russia is still being waged by the president who said he would end it.

There were wars against socialist governments in the Americas for decades before. The Cuban government was under assault from the earliest days of the 1959 revolution, from the Bay of Pigs invasion to germ warfare, suffocating coercive measures, and the designation as a “state sponsor of terrorism.” Nicaragua was attacked militarily by U.S. proxies in the so-called Contra War in the 1980s. In 2018, the first Donald Trump administration attempted another Nicaragua coup using opposition groups who waged a violent campaign against their fellow citizens. Venezuela was also targeted by multiple administrations. In 2019, Washington actually chose a would-be president, Juan Guaido, for the oil-rich nation, which was prevented from selling its resources, and which was also subjected to coercive measures that devastated its economy. The Biden administration continued Trump’s state terror designation against Cuba, assisted opposition groups working against all of these states, and sponsored legislation dedicated to weakening them.

In the early morning hours of January 3, 2026, the U.S. finally struck Venezuela militarily, kidnapping President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, First Combatant Cilia Flores. The attack began months before, as the U.S. public was told that Maduro was a “narco terrorist” and the label was justified by the killings of 200 fishermen in the Caribbean who were said to be drug traffickers. The U.S. has since stolen billions of dollars in oil revenues, threatened the Interim President with a secret indictment and succeeded in rearresting Alex Saab, who is now back in U.S. custody after being freed in 2023, giving its US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) free rein to do as they please in Venezuela, and inviting Israelis who allegedly assist in earthquake rescue efforts.

Not very long ago, there was hope that Venezuela would survive as a sovereign nation and not as a U.S. vassal state. There was hope that socialist governments would thrive, despite many attacks. This columnist was fortunate enough to witness for herself how millions of people were able to live freely in the Americas despite Washington’s hostility.

I was able to participate in meetings in the U.S. to talk with officials and travel with other supporters of human rights and self-determination. In January 2022, I sat on a stage in Managua, Nicaragua, as President Daniel Ortega was sworn in after his electoral victory. Nicolas Maduro was there and so was Miguel Diaz-Canel, the president of Cuba. It was a memorable moment, celebrating as these three nations joined together in solidarity and recognition of all their victories and the fact that they still survived.

Three years ago in July of 2023, I traveled to Caracas, Venezuela as part of an International Peoples Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism fact-finding mission. While I was aware that coercive measures withheld medical equipment from Venezuela, it was quite another thing to visit a children’s cardiac care hospital and meet medical staff who explained in detail how their work and patient care was being compromised by the U.S. commitment to making the lives of millions of people miserable. In 2017 to 2018 alone, some 40,000 people died as a result of coercive measures and sanctions. Seeing the Panal commune was inspiring, and it was also disheartening to see a presentation about Venezuelan opposition groups working with the U.S. government to sell the CITGO oil company, a subsidiary of the Venezuelan state company PDVSA.

Today the U.S. just steals outright. Donald Trump himself said that the U.S. has stolen $13 billion in Venezuela oil revenue, which now sits in a Treasury account. Trump said that he wants the money to help fund the U.S. military. “It can’t go to the military, Congress has to approve it. Congress doesn’t like approving money for the military, they like giving it to things that shouldn’t be done. But we’re taking in a lot of money — billions and billions of dollars from Venezuela. That’ll be done to Iran, too.” His overoptimistic stance about Iran notwithstanding, Trump is true to form and openly speaks of controlling Venezuela, which as late as 2025 still had its rights of sovereignty.

Now those who worked for years by protecting the Venezuela embassy in Washington, marching, speaking, writing, and advocating for the rights of the people watch sadly as another domino has fallen. It is difficult to watch and there is great debate about the degree to which the U.S. has control in Caracas. I have argued that the die was cast on January 3, 2026, and that the U.S. would not have kidnapped a president and then allowed the state to operate free from its influence. Regardless of where one falls in this analysis, it is truly painful when one remembers that Venezuela was a determined supporter of Palestine but now welcomes the Israel Defense Force (IDF) to Caracas.

Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations with Israel in 2009 and I recall seeing one of the many murals with political messages saying, “Viva Palestina Libre,” Long Live Free Palestine. Now Interim President Delcy Rodriguez welcomes Israeli officials, and zionist congress members like Randy Fine visit Caracas. Fine met with Rodriguez and said, “The Venezuelan people deserve to be liberated from socialism. The United States deserves a strong ally in our own hemisphere — not another dictatorship backed by America's enemies.” Of course, Venezuelans liberated themselves only to now be living under a U.S. dictatorship. It is difficult to contemplate the depth of the crime committed against Venezuela after having seen it as an embattled but free nation, striving to live despite the U.S. war of aggression.

One thing is clear. The U.S. is fanatically determined, more than any of the powerful countries, to assert what it sees as its interests and is consolidating fascism as it did against Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, and is attempting to do so against Iran. We are up against a state which is not only committed to destroying other states but to repressing any opposition. Not only is the U.S. carrying out a blockade, a deadly siege against Cuba, but it actually accuses Cuba of being the aggressor and links anyone who defends Cuba as being a threat to the United States.

During the 2023 visit, our group was warmly welcomed by the Afro-Venezuelan National Cumbe. In their welcome document, they declared, “Our Peoples have chosen to undermine the structure and logic of neoliberalism, and to continue building the bases for the construction of democratic and popular States. We must not lose, under any circumstances, no matter how complex the scenarios in the economic situation may be, the revolutionary perspective: only by advancing towards socialism will the Peoples of the world have hope.”

Our hope lies in engaging in this struggle. While we are saddened as we watch events unfold in Venezuela today and don’t know what the immediate future brings, we must not lose hope in the revolutionary perspective.

Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. You can support her work on Patreon and also find it on Twitter, Bluesky, and Telegram platforms. She can be reached via email at margaret.kimberley@blackagendareport.com.