US-Venezuela Relations

Caracas, August 5, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan grassroots movements have taken to the streets to oppose US control over the country’s resources and political affairs.

On Tuesday, around 150 people gathered in Caracas’ Plaza El Venezolano in a demonstration organized by a coalition of leftist political groups, including Comunes, the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV), and the League of Socialist Workers (LTS).

“This is a protest against the imperialist plundering of our resources,” LTS’ Ángel Arias declared. “Anti-imperialism is not merely a discourse, it is a necessity for the Venezuelan working class.”

He decried that “the resources are far away from the Venezuelan people, with the decisions in Trump’s hands.”

Since the January 3 military strikes and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro, Washington has seized control over the Venezuelan energy sector. Trump officials have been closely involved in an overhaul of the country’s Hydrocarbon Law and have brokered negotiations with Western corporations under the revised pro-business framework. Furthermore, Venezuelan export revenues, especially from crude sales, are deposited in a US Treasury account before an undisclosed portion is returned to Caracas at US officials’ discretion.

Arias criticized Venezuelan authorities for their “complicity,” including in reforming laws to favor Western capital. He also lambasted the Venezuelan far-right opposition for being “totally servile to Washington’s interests.”

Pedro Eusse, secretary-general of the CUTV trade union confederation, urged political unity against “colonial domination.”

“Beyond our political differences, we need to unite all those who oppose the imposition of a colonial protectorate,” he affirmed. “We need to have a common flag, which is to drive imperialism out of Venezuela.”

Speakers also condemned the US’ January 3 attacks and the continuing unilateral sanctions against the Caribbean nation.

A “Twitter storm” on Monday night placed #FueraTrumpdeVenezuela (“Trump out of Venezuela”) as the top X/Twitter trending hashtag in the country.

Tuesday’s protest followed a Saturday rally organized by the Popular Anti-Imperialist Front, a coalition of Caracas grassroots movements that called for “the defense of the Constitution and Hugo Chávez’s legacy.”

“We are on the streets to vehemently reject the presence of the US empire in our country,“ veteran organizer Juan Contreras from the Coordinadora Simón Bolívar told local media as over 100 protesters marched through the popular barrio of La Vega. “We are going to continue to mobilize and call on people to join our efforts.“

Contreras likewise criticized US-arbitrated negotiations between the acting Delcy Rodríguez government and an opposition faction. “If there is dialogue, it must be with the Venezuelan people and their organized movements.”

The Coordinadora Simón Bolívar, a historic collective from the combative 23 de Enero barrio, had previously denounced an alleged plot, orchestrated by the DEA, to assassinate grassroots leaders in working-class neighborhoods.

Both recent demonstrations also fiercely rejected the acting government’s recent rapprochement with Israel. Protesters held Palestinian flags and condemned the US ally’s genocide in Gaza and Lebanon.

An Israeli diplomatic and military mission, alongside several state-aligned NGOs, arrived in the Caribbean nation in the wake of the June 24 double earthquake. Rodríguez thanked the delegation and praised it as “highly trained and professional.” Former President Hugo Chávez severed ties with Tel Aviv in 2009. Both he and Maduro were stalwart supporters of the Palestinian cause, repeatedly excoriating Israel for its colonial occupation, war crimes, and genocide.

Venezuelan popular movements had previously mobilized on July 24 in a protest “against imperialism and Zionism” in Caracas’ Plaza Bolívar.

In addition to the public demonstrations, a group of Chavista political activists and intellectuals published the “Maracay Declaration” on July 28, defending the urgent need for national unity in “the struggle to recover independence.”

“In this hour, the homeland calls for unity and a national project that responds to the interests of the Venezuelan people, and we will work permanently to achieve these goals,” the statement read. Signees included former Vice President Elías Jaua and ex-congressman Tony Boza.

Edited by Lucas Koerner in Philadelphia, USA.

Mérida, August 4, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez announced a series of immediate measures during a conference call on Sunday with governors and cabinet members to safeguard Venezuela’s National Electrical System (SEN) amid climate risks and disruptions from the recent earthquake.

Rodríguez outlined an action plan to prepare for the severe drought and high temperatures associated with the “Super El Niño” phenomenon. Venezuelan authorities will launch a national energy and water conservation plan and steps to secure electricity generation.

“We must be prepared for the ‘Super El Niño’ climate phenomenon, and I have requested the activation of an Electricity and Water Savings Plan to promote awareness and the commitment of every Venezuelan in the responsible use of these resources,” she stated during the broadcast.

The acting president also addressed the impact of the recent double earthquake that struck central-northern Venezuela, which severely affected high-voltage transmission lines and damaged electricity generation facilities. 

The most significant damage occurred at the Termocarabobo plant, which temporarily lost 600 megawatts (MW) of generation capacity. Rodríguez stated that technical crews have already restored 300 MW and expect a full recovery in the coming weeks.

“The fluctuations we have experienced in recent days are directly linked to the significant loss of those 600 MW, and today I am pleased to say that we have already recovered 50 percent,” Rodríguez noted. She added that the government aims to incorporate an additional 480 MW of thermal generation before the end of the year to cushion the grid against climate-induced strain.

The emergency measures respond to renewed instability in the power grid across several regions of the country. While localized rationing and temporary outages have been common in most of the country, they have worsened following the June 24 double earthquake. Residents have reported hours-long blackouts, sometimes twice a day. 

To address structural generation deficits, the Venezuelan government has sought to open the electricity sector to private corporations.

On June 15, Acting President Rodríguez signed a memorandum of understanding with US-based GE Vernova, formerly General Electric, aimed at adding 1,000 MW to the electrical grid within 24 months and up to 5,000 MW over four years.

Days before the GE agreement, Venezuelan authorities established a deal with Argentina-based IMPSA, presently owned by a US consortium, to rehabilitate the Manuel Piar (Tocoma) and Antonio José de Sucre (Macagua) hydroelectric dams in Bolívar state. The IMPSA agreement targets an initial restoration of 672 MW at Tocoma within 19 months, with potential expansion up to 2,640 MW over five years.

In parallel, the National Assembly preliminarily approved a reform to the Organic Law of the National Electrical System in early June. The reform departs from the 2007 framework that defined electricity as a strategic sector under state control, opening generation, transmission, distribution, and commercialization to private sector concessions lasting up to 25 years.

The opening of the electric grid to foreign interests saw US Chargé d’Affaires in Venezuela John Barrett visit the Simón Bolívar Hydroelectric Plant, known as the Guri Dam, in Bolívar State on Sunday, August 2.

Barrett reported that he accompanied a “specialized technical team” from the US Department of Energy, which inspected the facility in coordination with Venezuela’s state electricity company CORPOELEC. The US official claimed the assessment seeks to establish “a roadmap to modernize the electric system.”

The Guri Dam presently produces over 10,000 MW of the roughly 13,000 MW supplied to the grid. Venezuela’s National Electrical System currently operates significantly below its installed capacity of around 30,000 MW.

The electric sector has been severely strained over the past decade as a result of lack of maintenance, brain drain, and the impact of US economic sanctions. The coercive measures severely restricted CORPOELEC’s ability to import spare parts, secure credit, or maintain contracts with original equipment manufacturers. A recent rise in oil production has added to the electric generation gap and contributed to increased blackouts.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

The country that in 2008 heard then-President Hugo Chávez say, “Go to hell,  damn Yankees,” as he expelled the U.S. ambassador, today watches hundreds of U.S. soldiers patrol the streets of La Guaira, which was devastated by the two earthquakes a month ago. The soldiers distribute meager humanitarian aid in small boxes bearing U.S. flag stickers while filming for publicity spots.

