As Donald Trump continues to ramp up his immigration raids and slash social programs, one theme is consistent through his press conferences and executive orders: class war. Not just the one enforced by ICE raids, mass kidnappings, and deportations, but one that he is aiming to invade and bomb Venezuela, Mexico, and now Colombia in the so-called “war on drugs.” These attacks on the working class are part of the same imperial system, and they must be opposed with equal force, organization, and clear politics.

Trump’s recent remarks claiming that he is going to “take control” of Latin America under the pretext of fighting drug cartels are nothing new. These remarks echo a long and bloody history of U.S. intervention on the continent—one that stretches from Chile and Argentina to more recent efforts aimed at overthrowing Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba.

One does not need to fully agree with the governments of these countries to support peace or diplomacy and prevent bloodshed or death. While people in the U.S. face hunger, homelessness, and lack vital mental health services, instead of addressing these issues, our government is spending our tax dollars on war and occupation.

It is not the fault of the governments of Latin America that the Trump administration is slashing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), cutting Medicaid, evicting people, and closing the Department of Education, among other cuts to social programs. These are direct actions by our own anti-worker government and system.

Every time Washington claims it’s bringing “democracy” or “freedom” to Latin America, Africa, Asia, or the Middle East, it brings hunger, poverty, death, racism, and destruction. These invasions have overthrown democratically elected governments, supported dictators, and displaced millions of families, fueling the very migration crisis Trump now condemns.

Latin America Under The Boot Of The U.S. Empire

In recent years, Washington has funded multiple coups across our continent, aiming to replace elected presidents with Wall Street-friendly puppets and promote “color revolutions” in the region. From the 2009 coup in Honduras to the 2019 overthrow in Bolivia, the failed 2018 coup attempt in Nicaragua, the 2022 Peruvian coup, and the repeated plots to invade Venezuela or assassinate democratically elected President Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. has continued to undermine democracy in Latin America under the guise of “freedom” and “human rights,” and now the “war on drugs.”

But this pattern is nothing new. Since its creation, the United States has consistently interfered in Latin America’s internal affairs– through invasions, land grabs, and regime changes. From stealing half of Mexico’s territory to occupying Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico.

Our continent has always fought to defend its sovereignty and independence from both European colonial powers and U.S. imperialism.

As Eduardo Galeano noted in his well-known book, ‘Open Veins of Latin America,’ he stated that:

From 1898 to 1994, the U.S. overthrew at least 41 governments in Latin America, according to research by Columbia University historian John Coatsworth.

On March 8th, 2022, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a report stating that from 1991 to 2022, the U.S. conducted at least 251 military interventions and 469 foreign interventions worldwide since 1798.

The ruling class in the U.S. has always feared that the peoples of the Americas could unite, draw from our ancestral practices, culture, and heritage, and improve our lives in the pursuit of self-determination, which is why they spend trillions of dollars creating divisions. They are well aware that we have more in common with working-class people on our continent than with the billionaires who control the world.

In a 1965 report by Ray S. Cline, Deputy Director for Intelligence (CIA), to the Policy Planning Council Department of State:

“Most of the Latin American Communist parties formally came into being in the decade following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917. The Communist Party of Argentina is the oldest party in the hemisphere, having been founded in 1918. Each of the parties has looked to Moscow from the start for its ideology and guidance. None has drawn on Latin America’s heritage of communal practices and traditions, which have stemmed from the area’s great Aztec, Maya, or Inca civilizations.”

There is a reason why we are constantly told that the governments of Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Mexico, and, more recently, Colombia are “bad” actors and need to be replaced. It has nothing to do with human rights, drugs, and everything to do with controlling the nation’s natural resources and finances, labor power, and getting them to align with the U.S. imperial ambition to dominate the planet. That is the same reason we never hear anything about the governments of Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Chile, and others that are under the imperial grip of the Pentagon and Wall Street.

Also, who gives the U.S. the right to dictate what type of government and system an independent country should use? As Dr. Martin Luther King put it:

How can we criticize another country when we can’t get our own government to stop sending weapons to kill innocent Palestinians? How can we trust that the same government financing and orchestrating a genocide in Gaza now cares about human rights in Venezuela or Cuba? When the U.S. government itself bears the blame as the original sinner of this continent, it has never been held accountable for its actions.

There is a reason the Trump administration approved a $20 billion bailout for Argentina amid its economic crisis—while maintaining an illegal embargo on Cuba and imposing sanctions on Venezuela and Nicaragua. Major corporations and banks maintain a strong hold on Argentina’s natural resources and national debt, and they aim to do the same in Cuba and Venezuela.

U.S. Banks Fund Death And Destruction

Banking institutions in the U.S. have a long, brutal history of profiting from the death and destruction of our continent. For the case of Venezuela, there was a moment when Venezuela was a producer of cocaine, and that production was moved to the North American market. This was during the 1970s and 90s because the U.S.-backed government of Venezuela at the time allowed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to operate freely throughout Venezuela, overseeing cocaine shipments to the U.S., unbothered by law enforcement.

Former Venezuelan president Carlos Andrés Pérez (CAP) collaborated with U.S. agencies and was well-known for being connected to major narco-traffickers who also financed his presidential elections. In 1974, when Carlos became president, he made a major deal with the DEA and opened a regional office in Caracas, which marked the peak of cocaine traffic from Venezuela to the U.S…

In 1993, 60 Minutes did a show exposing the DEA-CIA drug trafficking operations.

