Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

An Open Letter to the People of the United States
Nicolás Maduro
13 Feb 2019
An Open Letter to the People of the United States
An Open Letter to the People of the United States

We demand the cessation of the aggression that seeks to suffocate our economy and socially suffocate our people.

“Your national representatives of Washington want to bring to their borders the same hatred that they planted in Vietnam.”

If I know anything, it is about peoples, such as you, I am a man of the people. I was born and raised in a poor neighborhood of Caracas. I forged myself in the heat of popular and union struggles in a Venezuela submerged in exclusion and inequality. I am not a tycoon, I am a worker of reason and heart, today I have the great privilege of presiding over the new Venezuela, rooted in a model of inclusive development and social equality, which was forged by Commander Hugo Chávez since 1998 inspired by the Bolivarian legacy.

We live today a historical trance. There are days that will define the future of our countries between war and peace. Your national representatives of Washington want to bring to their borders the same hatred that they planted in Vietnam. They want to invade and intervene in Venezuela -- they say, as they said then -- in the name of democracy and freedom. But it's not like that. The history of the usurpation of power in Venezuela is as false as the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It is a false case, but it can have dramatic consequences for our entire region.

Venezuela is a country that, by virtue of its 1999 Constitution, has broadly expanded the participatory and protagonist democracy of the people, and that is unprecedented today, as one of the countries with the largest number of electoral processes in its last 20 years. You might not like our ideology or our appearance, but we exist and we are millions.

“They want to invade and intervene in Venezuela in the name of democracy and freedom.”

I address these words to the people of the United States of America to warn of the gravity and danger that intend some sectors in the White House to invade Venezuela with unpredictable consequences for my country and for the entire American region. President Donald Trump also intends to disturb noble dialogue initiatives promoted by Uruguay and Mexico with the support of CARICOM for a peaceful solution and dialogue in favor of Venezuela. We know that for the good of Venezuela we have to sit down and talk because to refuse to dialogue is to choose strength as a way. Keep in mind the words of John F. Kennedy: "Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate". Are those who do not want to dialogue afraid of the truth?

The political intolerance towards the Venezuelan Bolivarian model and the desires for our immense oil resources, minerals, and other great riches, has prompted an international coalition headed by the US government to commit the serious insanity of militarily attacking Venezuela under the false excuse of a non-existent humanitarian crisis.

The people of Venezuela have suffered painfully social wounds caused by a criminal commercial and financial blockade, which has been aggravated by the dispossession and robbery of our financial resources and assets in countries aligned with this demented onslaught.

And yet, thanks to a new system of social protection, of direct attention to the most vulnerable sectors, we proudly continue to be a country with high human development index and lower inequality in the Americas.

“You might not like our ideology or our appearance, but we exist and we are millions.”

The American people must know that this complex multiform aggression is carried out with total impunity and in clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations, which expressly outlaws the threat or use of force, among other principles and purposes for the sake of peace and the friendly relations between the Nations.

We want to continue being business partners of the people of the United States, as we have been throughout our history. Their politicians in Washington, on the other hand, are willing to send their sons and daughters to die in an absurd war, instead of respecting the sacred right of the Venezuelan people to self-determination and safeguarding their sovereignty.

Like you, people of the United States, we Venezuelans are patriots. And we shall defend our homeland with all the pieces of our soul. Today Venezuela is united in a single clamor: we demand the cessation of the aggression that seeks to suffocate our economy and socially suffocate our people, as well as the cessation of the serious and dangerous threats of military intervention against Venezuela. We appeal to the good soul of the American society, a victim of its own leaders, to join our call for peace, let us be all one people against warmongering and war.

Long live the peoples of America!