The U.S. has promised $386 million to help Venezuela recover, but it and its allies continue to hold more than $22 billion in frozen Venezuelan assets. Washington’s actions demonstrate, once again, that its priority is oil, not the well-being of Venezuelans. Meanwhile, U.S. real estate developers are also visiting La Guaira, treating the devastation as yet another business opportunity.

Whole areas lie in ruins in La Guaira, where 82-year old Erminia Hernández lives. She was born in La Guaira, the coastal gateway to Venezuela that hosts the country’s main airport, and where residents of nearby Caracas go to sunbathe. She says she remembers the many tragedies that have struck this area, having lived through the 1967 earthquake, the Vargas mudslide in 1999, and the COVID-19 pandemic. However, she doesn’t remember anything as devastating as the double earthquakes of June 24. 

The 1967 quake stopped her as she was making majarete, a typical Caribbean dessert, she says. But last month’s earthquakes knocked her and her sister flat to the ground, face down in the hallway of their house, where she then knelt to pray as everything rocked violently. She says she does not remember who helped her stand up, but she is certain she will never forget the moment she thought she was about to die. 

“The 1967 earthquake was nothing compared to this,” Hernández tells Truthdig. “And during the mudslide, I only heard about one neighbor who died. But now, every day I learn about someone I know who has died or is missing. In my immediate family alone, we lost six people, and two more are hospitalized.”

She is right. In 1967, fewer than 300 people died. After the mudslide, some sources put the death toll at 700, with thousands more missing. The coronavirus claimed 5,856 lives across the entire country over several years. But these earthquakes have killed more than 5,270 people, left 16,700 injured and 18,000 displaced. The numbers rise daily. The government puts the number of rescued at 7,000 but does not mention how many are still missing. 

Jofram Gallipoli, his wife Oriana and their 4-year-old son Luciano were among those rescued. Seven floors collapsed on top of them in the Tanaguarenas neighborhood of La Guaira. They are alive today because Jofram’s father, José Alberto Gallipoli, owns a hardware store in Caracas, where he gathered crowbars, chisels, picks, a cordless drill, hacksaws and gloves so that relatives, friends, neighbors and police officers — none of them equipped with specialized rescue machinery — could dig a tunnel through the rubble.

During the 27 hours that the rescue took, Jofram Gallipoli tells Truthdig he communicated with the outside by banging an air conditioning grate with a ceramic tile every time he heard his name. 

“When we were under the rubble, we thought only our building had collapsed. Coming out was a shock. We lost all our material possessions, but we are alive, and I, who have emigrated before, want to stay here this time,” Jofram Gallipoli says.

According to official figures, nearly 200 buildings collapsed entirely and at least 900 were severely damaged. Structural engineers are now conducting inspections on thousands of homes in the seven states affected by the earthquakes. For Jofram’s father, “the physical structures fell, but we, the true architects of life, are ready to rebuild, from scratch, on a stronger foundation.”

José Alberto’s words are hopeful, but how much will this reconstruction actually cost? How will we carry it out? What intentions lie behind much of the “humanitarian aid” that countries like the U.S. are sending?

What is needed now

Preliminary assessments from the U.N. Development Program estimate direct physical damages at $6.7 billion, a figure that focuses on housing and does not include the full extent of infrastructure damage or the cost of long-term reconstruction.

The U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, meanwhile, puts the full reconstruction cost at $37 billion: $24 billion for lost buildings — homes, schools, stores and hospitals — and $13 billion for damage to critical infrastructure such as roads and power grids. That represents nearly one-third of Venezuela’s current gross domestic product.

For now, however, the country that has promised the most economic “aid” to Venezuela is the United States, with its much-publicized $386 million.

But if the Trump administration released the Venezuelan funds it continues to block via sanctions, the country would not need these handouts: 31 tons of gold — valued at roughly $4.2 billion — remain frozen in London. The international financial system, including private banks and multilateral organizations, has blocked more than $22 billion in Venezuelan assets. At the same time, Venezuelan oil revenue is now deposited into an account at the U.S. Treasury. “We … control the dispersal of the money,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in January.

Washington’s double standards

One day after the double earthquake, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued General License 60, which authorizes transactions related to humanitarian assistance in Venezuela but does not include the unfreezing of assets subject to sanctions or “any other transactions or activities prohibited by any other Executive Order.”

The United States acts this way because the architecture of punitive sanctions against Venezuela is the “legal foundation” for control over the Venezuelan oil industry, says William Serafino, a political scientist from the Central University of Venezuela. In 2017, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Venezuela that prohibited access to U.S. financial markets, and in 2018, expanded them to block purchasing of Venezuelan debt.

“With the issuance of licenses, Washington is able to modify certain aspects of its economic and financial coercion policy, always in the interest of U.S. companies, but without altering the overall sanctions framework,” Serafino tells Truthdig. “The sanctions are what guarantees U.S. appropriation of Venezuelan resources at a clear disadvantage to Venezuela.” 

These licenses are official documents issued by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control that allow American individuals and companies, or those with U.S. ties, to carry out very specific and limited transactions with the Venezuelan state or the state oil company PDVSA. 

Serafino says that such exemptions and the small amount of funds provided after the earthquakes are intended to “whitewash this illegal sanctions policy” in order to undermine the broad consensus across Venezuelan society in favor of lifting all measures that hinder the normal development of Venezuela’s economy. 

The U.S. has similarly just provided $100 million in aid to Cuba, after sanctioning the country since 1962. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the sanctions violate international law — which U.N. human rights experts say could also be true of the Venezuela sanctions. U.N. human rights experts describe the latest trade tariffs that block oil from getting to Cuba as “an extreme form of unilateral economic coercion” that violates self determination.

Venezuelans aren’t the only ones rejecting the U.S. sanctions against their country. After the earthquakes, 13 prominent economists, including Isabella Weber, Jeffrey Sachs and James K. Galbraith, signed a letter calling for the lifting of sanctions. Likewise, the U.N.’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, warned that such coercive measures directly affect the delivery of aid and recovery plans.

“Fletcher’s statement shows that temporary exemptions are insufficient,” Serafino says, “Financial institutions, even when they theoretically have ‘permission’ from the Treasury Department to operate, are very cautious about expediting transactions related to supplies, donations and the transfer of aid funds between multilateral institutions and humanitarian organizations, due to fear of penalties and fines.”

Transactions that under normal circumstances “would take a few days,” he says, are subjected to a bureaucratic morass because of the sanctions, because “banks must constantly consult their legal departments and steer clear of red lines.”

At the same time, the United States is also using the tragedy to ramp up its military intervention in Venezuela through a “humanitarian support” operation coordinated by the U.S. Southern Command and the State Department, under the Department of Defense. That has included moving the warships USS Fort Lauderdale and USS Billings toward the coast of La Guaira, flying helicopters over devastated areas and deploying surveillance drones such as the MQ-9 Reaper.

“It is extremely serious that, taking advantage of a tragedy and under the pretext of humanitarian aid, the United States has not only taken over the country’s main airport and seaport but also deployed 900 Marines in La Guaira and 2,000 across the entire operation,” former Vice President Elias Jaua, who also held multiple Cabinet posts during the Chavez government, tells Truthdig. 

“Moreover, we have seen the mapping they have done of the entire Venezuelan coastline with drones and helicopters. This is another escalation in the military occupation,” he says, adding that the deployment also imposes strict military monitoring and de facto control over Venezuela’s skies and coastline from U.S. bases in Puerto Rico, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago.

