The African National Women’s Organization (ANWO) unequivocally condemns the U.S. military attack on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro Moros and First Lady Cilia Flores de Maduro.
In the early morning hours of Saturday, January 3, the United States launched a military operation inside Venezuelan territory, escalating its long-standing campaign of aggression against the Venezuelan people and their government. This attack was insidiously framed as a response to so-called “narco-terrorism,” as a pretext to justify recent military operations in the region.
This act of war was carried out unilaterally by U.S. President Donald J. Trump without the prior authorization of the U.S. Congress, further exposing the fiction of U.S. democracy and its so-called system of checks and balances. The reality is that the U.S. executive branch exercises unchecked power when it comes to enforcing domination, and violence against nations it deems expendable.
As Chairman Omali Yeshitela has correctly stated, the colonizer makes and justifies its own rules. Slavery in the Americas was once legal, and Africans who escaped enslavement were criminalized for breaking the law. Today, the same colonial logic is at work. The U.S. invents legal justifications to rationalize kidnapping, invasion, and regime-change operations against sovereign nations.
This attack represents a dangerous escalation of U.S. imperialism and a blatant enforcement of colonial rule in the Western Hemisphere. On one hand, the U.S. presents President Maduro as the head of a criminal enterprise, a claim unsupported by credible evidence; on the other, U.S. President Donald Trump, openly revealed the real objective during the press conference that followed, the reassertion of U.S. control over Venezuela’s oil resources and the enrichment of U.S. oil interests.
The truth became even clearer when Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued veiled threats against Colombia and Cuba, exposing the broader scope of this aggression. This was never about narcotics or law enforcement. It is about punishing governments that refuse to submit to U.S. domination and that are actively working to free themselves from political, economic, and military subservience.
The audacity of the U.S. arresting a sitting president of a sovereign nation and attempting to subject him to U.S. courts demonstrates complete contempt for international law, national sovereignty, and the will of the Venezuelan people. The United States does not respect its own laws, nor does it respect the sovereignty of any nation, ally or adversary, when imperial interests are at stake.
That the U.S. was able to carry out a military operation in a region surrounded by sovereign nations—within one of the world’s most politically diverse regions, bound together by a shared history of colonialism and resistance—should alarm people everywhere. If international law truly mattered, neighboring countries would be well within their rights to defend Venezuela’s sovereignty. Instead, we have seen warm condemnations from some and open support from others, reflecting the depth of U.S. coercion and influence in the region.
While the full details of this attack may not yet be known, ANWO is clear about its character. The history of U.S. imperialism, combined with our own lived experience as African people subjected to domestic colonialism within the United States, leaves no doubt that this attack was calculated, surreptitious and driven by colonial-mode-of-production.
ANWO stands in unwavering solidarity with the people of Venezuela and with all nations resisting U.S. imperialism. We call on African people and oppressed peoples everywhere to recognize this attack for what it is and to strengthen international resistance to colonial domination in all its forms.
Forward Ever! Backward Never!
¡Siempre Adelante!
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