Nicolás Maduro
President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at comments@blackagendareport.com

Regime Change Venezuela

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles. Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Venezuela Continues To Be the Model for True Democracy in the Americas
Jacqueline Luqman
Venezuela Continues To Be the Model for True Democracy in the Americas
03 May 2022
The 2002 attempted coup against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez was undone because of popular action.
The Venezuela Coup 20 Years Later
Dan Beeton
The Venezuela Coup 20 Years Later
26 April 2022
The legacy of Venezuela’s short-lived 2002 coup d’etat, and the subsequent countercoup, endures for US-Latin American relations.
US’s Flaunting of Diplomatic Immunity Challenged in Court –  Imprisoned Venezuelan Diplomat Contests Extraterritorial Judicial Abuse
Roger D. Harris
US’s Flaunting of Diplomatic Immunity Challenged in Court – Imprisoned Venezuelan Diplomat Contests Extraterritorial Judicial Abuse
12 April 2022
The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations protects the rights of Alex Saab.
Illegally Imprisoned Venezuelan Diplomat Faces US Court Amid a Shifting Global Context
Roger D. Harris
Illegally Imprisoned Venezuelan Diplomat Faces US Court Amid a Shifting Global Context
06 April 2022
Alex Saab’s April 6 hearing takes place in the setting of a mercurial world situation, where events in Ukraine may have indirect bearing on his
The Racist, Imperialist War on Venezuela
Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
The Racist, Imperialist War on Venezuela
24 November 2021
We are reprinting Glen Ford’s 2019 article on Venezuela not to demonstrate that he was prescient on the issue of U.S.-Venezuela policies, but b
The U.S. has twice kidnapped Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab. His next court appearance is scheduled for Monday, November 1, and supporters are demanding his freedom. Washington’s actions against Saab contradict both international and humanitarian laws. 
Lauren Smith
Miami Defenders of Twice US Kidnapped Venezuelan Ambassador, Alex Saab, Rally for his Release
26 October 2021
The U.S. has twice kidnapped Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab.
Venezuela Immunizes Its Population Against COVID-19 with Cuban Vaccine
Peoples Dispatch Staff
Venezuela Immunizes Its Population Against COVID-19 with Cuban Vaccine
08 July 2021
Venezuela signed an agreement with Cuba for the purchase of 12 million doses of Abdal after the country announced and celebrated the success o
The Case of Alex Saab - US Abduction of Venezuelan Diplomat, a Global Challenge 
Sara Flounders and Roger D. Harris 
The Case of Alex Saab - US Abduction of Venezuelan Diplomat, a Global Challenge 
23 June 2021
The case involves the kidnapping of a diplomat by the world’s sole superpower locked in an unequal struggle to destroy the formerly prosperous, oil
Sanctions Against Venezuela Will Continue Under Biden
Vijay Prashad
Sanctions Against Venezuela Will Continue Under Biden
18 November 2020
There is every indication that a Biden administration will maintain the punitive sanctions against Venezuela, suffocating the country during the pa
Open Letter to the Africans of Brazil, Colombia and Guyana
by the signatories
Open Letter to the Africans of Brazil, Colombia and Guyana
04 November 2020
These neo-colonial regimes are covertly and overtly facilitating the US Empire’s encirclement of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

More Stories


  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser Epitomizes Black Misleadership
    20 Aug 2025
    Mayor Bowser going along to get along with Donald Trump is unsurprising to anyone who has followed her political career. She is the Black misleader par excellence.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: The Haitian Revolution and its Impact on the Americas, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, 1991
    20 Aug 2025
    “To understand the history of the Americas we must pay tribute to…Haiti.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Delirious New Cold Warrior Ted Cruz Proposes US/Israel/Taiwan/Somaliland Pact
    20 Aug 2025
    Senator Ted Cruz has written an open letter urging Trump to recognize Somaliland, causing jubilation among Somaliland secessionists.
  • Jon Jeter
    Clutching at Pearls, the World’s Largest Criminal Enterprise, the US, Cracks Down on Crime
    20 Aug 2025
    The latest liberal discourse on crime offers gardening as a panacea for violence and pathologizes communities while absolving the state of its role in creating the conditions of poverty and despair.
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Ms Maxwell and The Art of The Deal
    20 Aug 2025
    "Ms Maxwell and The Art of The Deal" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us