Jaua, who now works as a university professor, says the measures openly violate Article 13 of Venezuela’s Constitution, which bars foreign military bases or installations with military purposes by any country or coalition of countries in Venezuelan maritime, air and land territory.

Asked what will happen to the U.S. military presence in Venezuelan territory once the emergency ends, Jaua only comments that “a civic, political and grassroots movement must be built to defend Venezuela’s right to remain a republic. Otherwise, it will end up as a North American [i.e. U.S.] colony annexed to the United States or a protectorate administered from the north.”

Serafino, on the other hand, questions why Washington would want to flood Venezuela with Marines and other military forces when it has already managed to gain control over the country’s resources without a large and sustained presence since Jan. 3, when it launched airstrikes on the country and seized the president.

“It seems like an unnecessary and politically contentious measure, especially with U.S. midterm elections around the corner and a strong chance [President Donald] Trump could lose them,” Serafino says. 

“I think the military presence will be limited to solidifying U.S. influence over oil and other strategic resources, mapping migration flows from the air and conducting permanent flyovers and naval patrols to signal to Russia and China that both Venezuela and the Caribbean Basin fall under Trump’s purview.”

Economic interests

But U.S. interests in Venezuela go beyond the military. Global Empowerment Mission (GEM), a company led by Miami luxury homebuilder Michael Capponi, along with other real estate developers and a network of corporate interests with ties to Trump, are already seeing the earthquakes’ devastation as a business opportunity.

While the State Department has announced that it is working with U.S. corporations including Walmart and Amazon to bolster the “humanitarian” response in Venezuela, Serafino views GEM’s presence as more important and “pervasive.” He does not rule out that Pentagon-affiliated contractors could become involved in projects to refurbish Maiquetia International Airport, the Port of La Guaira and the management of shelters.

Recent precedents such as Iraq after the 2003 U.S. invasion and Haiti after the 2010 earthquake saw Beltway contractors — defense, technology and consulting firms based in Washington, D.C. — securing big business opportunities. In Iraq, they obtained lucrative reconstruction contracts. In Haiti, the pattern repeated through the privatization of security, logistics management and international aid programs.

This aligns with complaints from social activists in La Guaira including José Félix Valera, who tells Truthdig that some contractors, mainly U.S. ones, are already demolishing and clearing land where people are still trying to recover the bodies of their relatives. 

“There have been serious confrontations because people want to recover the bodies,” Valera says. “I saw people stop a building from being demolished, and three days later they found a young man alive. Still, the contractors with machinery take advantage of the early morning hours to demolish.” 

While a desire to rebuild quickly is understandable, Valera, who apart from his activism is also a leader at community radio station Voces in La Guaira, believes other interests are at play. The demolishing is taking place at “the largest flat plots [of land] facing the Caribbean Sea in the region, and that has a lot of implications from a geopolitical standpoint but also for tourism,” he says. “For example, this is one of the best places for international events like Grand Slam tournaments or deep-sea fishing.”

“But the U.S. is also interested in the real estate possibilities,” he says.

Valera also wonders why there are so many U.S. troops in La Guaira. “Two thousand arrived, of which only 300 are rescue workers — the other 1,700 are soldiers, and at the moment they are guarding these demolition operations.”

The U.S. did not come to Venezuela alone; Israeli officials from the Israel Defense Forces’ Home Front Command are also coordinating the supposed recovery of 14 sectors of La Guaira. In fact, they have already delivered a six-phase plan for the state’s recovery to the Venezuelan government. All of this comes despite Venezuela having broken diplomatic relations with Israel 17 years ago. Over those nearly two decades, Venezuelan officials have frequently issued harsh criticism and accusations against Tel Aviv over its genocidal actions in Palestine and the region.

Yet today, the same army that has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians since 2023 is now in Venezuela, claiming to want to help recover the bodies of our dead and rebuild our homes. Many Venezuelans are deeply distrustful and worried about what such “humanitarian aid” will mean for them in coming months.

“The future of La Guaira and the practical debate over the use of this land must involve the people of La Guaira, because this is our land and our economic livelihood,” Valera says.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

Source: Truthdig

Caracas, July 28, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez hosted a US Congress delegation in Caracas on Friday. 

The team of US politicians was led by Florida Republican Representative Brian Mast, a military veteran who also served voluntarily in the Israeli armed forces. It also included Florida Republican representatives Randy Fine and Kat Cammack alongside Illinois Democratic representative Jonathan Jackson. 

According to Venezuelan state media, the high-level meeting saw the two sides “assess progress in bilateral relations and the joint agenda in strategic areas.”

“Both sides reviewed bilateral cooperation schemes geared toward fighting transnational organized crime and border security,” the official report said.

For his part, Fine wrote on social media that he was “honored” to take part in the first congressional delegation to Venezuela in a decade. He added that the US’ January 3 kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro “set Venezuela on a trajectory to be a key ally” of the US. 

Fine, like Mast, is a major advocate of Israeli interests in the US legislature and has the backing of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). He has publicly called for starving and dropping nuclear bombs on the Gaza Strip. 

Also participating in the summit were US Chargé d’Affaires in Venezuela John Barrett, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Félix Plasencia, and Vice Minister for Europe and North America Oliver Blanco.

Blanco, who comes from the ranks of the opposition Democratic Action (AD) party, has been the main government liaison with US officials in the country. He was recently appointed First Vice Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to “strengthen Venezuela’s foreign policy and peace diplomacy around the world.”

In addition, the US Congress members held talks with National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, who described the meeting as “fruitful” and said discussions focused on “the legislative agenda and international investment.” Rodríguez added that Venezuela took the opportunity to “thank the United States for its support” following the June 24 twin earthquakes.

The US lawmakers held subsequent meetings with officials from Venezuela’s Ministry of Defense and the National Anti-Drug Superintendency (Sunad), according to reports.

Following the January 3 US military strikes and Maduro kidnapping, the Rodríguez-led acting government fast-tracked a diplomatic rapprochement with Washington following seven years of severed ties. Both administrations have opened their respective embassies.

Venezuela’s acting president has hosted a number of US officials in Caracas in recent months, including Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

Last March, Rodríguez had already received a delegation from the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee as part of the ongoing “peace dialogue” between Washington and Caracas.

At that time, the presidential press office said the Senate delegation had traveled to Caracas for a “technical and political” visit intended to continue the bilateral “roadmap” focused on “direct communication to manage historical differences and strengthen energy cooperation in light of global challenges.”

Venezuela and Peru Move Toward Restoring Relations

Caracas’ foreign policy shift has likewise seen authorities mend ties with regional US allies that had sought to isolate the Caribbean nation.

On Friday, the governments of Venezuela and Peru announced the start of a gradual process to fully restore diplomatic relations, which were severed in 2024 after the Peruvian government refused to recognize Venezuela’s official electoral results that saw Maduro secure a third term in office.

“In a first stage, both countries have agreed to reactivate consular relations as an initial step toward the full restoration of bilateral ties,” the foreign ministries of Venezuela and Peru said in a joint statement.

The immediate objective is to guarantee protection and consular services for Venezuelan and Peruvian citizens residing in each country. The diplomatic rapprochement comes days before a change of government in Peru, where conservative leader Keiko Fujimori is set to replace interim President José María Balcázar after a narrow and disputed electoral triumph.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

Caracas, July 27, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Hundreds of Venezuelan activists took to the streets on Friday, July 24, to denounce the US and Israeli presence in the Caribbean nation.

The rally “against imperialism and Zionism” took place in Caracas’ Plaza Bolívar and was organized by the Anti-Imperialist Front, a newly-formed coalition of grassroots movements that reject Washington’s growing influence over Venezuelan affairs.

