This editorial by La Jornada*‘s editorial board originally appeared in the October 17, 2025 edition of* La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Mexico Solidarity Project.
In recent hours, the risk of a US armed intervention in Venezuela has gone from a vague threat to a likely scenario. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump confirmed that he had authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to conduct covert operations in the Caribbean nation and emphasized that he is considering ground operations in that country against “unlawful combatants,” as he classifies alleged drug traffickers. Given that Washington accuses the Venezuelan government of being a cartel, the Republican’s remarks constitute a direct threat of military aggression aimed at regime change. More explicit than Trump was White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, who stated: “Maduro leads an illegitimate regime that has been trafficking drugs into the United States for too long, and we will not tolerate it.”
These statements are backed by actions. As of yesterday, Washington had destroyed five vessels and extrajudicially executed at least 27 people off the Venezuelan coast, in addition to mobilizing more than 6,000 military personnel, eight warships (most of them designed for troop landing operations), a nuclear-powered submarine, and F-35 fighter jets, the most advanced aircraft in the U.S. Air Force. On October 3, these aircraft flew just 75 kilometers from Caracas. Yesterday, the harassment was reinforced with the overflight of helicopters from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment less than 90 miles from Venezuela, an act whose seriousness is increased by the role of such aircraft in surgical operations against high-profile targets.
The unsubstantiated accusations of involvement in drug trafficking and the military siege of Venezuela’s maritime and airspace are ominous signs of a pretext being constructed for an aggression aimed at overthrowing that country’s government and seizing the planet’s largest oil reserves, just as Washington has unsuccessfully attempted to do since at least 2002. Faced with such a scenario, the international community must put aside ideological differences and personal animosities toward President Maduro and firmly speak out against the violation of the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people, as President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo and her Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro have done.
Leaders like Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva must realize that silencing imperialist bravado is not only a betrayal of the principles of Latin American integration and the self-determination of peoples, but also potentially suicidal, as it emboldens Washington’s hostility.
In a global context increasingly convulsed by armed, trade, and other conflicts, it is essential to defend the relative calm enjoyed by Latin America. This requires reining in the interventionist impulses of the superpower and demanding that it cease its destabilizing practices.
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