04/01/2026
U.S. BOMBS VENEZUELA AND KIDNAPS PRESIDENT
From: Michelle & Medea at CODEPINK in the US
The Trump administration has launched a large-scale military strike inside Venezuela, hitting multiple military installations and causing explosions in and around Caracas, an unprovoked and illegal act of aggression that endangers millions of lives and threatens to plunge our hemisphere into chaos. During this assault, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were kidnapped and forcibly removed from the country, a flagrant violation of international law and an act of war.
Now Trump is openly threatening a "second wave" of strikes could take place and declared that those who remain loyal to Venezuela's government will have a "bad future." This is a colonial act of aggression and collective punishment that points to a prolonged conflict with significant human costs.
The people of the United States did not ask for this. The people of Venezuela do not deserve this.
Let's be clear: this is not a quick, surgical action with minimal casualties. It is the start of a prolonged war, one that will mean ongoing bombardment, civilian suffering, and regional chaos.
These attacks are a dramatic escalation of the economic and political war the United States has waged on Venezuela for nearly two decades. From the Bush administration onward, and intensified under Obama and Trump, Venezuela has been targeted through sanctions, blockades, asset seizures, cyber attacks, covert operations, and psychological warfare.
In recent months alone, the United States has:
* bombed at least 36 civilian and commercial boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, killing more than 117 people, many of them fishermen and workers;
* seized two oil tankers carrying over 1.8 million barrels of Venezuelan oil;
* imposed what U.S. officials themselves have called a "total and complete blockade" on Venezuelan oil shipments;
* designated the democratically elected government of Venezuela a so-called "Foreign Terrorist Organization," an unprecedented and dangerous escalation;
* openly backed opposition figures to advance a policy of regime change;
* and engaged in psychological warfare, issuing threats of further attacks and warning Venezuelans of a "bad future" if they do not submit.
These actions follow decades of unilateral coercive measures, including an illegal sanctions regime that researchers estimate has contributed to the deaths of over 100,000 people, the theft of Venezuelan companies such as CITGO, and the seizure of billions of dollars in sovereign assets held abroad.
Let's talk about why.
Trump claims this war, and the kidnapping of a sitting president is about drug trafficking. That is a lie. It is the familiar cover story for regime change. "Drug trafficking" in Venezuela is this generation's "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq.
There is no evidence to justify U.S. military action. Even U.S. government data shows that Venezuela plays virtually no role in fentanyl or narcotics trafficking into the United States. Yet this false narrative has already been used to justify U.S. strikes on fishing boats in the Caribbean, killing dozens of people without charges, trials, or due process.
Venezuela might not have a lot of drugs, but it does have a LOT of oil. The country is home to the world's largest oil reserves. Since Hugo Chávez took office in 1999, Venezuelans have been reclaiming their natural resources to fund social programs in health, education, and housing, redirecting profits that once flowed to benefit rich oil executives in the U.S. back to the Venezuelan people. That alone has been enough to put Venezuela in Washington's crosshairs.
This is a war for oil, power, and regime change. And now it has crossed an unmistakable red line with the kidnapping of Venezuela's president.
Been there, done that.
We need to say NO.