The demonstrators chose July 24, commemorating the 1783 birth of independence hero Simón Bolívar, to emphasize the importance of national independence and sovereignty.

“Popular movements from Caracas and Miranda State, armed with class conscience and anti-imperialism, are going to resist imperialism,” activist Miguel Mora told reporters. “No matter how powerful the US empire is in its technology, we will resist by any means necessary.”

Mora lamented that Venezuelans were “not allowed to fight” during the January 3 US military strikes and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro.

“Venezuelans are not cowards. We are going to fight and expel the invading gringo from our homeland!” he vowed.

Since the January incursion, the Acting Delcy Rodríguez government has fast-tracked  diplomatic rapprochement with Washington. Rodríguez has pushed through multiple pro-business reforms that favor Western energy and mining corporations, while the Trump administration presently manages Caracas’ export revenues, particularly from oil sales, deposited in US-based Treasury Department accounts.

Following the June 24 double earthquake, the US military deployed hundreds of troops on the ground to run operations at the Simón Bolívar International Airport and La Guaira port. The Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) announced on Saturday that its team had departed Venezuela.

Organizer Orlando Vega urged Venezuelan authorities to “put their ear to the ground, because there is a lot of discontent among the Chavista bases.”

“We have to be very vigilant about the US and Zionist presence here,” he continued. “Trump and Netanyahu are war criminals. They cannot pretend to care about the Venezuelan people.”

Speakers roundly condemned the post-earthquake deployment of an Israeli military and diplomatic mission, while others present burned US and Israeli flags.

“We’re here to fight for the Palestinian people,” affirmed Hindu Anderi, coordinator of the International Platform in Solidarity with the Palestinian Cause. “For us, this [Israeli presence] is a setback.”

The Tel Aviv delegation featured multiple IDF officers, including Yossi Pinto and Roni Kaplan, who have taken part in military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon. Acting President Rodríguez met with the Israeli team on multiple occasions, praising its members as “highly trained and professional” and thanking them for their on-the-ground work.

Former President Hugo Chávez severed ties with Israel in 2009, firmly condemning the US ally for committing genocide and voicing solidarity with the Palestinian cause. His stance was maintained by Maduro, who publicly backed South Africa’s activation of the Genocide Convention against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2024.

Anderi emphasized the urgency of defending longstanding ties with the Palestinian cause and stressed that “Venezuela is being occupied.” “In Venezuela there is an occupation project, a blatant plunder of our natural resources,” she said.

The July 24 rally followed on the heels of several public statements from Venezuelan grassroots organizations denouncing the rapprochement with Tel Aviv and broader geopolitical realignment with Washington.

The Coordinadora Simón Bolívar, a historic collective from the working-class barrio 23 de Enero, called the Israeli presence a “silent invasion” and blasted the Trump administration’s “supreme cynicism” in claiming to be a “friend” to Venezuela after imposing a punishing economic blockade and kidnapping Maduro.

For its part, grassroots media outlet Tatuy Tv stated that Tel Aviv is the “enemy of humanity” and rejected “normalization” of Israeli genocide. The organization likewise warned against a growing US military footprint in the South American country that could be used to “project its destructive hegemony in the whole continent.”

Edited by Lucas Koerner in Cali, Colombia.

“Innocence will not kill the people, but it won’t save them either. Their conscience will save them and that’s where I put my heart and soul.”
Alí Primera

Still reeling from two consecutive earthquakes, our hearts heavy with sorrow for our compatriots who have died or been injured, moved by the pain of family members who are still searching for their loved ones, if only to give them a proper burial, and in solidarity with the anguish of the tens of thousands of families left homeless, with all the world’s sorrows converging at once, we cannot help but raise our voice about the need to fight for Venezuela’s independence and dignity. In fact, the tragedy striking us today makes this need all the more urgent.

Taking advantage of the catastrophic situation, armed US troops have landed in La Guaira, warships have been stationed off our coasts, and Venezuelan airspace is violated daily by drones, airplanes, and helicopters belonging to the occupying power. They have not rescued nor aided anyone. They merely occupy the territory, surveying land, and controlling port and airport facilities. They are humiliating us.

They announce lavish reconstruction projects alongside the Israeli government, whose top leaders face substantiated accusations of blatant genocide against the Palestinian people before the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice. A peaceful and solidarity-driven people like the Venezuelans, with a tradition of fighting for independence, peaceful coexistence, and the human cause, do not deserve this affront.

To add insult to injury, we witness a widespread silence of political leaders from all sectors with representation and responsibilities in various state institutions. They appear more interested in presenting themselves as the best option for collaborating with the Trump administration’s colonization plan than in fulfilling their constitutional duty to preserve the integrity and dignity of the Republic.

Under these circumstances, those of us who deeply love our Venezuelan homeland are compelled to denounce, once again, that the United States government:

1. Is exercising colonial rule in Venezuela, exploiting our resources and hijacking our economic revenues, which are, moreover, necessary for reconstruction following the earthquakes and for overcoming the precarious economic and social situation of the general population. This is exacerbated by the imposition of an unfair and corrupt debt service plan, which will tie up a high percentage of public finances for the remainder of this century.
2. Has violated the right to self-determination by imposing a political plan tailored to its annexationist intentions.
3. Has carried out a military invasion of our sovereign territory, beginning last August 2025, including the vile missile attack on January 3, 2026, which resulted in deaths and injuries, and continuing with several incursions and attacks in the following months. This invasion is currently manifested in the landing of heavily armed soldiers and equipment in La Guaira since late June, with the grave risk that this presence poses to the physical and moral integrity of the population, especially women and children.
4. It forces the implementation of a neoliberal, extractivist model that excludes the vast majority of the population from the common good and will irreversibly damage our ecosystem.
5. It draws Venezuela into its geopolitical war in West Asia, with dangerous consequences for our security as a nation.

Consequently, as a people, we must be aware of the gravity of the occupation and its consequences, and trust in our capabilities as a nation to advance a unified agenda that will allow us to:

1. Regain the right to political, institutional, and legislative self-determination. We, the Venezuelan people, are the ones who must democratically decide who governs us and what laws and institutions we need and want, within the framework of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
2. Regain economic sovereignty: freely trade our resources and products. The Venezuelan State must manage, under strict fiscal controls, the revenues from these resources for the common good and, as a matter of urgency, to overcome the economic and social consequences of the emergency caused by the earthquakes and a decade of economic chaos and brutal, unjust, and illegal sanctions.
3. Demand the withdrawal of military troops and security agents from the United States and the State of Israel, and the cessation of any type of foreign military operation within Venezuelan territory. The security of the nation is the responsibility of the Venezuelan State.
4. Build a model and a plan for political, economic, and social development based on inclusion and social equality, agreed upon by all political currents.
5. Exercise our right to maintain peaceful and cooperative relations with all nations of the world that share the principles of humanity and international coexistence.

Fellow compatriots, there is an effort underway to convince us that we are incapable of governing our own nation, that the only way to achieve development and welfare is under the tutelage of or annexation by the United States government. This is utterly false. The Venezuelan people must understand that the United States neither promotes development nor generates well-being for the vast majority in the countries it occupies. This runs counter to its own doctrine.

This colonial administration will only establish oil and mining enclaves, with no economic benefits for the nation, no limits on the violation of the Venezuelan people’s rights, and with appalling environmental destruction. The consequence will be the deepening and generalization of structural poverty, as evidenced in all the countries occupied over the past decades.

