AND: The “Total Siege” of Venezuela is a Measure Part of the Low-Intensity War
Hereby we share an unofficial translation of an article by A Nova Democracia (AND) on the US imperialism aggression on Venezuela.
Yankee Government Announces “total siege” of Venezuela and Illegal Blockade of Oil Tankers; This Measure is part of the Low-Intensity War.
Yesterday (December 16), the ultra-reactionary US President Donald Trump announced a “total and complete” blockade of oil tanker entry and exit from Venezuela. The announcement was made through his private social media platform, Truth Social. In the same statement, he again designated the Venezuelan government as a “foreign terrorist organization”. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro stated that “we don’t want a new Vietnam” and then firmly asserted that “we will be millions saying to the imperialists that piracy cannot be accepted”.
In a latent threat, Trump also stated in the same statement: “The situation will only get worse, and the shock for them will be something they have never seen before – until they return to the United States of America all the oil, land, and other assets that they have stolen from us”. On December 10, just six days earlier, the US Navy seized a civilian ship carrying 1.9 million barrels of oil purchased from Venezuela. Oil accounts for around 80% of Venezuela’s exports and constitutes about 1/3 of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Venezuela accuses US imperialism of hacking into state-owned oil company
The siege occurred shortly after Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela S/A (PDVSA), announced that it had suffered a cyberattack, which it blames on US imperialism in its growing frenzy to establish military domination in the Caribbean country and throughout the continent. In an official statement, the company publicly denounced that “it was targeted by a cyberattack aimed at paralyzing its operations, an attempt at aggression that adds to the US government’s public strategy of appropriating the country’s oil by force and piracy”. The attack, however, was partially repelled, as stated in the same document: “thanks to the experience of PDVSA employees, operational areas were not affected in any way, with the attack limited to its administrative system”.
The blockade adds to the growing US threat to the Latin American continent. On November 13, the US Secretary of War under Trump’s ultra-reactionary government announced Operation Southern Spear. This is part of the so-called “New Strategy”, a doctrine that reaffirms the need for US imperialism to ensure its economic and military domination, particularly in the American continent, which has been formally called the “Trump corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine.
Under the same line of intervention in the continent, just one day before the blockade on Venezuelan oil tankers, a new “military cooperation agreement” was signed between Paraguay and the US. The agreement establishes a formal structure for the presence of US troops and Defense Department activities on Paraguayan territory. The understanding expands the direct action of US armed forces in the Southern Cone under the justification of “combating drug trafficking”, “organized crime”, and alleged “regional security threats”.
According to official information, the agreement authorizes the sending of US military personnel, the use of Paraguayan facilities, intelligence exchange, and joint operations. Paraguayan authorities state that the measure aims to “strengthen border control”, especially in the Triple Frontier region, under the assumption of facing organizations that operate in the country, such as the First Command of the Capital (PCC), of Brazilian origin, with a presence in Paraguayan prisons.
Critical analysts of US imperialist policy have warned that any direct military intervention by the US in Venezuela could turn into a “Latin American Vietnam”. Currently, there are over 4.5 million militiamen integrated into the “Bolivarian Militias”, in addition to the country’s regular armed forces, prepared for the possibility of an asymmetric war in the country in case of a US imperialist invasion. The scenario recalls conflicts in which the US was defeated in the face of prolonged resistance by oppressed peoples in invaded nations – such as the Vietnam War (1955-1975); Afghanistan, which ended in 2021, after two decades without achieving initial strategic objectives and being forced to flee in desperation; and the national liberation war in Palestine by national resistance forces, which turned Gaza into a cemetery for occupation forces.