The people of Latin America indeed continue to suffer at the hands of the cartels. However, cartels can only function successfully because of the U.S. banking system. In 2010, we witnessed Wachovia admitting that they laundered $378 billion in drug money. The company’s laundering director said, “It’s the banks laundering money for the cartels that finance the tragedy (in Mexico).” Bank of America, HSBC, and Wells Fargo also admitted to laundering money for the cartels, at the cost of human life.

No CEO from these banks was put on trial, arrested, or denied employment —they were just slapped with a fine.

In 2005, under the leadership of Hugo Chávez, he expelled the DEA from Caracas as part of his intense anti-drug campaign. A United Nations report states there is no discernible drug cultivation or production in Venezuela.

The Trump administration cannot provide any evidence that the Maduro government is connected to the cartels. Still, there is evidence that the U.S.-backed self-proclaimed “president” of Venezuela, Juan Guaido, is linked to Colombian death squads and drug networks, as reviewed in 2020 by journalist Ben Norton.

In a recent interview with Rafael Correa, the former president of Ecuador, Nicolás Maduro said that he reviewed recent data showing that “it is over $500 billion annually that is in the U.S. banking system, in legal banks. If they want to investigate a cartel, let them investigate the cartel up north. It’s from the United States that all drug trafficking is directed from South America and from the rest of the world.”

Venezuela’s oil reserves, which the U.S. seeks full control over, are among its most valuable assets. Venezuela has approximately 303 billion barrels of oil, making it home to the world’s largest known oil reserves. In addition, they have significant deposits of natural gas, iron, bauxite, gold, and diamonds, as well as various other minerals and agricultural products such as coffee, sugar, and cacao.

U.S. Deploys Aircraft Carrier

On October 24, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the deployment of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), the largest warship on Earth, traveling to the Caribbean. This vessel is not a tool or instrument for attacking small drug trafficking boats; it is an instrument for waging a massive war on the Caribbean and South America.

This move is an escalation aimed at intimidating the leaders of Venezuela and Colombia as well. The most capable and lethal strike force in the world is added to the already significant military buildup in the Caribbean, which includes 10,000 troops, at least eight warships, P-8 surveillance aircraft, and F-35 jets deployed amid the Trump administration’s alleged counter-narcotics efforts.

On November 14th, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced “Operation Southern Spear.” Hegseth said they aim to target “narco-terrorists.”

The small island country of Trinidad and Tobago, located just a few miles from Venezuela, reportedly is already hosting U.S. troops for a five-day “military exercise.”

Unlike the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003, where former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell briefed the United Nations Security Council on “evidence” of Iraq’s failure to disarm and weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the Trump administration is not providing any evidence support the claims that Maduro is trafficking drugs or that any of the fishing boats that the U.S. is bombing along the Pacific and Caribbean are carrying drugs.

“It’s past time for Maduro to go. Keep it up, President Trump,” said Senator Lindsay Graham on Friday, October 24th.

Graham continued advocating for “decisive military action on land, sea, or air.” Claiming that for years it’s been a “haven for drug cartels and poisoning America,” said Graham.

On October 21 and 22, the U.S. military continued its operations, including maritime activities along Colombia’s Pacific Coast, this time striking two boats near Colombia.

The Intercept recently reported that a high-ranking Pentagon official admitted that these strikes are criminal attacks on civilians.

The United Nations explicitly condemned Trump’s boat strikes, calling them “International law does not allow governments to simply murder alleged drug traffickers.” David Cole, a professor at Georgetown University, said it clearly, “We are simply engaged in cold-blooded murder.”

Since September, at least 83 people have died in approximately 21 airstrikes in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific as the US military expands its assets in the region. While Washington claims the goal is to combat drug trafficking, the growing fleet has raised concerns that the U.S. may be planning an attack on Venezuela.

University San Carlos, Guatemala – 2021 | Photo Credit: Abraham Marquez

Trump’s Aggression Against Latin America

The real reason Venezuela is under attack is that the U.S. government no longer controls its natural resources, and the government in power is not a puppet. Trump’s message is clear: he wants to reassert U.S. power through fear and military force. Both overseas and at home. Our response must be just as clear; we refuse to let him attack Latin America and our undocumented community. We must build solidarity across borders, expose the hypocrisy of “law and order” politics, and challenge U.S. imperialism that underpins both ICE and the Pentagon.

The future of Latin America and the safety of our immigrant communities depend on our ability to connect these struggles. Opposing Trump’s war agenda means more than rejecting one man’s policies– it means fighting the entire system of empire that enables them.

We live in the belly of the beast. The people of Los Angeles and the nation have the most important responsibility to prevent the U.S. war machine from re-invading our continent for a white man’s war. From Gaza to Venezuela, we must oppose Trump’s war agenda. We have nothing to gain and so much to lose if Trump can carry out his military bombing or invasion of Venezuela, Colombia, and Mexico.

Resistance must therefore be internationalist. This means standing with Latin American movements fighting U.S. intervention and with immigrant communities resisting deportation.

This first appeared on Substack.

The post We Must Resist Trump’s War Agenda At Home And Abroad appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

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