It is necessary and timely to warn that La Guaira is set to undergo a process of gentrification and displacement of the local population, so that the Trump family, their associates, and business partners can secure the best plots of land to develop a real estate enclave linked to port, airport, and tourism services. This may likewise happen in some other coastal towns as well.

Current circumstances demand that we do everything in our power to reach a national accord aimed at restoring our Republic, and to prove to ourselves that we can indeed build a democratic society here on Venezuelan soil, where we can all live with equality, justice, and dignity. The Trump clan’s occupation will only structurally expand and entrench underdevelopment and poverty. Only by regaining our national self-determination can we attempt, once again and as many times as necessary, to build a homeland that shelters the entire Venezuelan family. In other words, a true Republic. So it shall be. Let’s fight!

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

Translated by Venezuelanalysis.

Source: Horizonte en Disputa

Caracas, July 23, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores returned to court on Wednesday for a brief hearing in which Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein approved a schedule for proceedings that will see their trial begin on June 1, 2027.

The calendar was jointly proposed by US Justice Department prosecutors and the respective defense teams.

Under the agreed timetable, prosecutors are expected to complete the bulk of their disclosure of unclassified evidence by September 22, while classified evidence is scheduled to be turned over by November 15. A preliminary hearing to determine the admissibility of the evidence has been set for November 17.

Following this phase, and no later than March 11, 2027, Maduro’s legal team will formally file pretrial motions. Barry Pollack, one of Maduro’s attorneys, has disclosed plans to invoke immunity and seek a dismissal of charges against the Venezuelan leader. The approved procedural calendar also includes a second round of pretrial motions, which would address additional evidence.

The hearing marked the third court appearance since Maduro and Flores were kidnapped by US military forces in Caracas on January 3 and transferred to a federal detention center in Brooklyn.

During their arraignment on January 5, both pleaded not guilty to all charges, including narcoterrorism, drug trafficking conspiracy and weapons possession. At the time, Maduro stated in Spanish that he was Venezuela’s “constitutional president” and considered himself “a prisoner of war.”

The case was initially mired in controversy as Washington blocked Maduro and Flores from having their legal expenses covered by the Venezuelan government headed by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez. In April, the US Treasury Department granted a waiver to allow Caracas to pay the legal fees of the attorneys representing Maduro and Flores.

The latest hearing had originally been scheduled for June 30, but prosecutors requested a postponement, citing security concerns related to transporting the defendants and coordinating police operations in New York, as law enforcement resources had been heavily committed to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Wednesday’s hearing saw dozens of international solidarity activists gather outside the federal courthouse in New York to express solidarity with the Venezuelan president and first lady and demand their immediate release.

In Caracas, hundreds of supporters of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), along with members of grassroots and communal organizations, gathered at Plaza Caracas for a rally led by Caracas Mayor Carmen Meléndez and Maduro’s son, National Assembly Deputy Nicolás Maduro Guerra.

“In the face of this unjust trial, the people have raised their voices (…) Today has been an emotional day—200 days without hugging my father, without seeing Cilia in person (…). This kidnapping has been extremely difficult for my family,” Maduro Guerra said.

He added that “despite Venezuela having been subjected to a military aggression, the country’s political leadership made the courageous, wise, and intelligent decision to resolve any conflict and any differences through politics and diplomacy.”

The Venezuelan government, including Acting President Rodríguez, have offered no comment in recent weeks concerning the US prosecution of Maduro and Flores.

In a June interview with Spanish journalist Javier Negre, Rodríguez said that Maduro remains Venezuela’s legitimate president but stopped short of demanding his liberation, instead claiming that he has the right to “demonstrate the truth” before the US justice system.

Washington and Caracas restored diplomatic and consular relations on March 5, ending a seven-year hiatus. Shortly afterward, the White House formally recognized Rodríguez as Venezuela’s “sole leader.” 

The Trump administration recently stepped in and requested that a Florida court grant Rodríguez immunity from a civil action brought by three US citizens who spent time in prison in Venezuela. Judge Darrin Gayles entered a default ruling against Maduro and several other high-ranking current and former Venezuelan officials who did not respond to a lawsuit. He also awarded US $314 million in damages to the plaintiffs over alleged “torture” claims.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

Mérida, July 21, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Trump administration has vowed to play an active role in upcoming negotiations between the Venezuelan government and a US-backed opposition faction.

The government-aligned National Assembly and a group of opposition lawmakers from the 2015–2020 legislature recently announced a joint working agenda scheduled to begin August 1, with explicit support from the US State Department.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed the initiative during a press briefing on July 19, calling it “a very powerful offer.” 

“We’ll see where it goes, but we think that that agreement was broadly met in Venezuela as very good news, and obviously something we’re going to be very engaged in,” he told reporters.

Rubio emphasized that the upcoming talks are “a forum to begin the transition process, which is what the people of Venezuela need”. In the same way, the State Department, via a July 16 official statement, had pledged to back efforts “toward a peaceful and democratic electoral transition.”

Since the January 3 US military strikes and kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Rubio and other Trump officials have insisted on a “three-phase plan” that ends with a political transition.

The latest dialogue initiative emerged following a June 18 meeting between National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez and Dinorah Figuera, who leads an opposition-majority legislature whose term ran from 2015-2020.

The defunct parliament retained US recognition as the Caribbean nation’s legitimate authority after the conclusion of its term in 2021, and has retained control over Venezuelan state assets frozen abroad.

According to statements from both sides, the working agenda prioritizes strengthening democratic institutions, reforming the electoral system, and restoring guarantees for political participation.

Figuera welcomed Rubio’s latest comments and argued that “active participation” from the Trump administration will be “essential to generate concrete progress.”

“We will invite all democratic sectors to participate and bring proposals toward a peaceful and democratic electoral transition,” she wrote on X. For their part, government officials, including Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, have not offered further comment on the talks since last week’s announcement.

In recent days, Figuera addressed criticism of her role in the negotiations, rejecting accusations that she was acting outside the opposition’s institutional framework.

The former lawmaker has faced scrutiny from other opposition sectors, particularly following her June 18 return to Caracas with US backing. Her meetings with Rodríguez and subsequent travel to Washington occurred weeks after far-right leader María Corina Machado had announced at a Panama gathering her intention to head negotiations with the government over future electoral processes.

On July 16, Machado met with high-ranking opposition figures from the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) coalition to assess the new dialogue initiative. The meeting was reported as a venue to “gather information” regarding the announced negotiations and “define a public position.” However, neither Machado nor the PUD have taken a stance on the upcoming talks.

Rubio’s influence over Venezuela was highlighted in a recent New York Times article that detailed the Trump administration’s involvement in the country’s day-to-day affairs. The report highlighted that US officials have sought to engage with institutional actors they consider manageable, including the 2015 National Assembly faction, as part of a strategy to reduce volatility in bilateral relations.

However, according to the Times, the approach has generated tensions within the opposition camp given the recent protagonism assumed by far-right Machado.

Caracas and Washington fast-tracked a diplomatic rapprochement following the January 3 attacks, with embassies reopening in both capitals. The Trump administration has seized control of Venezuelan oil export revenues and exerted influence over recent pro-business energy and mining reforms.

The US has also undertaken a significant military deployment in the country following the June 24 double earthquake, with US forces running logistical operations out of the Simón Bolívar International Airport and La Guaira port.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

Caracas, July 20, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – A US federal judge has issued a default ruling against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and several current and former state officials. US $314 million in damages was awarded to three US citizens who spent time imprisoned in Venezuela.

Venezuelan authorities have yet to comment on the case. Legal proceedings against Acting President Delcy Rodríguez continue. However, on Monday, the Trump administration sent a letter to the court arguing that, as a sitting head of state recognized by Washington, Rodríguez should be “entitled to immunity.”

Judge Darrin P. Gayles from the District Court for the Southern District of Florida published the verdict on July 14. US nationals Jerrel Kenemore, Jason Saad, and Edgar José Marval brought a civil lawsuit in August 2025 under Florida’s Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) and the federal RICO statute against organized crime. 

The three US citizens were released from Venezuela in December 2023 as part of a prisoner swap agreement with the Biden administration that saw former Venezuelan government envoy Alex Saab returned to the South American country.

The plaintiffs sought damages after claiming to have suffered “physical and psychological torture” while imprisoned in Venezuela and to have been used as part of “hostage diplomacy” to secure Saab’s release. The judge claimed that Maduro and other officials were a “criminal enterprise” that acted against US interests.

“The Maduro Criminal Enterprise committed myriad predicate offenses through its drug trafficking and kidnapping actions in and against the United States and its citizens,” he wrote in the verdict. The court estimated compensation for “kidnapping and torture” and “solatium, pain and suffering” under ATA that totaled $312.5 million and added $1.5 million in RICO damages.

Gayles entered the default ruling against Maduro after he failed to enter a defense or plea before the court. The court clerk entered similar defaults against Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, former Defense and current Agriculture Minister Vladimir Padrino López, former Interior Minister Néstor Reverol, former Attorney General Tarek William Saab, former Supreme Court President Maikel Moreno, and former Industry Minister Alex Saab.

Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores were kidnapped by US forces on January 3 and are facing charges including “narcoterrorism” and drug trafficking conspiracy. Both have pleaded not guilty, with the next hearing scheduled for July 22.

The Florida judge also included the so-called Cartel de los Soles, an alleged drug trafficking outfit run by high-ranking Venezuelan officials, as a defaulting defendant. Crime researchers have cast doubt on the existence of the cartel, while the US Justice Department dropped all references to it in the formal indictment against Maduro and Flores.

Similarly, Gayles claimed that “for at least twenty years, Maduro intentionally inundated the United States with tons of cocaine.” However, US officials have never presented evidence tying Maduro to narcotics activities, while reports from the DEA have consistently found that a very small percentage of US-bound drugs flow through Venezuela.

The US Justice Department has since 2020 introduced $25 million and $15 million bounties, respectively, for the arrest of Cabello and Padrino in connection with alleged “narcoterrorism.”

According to the Associated Press, Saab’s legal representatives declined to comment on the case. The acting Rodríguez government turned over the Colombian-born businessman, who served as industry minister after his 2023 release, to US authorities in May. He is being held at the Federal Detention Center in Miami while facing trial on renewed money laundering charges.

In contrast to Maduro, Cabello, and others, Acting President Rodríguez responded to the lawsuit in April, with lawyers contending that, as Venezuelan head of state, she should be immune from civil action. Rodríguez received the backing of the Trump administration via a July 20 letter “suggesting” to the court that the acting president should enjoy immunity,

“The United States respectfully submits to the Court that President Delcy Rodríguez is immune in this action and all claims against her should be dismissed without prejudice,” the letter concluded. The US State Department also intervened in June, requesting that the Justice Department communicate Rodríguez’s immunity to the Florida district court in order to secure a “prompt dismissal of the proceedings.”

Rodríguez’s brother, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, filed a similar motion to set aside the lawsuit via a different legal team. The plaintiffs opposed the moves in another motion at the end of April.

The civil lawsuit likewise targeted state-owned companies Petróleos de Venezuela, SA (PDVSA) and Corporación Venezolana de Petróleo (CVP). The two firms have claimed immunity from civil litigation under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

The plaintiffs have not disclosed any strategy to collect the awarded damages. None of the defaulting defendants has any publicly known assets under US jurisdiction.

Edited by Lucas Koerner in Caracas.

[Updated on July 21 to include the Trump administration and State Department letters to the court endorsing immunity for Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez.]

Caracas, July 17, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – A group of US Congress members addressed a letter to President Donald Trump advocating an immediate removal of sanctions against Venezuela in the wake of its recent double earthquake.

“These economic restrictions are severely hampering urgent relief efforts, and will continue to threaten Venezuela’s recovery and long-term reconstruction if allowed to remain in place,” the text read.

The missive was signed by 14 representatives from the Democratic Party, including Jesús García, Ilhan Omar, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They cited the United Nations estimates of earthquake damage as high as US $37 billion, roughly a third of Venezuela’s current GDP.

“The existing sanctions regime on Venezuela has far-reaching indiscriminate effects,” the legislators continued. “The removal of sanctions will allow state institutions to more effectively coordinate and deliver emergency healthcare, shelter and food.”

The letter was backed by a number of NGOs, including Just Foreign Policy, Demand Progress, and Peace Action.

Venezuela was rocked by near-simultaneous 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes on June 24 that caused widespread destruction in north-central regions. The coastal state of La Guaira was the worst hit, with hundreds of collapsed buildings. The latest official death count stands at nearly 5000.

Since 2017, Washington has levied wide-reaching sanctions against Venezuela, targeting key sectors such as banking, mining, trade, and especially the oil industry. Coercive measures against Venezuela’s all-important energy sector have caused revenue losses estimated at more than US $20 billion per year. The sanctions regime imposed during Trump’s first administration was largely kept in place by the Joe Biden White House.

Venezuela’s GDP contracted by three-quarters between 2014 and 2020, with 88 percent of the contraction taking place under the US economic blockade. In recent days, hundreds of scholars have also demanded the lifting of coercive measures against Venezuela.

Despite pledges of assistance following the devastating tremors, the Trump White House has not entertained any sanctions relief, issuing only a four-month license allowing earthquake relief-related transactions.

However, the US representatives called the measure “entirely insufficient” due to their limited scope and overcompliance from financial institutions.

They urged the Trump administration to “do everything to facilitate Venezuela’s access to its frozen assets abroad.” Venezuelan leaders have called on Washington and its allies to lift sanctions and unfreeze assets for reconstruction efforts. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez penned a letter to UK King Charles III requesting the release of around US $4.5 billion in Venezuelan gold held by the Bank of England.

The US and European allies are estimated to hold over $10 billion in other assets, including frozen bank accounts and roughly $5 billion in IMF-issued Special Drawing Rights (SDR). In contrast, US offers of post-earthquake humanitarian aid have only totaled $386 million.

Since the January 3 military strikes and kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration has seized control of Venezuelan export revenues, particularly from oil sales. Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed the acting Rodríguez administration must submit a “budget request” before accessing its own funds. 

Trump has repeatedly stated that the US has recouped the costs of the January 3 operation “many times over” from its undisclosed cut taken from Venezuelan oil proceeds. Economist Francisco Rodríguez has found a significant delay in Washington’s disbursement of Venezuelan funds.

The Trump administration also took advantage of the June 24 natural disaster to significantly expand its military footprint in the Caribbean nation. The Southern Command confirmed the presence of more than 900 servicemen on Venezuelan territory by the end of June.

US forces have taken over air traffic coordination, communications, and security operations at the Simón Bolívar International Airport, while two US warships have established a “command-and-control node” at La Guaira port.

Edited by Lucas Koerner in Caracas.

A devastating double earthquake hit Venezuela on June 24, leaving a trail of destruction and thousands dead. Dozens of buildings collapsed in coastal La Guaira State, the worst affected in the South American country.

The natural disaster followed two unnatural catastrophes: a decade-plus of US-led economic sanctions, and the January 3 US bombing attack and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro.

But rather than sympathize with the beleaguered country, the Western media establishment seized the opportunity to continue demonizing the Bolivarian Revolution—while whitewashing Washington’s economic terrorism and its present efforts to tighten its semi-colonial stranglehold on the country (FAIR.org, 2/27/26).

An assault on public housing

The ground had barely stopped shaking when corporate media oligopolies took aim at one of the most visible pillars of Hugo Chávez’s legacy: Venezuela’s Great Housing Mission (GMVV).

A Washington Post headline (6/27/26) declared: “These Homes Rose out of Venezuela’s Socialist Revolution. Now They’re Rubble.”

An architect was quoted claiming that the damaged apartments had been “constructed hastily” to “meet a political deadline.” Though the Post claimed Chávez launched the housing program to secure votes for the 2012 election, the only beneficiary the paper could find received her home in 2014.

AFP (6/29/26) singled out damage to a GMVV complex—“once touted as part of former strongman leader Hugo Chavez’s flagship housing program”—arguing that it “symbolize[d] the country’s dire situation.” Dozens of buildings geared toward tourism, including hotels and high-rises built for short-term rentals, in this neighborhood of Catia La Mar, were also flattened by the devastating tremors, but AFP made no effort to provide that context.

The New York Times (7/5/26) likewise attempted to besmirch what is one of the most ambitious public housing projects worldwide by repeating the unfounded claim that homes were assigned as a “reward for loyalty to Mr. Chávez.” However, the paper of record at least admitted that “Misión Vivienda buildings are far from the only apartments to have fallen.”

The Wall Street Journal (6/28/26) could not hide its elitism in describing how Chávez “rushed to provide apartments to the poor” in a town “beloved by the rich,” with a golf course and a “marina for yachts.” It went further by promoting a social media hoax that styrofoam found in damaged buildings meant that the housing mission used absurdly unsuitable materials in its construction. In reality, expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam is widely used to lighten the load on structures and for thermal insulation, a key factor in such a hot climate.

Venezuelan officials have called for a review of the collapsed structures and building codes, though they have claimed that the public housing buildings fared better than their privately constructed neighbors.

There is little evidence to suggest that GMVV buildings suffered a worse fate than their private sector counterparts. According to the open-source tool Terremoto Venezuela, only 11 out of 258 buildings reported as collapsed (“daño total”) belong to the housing mission.

The definitive figures will need to be put in perspective to see whether affected buildings and non-complicity with existing codes were prevalent in the GMVV developments or the recent tourist-driven real estate boom in La Guaira. But the media establishment immediately jumped to its politically motivated verdict before any thorough investigation had been conducted.

Whitewashing sanctions

While multiple outlets stressed that it is necessary to scrutinize whether authorities enforced the appropriate regulations in what is known to be vulnerable terrain (France 24, 6/29/26; Reuters, 6/29/26), no evaluation of the Venezuelan state’s record is accurate if it ignores the wide-reaching sanctions regime imposed by Washington.

Yet many Western journalists completely overlooked sanctions in their coverage of the earthquakes and the Venezuelan state’s capacity to respond to a natural catastrophe.

Corporate outlets like the Financial Times (6/28/26) wasted no time in proclaiming that the “legacy of ‘Chavismo’ hinder[ed] Venezuela’s earthquake response,” while AP (7/3/26) decreed that the government’s response was “slow” and the BBC (6/29/26) claimed survivors were “left to fend for themselves.”

None saw fit to even mention that Venezuela has been under economic coercive measures for years. NBC (6/25/26) avoided the kneejerk verdicts and offered lots of testimony on the natural disaster, but when concluding that “Venezuela already faced economic challenges and poverty,” chose not to name sanctions as a key economic challenge and poverty factor.

In other reports, the whitewashing of sanctions was more subtle. The Guardian (7/3/26) attributed the government’s “sluggish response” to “years of corruption, economic mismanagement and investment in political repression and domestic security rather than emergency services and healthcare.” As almost an afterthought, it added that sanctions “have further enfeebled the Venezuelan state.” The Washington Post‘s anti-public housing article (6/27/26) called Venezuela’s economic collapse “the result of mismanagement by the socialist government exacerbated by US-imposed economic sanctions.”

The New York Times (7/4/26) wrote that “Venezuela’s fragile infrastructure—including rail, electricity and healthcare systems that have suffered from years of corruption and mismanagement.” In a later section it added, “Venezuela is reeling from years of economic turmoil and crippling US sanctions.”

Over the years, Western media have pulled all the stops to legitimize Washington’s hybrid war on Caracas and conceal the murderous impact of sanctions (FAIR.org, 6/4/21, 6/13/22). There is no shortage of documentation on how these coercive measures represented collective punishment (CEPR, 4/25/19). In an extensive 2021 report, UN rapporteur Alena Douhan thoroughly discussed the impact of sanctions on Venezuelan public services and infrastructure.

The current framing  of earthquake coverage aims to separate US sanctions as much as possible from their direct consequences. Rail, electricity and healthcare systems became much more “fragile” because sanctions blocked the Venezuelan government from servicing equipment and importing spare parts, not to mention brain drain resulting from mass migration of qualified personnel largely trained in public universities. Similarly, the “economic turmoil” is a result of US sanctions, not a parallel phenomenon.

Indeed, economist Francisco Rodríguez, senior research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, dismisses arguments that the bulk of Venezuela’s economic decline preceded sanctions (CEPR, 5/19/26). Instead, the rate of GDP contraction nearly quadrupled following the US imposition of unilateral coercive measures in 2017.

And the need to conjure elaborate intermediation schemes in order to circumvent sanctions opened more avenues for corruption. To present the latter as an issue that uniquely and disproportionately plagues a government facing an economic blockade is disingenuous, to say the least.

Ignoring the semi-colonial straitjacket

In their recent coverage, most corporate media sources were quick to decree that the Venezuelan government’s response was “slow” (Financial Times, 6/27/26; Guardian, 6/29/26), “inadequate” (Reuters, 7/5/26), “faltering” (AP, 7/1/26) or “completely ineffective” (PBS, 7/2/26).

It is understandable that ordinary people would not sing the government’s praises after losing a relative or while looking for one trapped under rubble. But journalists have a responsibility to add context. In this case, a significant mitigating circumstance is that the tremors heavily hit the local authorities, which run civil protection and other services.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez stated that nearly all the directors from the La Guaira regional government were lost in the tragedy. Coupled with a collapse of communications, this added more hurdles for response efforts.

Another overlooked element is just how rare and deadly this double earthquake was. The New York Times was a notable exception, with a thorough piece (7/3/26) explaining how the disaster unfolded and why it caused so much destruction.

But the most relevant element to understand Venezuela’s present constraints is, once again, the role played by the US government. Just like with sanctions, corporate news outlets whitewashed Washington’s current semi-colonial impositions on the South American nation.

Since the January 3 attacks, the Trump administration has seized control of Venezuelan export revenues, particularly from oil sales (Venezuelanalysis, 2/20/26). Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the Venezuelan government would need to submit a “budget request” to access its own funds held by the US Treasury (Venezuelanalysis, 1/29/26). Neither US nor Venezuelan authorities have offered any transparent information on the amounts collected and disbursed, including Washington’s intermediation fees.

Trump is not known for precision in his statements, but he has not been shy in boasting that the cost of the January 3 military operation has been paid “many times over” from oil profits (New York Times, 6/29/26; Guardian, 6/28/26; Al Jazeera, 6/24/26). While there is no information to verify the claims, economist Francisco Rodríguez, analyzing Venezuelan Central Bank data, concluded that there is at least a significant delay in the US disbursement of Venezuelan funds back to the country (Banca y Negocios, 6/22/26). The suspicious lack of transparency has even drawn questions from traditional foreign policy paladins like the Council on Foreign Relations.

With few exceptions (Reuters, 7/1/26; AP, 7/3/26; New York Times, 7/6/26), this key, semi-colonial constraint on the Venezuelan state is completely overlooked. Even worse, some outlets mistakenly stated that the White House has “lifted” or  authorized “relaxation” of sanctions (PBS, 7/2/26; Financial Times, 6/27/26). Actually it has only issued licenses for select Western corporations, and with the condition that proceeds be deposited in the US Treasury account. Following the recent natural disaster, the Trump administration issued a four-month waiver allowing earthquake relief-related transactions, but left all restrictions and asset freezes in place (Venezuelanalysis, 6/26/26).

Another ominous development has been the US forces’ takeover of operations at the Simón Bolívar International Airport, the country’s main air hub, and the La Guaira port. Despite regular Southern Command press releases, and even photographic evidence, the media establishment has paid little attention to this serious (further) encroachment on Venezuelan sovereignty.

The outlook is bleak for Venezuela, with this tragedy likely to increase dependency and semi-colonial plundering. But there is room for hope. The limits of US power are being exposed all over the world, and resorting to more and more violence will not stem this inevitable decline. Peoples in the Global South, including in Venezuela, will eventually (re)take control of their destinies. But they know that the corporate press barons are no allies in this struggle.

Source: FAIR

Caracas, July 15, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) –  The Venezuelan National Assembly (AN) and a group of former opposition lawmakers who served in the 2015–2020 legislature, led by Dinorah Figuera, announced the launch of a joint working agenda on August 1 aimed at “strengthening democracy” in the country.

National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, who is also the Venezuelan government’s lead negotiator, made the announcement on Tuesday via an official statement, reporting that both sides had agreed to “jointly confront the consequences of the twin earthquakes that have plunged the country into mourning.”

“Only in unity can we move forward with the reconstruction while keeping the peace,” the text read.

For its part, the opposition group said in a separate statement that the initiative constitutes a “roadmap to promote stability, democracy, and national recovery,” with the goal of beginning “the construction of a new stage that will lead to a Venezuela of progress and freedoms.” According to the document, the agenda will prioritize “strengthening democratic institutions, reinforcing the electoral system, and restoring guarantees for political participation.”

Figuera told media that the talks will involve 10-team delegations from both sides and claimed that the opposition faction will be involved in choosing new electoral authorities and Supreme Court justices, as well as in reforms to existing electoral laws.

She confirmed that the opposition has already selected several participants, including lawyers Juan Miguel Matheus and Sergio Vergara, businessman Jorge Millán, and former National Assembly Vice President Marco Aurelio Quiñones. No members of the Venezuelan government delegation are presently known.

Figuera took over the opposition-majority 2015–2020 National Assembly in 2023, despite its period having ended two years earlier. The legislature repeatedly renewed its own mandate as it maintained “recognition” from Washington as Venezuela’s legitimate authority. The anti-government group likewise retained control over several Venezuelan state assets frozen by the US and allies.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reposted the 2015–2020 National Assembly’s roadmap through his X account. US authorities had endorsed the talks when they were first announced in June. Since the January 3 US military strikes and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro, Rubio has insisted on a “three-phase plan” that ends with a political “transition.”

The announcement of impending talks contrasted with Rodríguez stating on Saturday that the country “was not in the right frame of mind” to discuss issues related to the National Electoral Council (CNE), the Supreme Court (TSJ), or elections.

“We are concerned about people who have suffered the unimaginable. It would be disrespectful and insensitive for politicians to meet now to decide who should be appointed to the CNE or the TSJ. There will be time for that,” Rodríguez said.

Instead, he urged opposition leaders to work together on responding to the earthquake emergency, including reforms to the country’s housing laws and identifying land for the new constructions.

Just six days before the devastating earthquakes of June 24, Figuera traveled to Caracas with Washington’s backing to head negotiations with the Venezuelan government. During that June 18 visit, she met with Jorge Rodríguez and opposition leaders before traveling to the United States for additional discussions.

Her return took many opposition figures by surprise, as only weeks earlier María Corina Machado, speaking at a meeting of opposition politicians in Panama, had announced her intention to personally lead negotiations with the government over a future electoral process. The far-right leader announced a closed-door meeting with political allies on Wednesday to discuss the upcoming negotiations between the acting Delcy Rodríguez government and a separate opposition faction.

Amid these political developments, Acting President Rodríguez also appointed Johann Álvarez on July 14 as Venezuela’s new Chargé d’Affaires to the United States, tasking him with “representing the country’s interests and advancing a new stage of dialogue, cooperation, and mutual respect.”

Álvarez most recently served as Venezuela’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Superintendent of the country’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs). He replaces Félix Plasencia, who was chosen by Rodríguez to head the Foreign Ministry after merging it with the Foreign Trade Ministry.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

On June 24, the collision of the South American tectonic plate with the Caribbean one caused a major release of energy from the depths of the Earth, leaving a trail of destruction in Venezuela. The 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes that rocked the country caused thousands of deaths and the collapse of hundreds of structures.

While we try to process the trauma and return to something that resembles “normalcy,” Venezuela, already battered by years of sanctions and the recent US military attack, now faces the challenge of rebuilding itself in the broadest sense of the word and in an ever more complicated context. With that in mind, we have to start by asking: who is in charge of the country and its future?

Using the natural disaster as the perfect excuse, US forces have taken over operations at La Guaira port and the Simón Bolívar International Airport. US servicemen have set up shop in the air traffic control tower, surveillance drones fly over Caracas, and US helicopters patrol the disaster areas on their own.

This dangerous trend did not start on June 24. In recent months, in unapologetic fashion, the US has been setting the Venezuelan political agenda, notwithstanding the subtle or absurd efforts to conceal it.

For instance, at the end of May, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Acting President Delcy Rodríguez would visit India to negotiate oil deals. Rubio openly offered Venezuelan crude to India as part of its campaign against Russian exports. The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry pretended not to have heard anything and confirmed the trip two weeks later.

Back in February, the Venezuelan government denied rumors that businessman and recent minister Alex Saab had been detained, only to surrender him to US agencies months later. And despite having all that time to come up with a proper explanation, the official line was that authorities supposedly “found out” that Saab is Colombian and had a fake Venezuelan ID. In Venezuela, sometimes the chutzpah reaches such extremes that people prefer to just move on. Many officials promised we would soon know more details about the Saab case, including his collaboration with US agencies, but we’re still waiting.

Later, in June, the government’s quick-response “Miraflores al Momento” social media account put a “fake news” label on a news story about the alleged presence of US military forces in southeast Bolívar state. Then, days later, Trump himself broke the news that the Southern Command in coordination with the CIA had killed alleged Tren de Aragua leader Héctor “Niño” Guerrero in Bolívar state. The extrajudicial killing spree that began last year in the Caribbean, always sadistically bragged about by Trump and his goons, had reached Venezuelan soil.

In response, the Venezuelan government had no alternative but to put out its own statement, reporting a “joint operation” and praising its success. After years of preaching about the danger represented by the CIA, it is now welcome to operate freely in Venezuela as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.

Niño Guerrero was not executed for our safety, but rather to clear the way for Western mining corporations. No one has said this explicitly but it’s not hard to connect the dots. What’s next? Private security contractors like in Iraq? What’s certain is that we won’t be the ones enjoying those gold profits. It’s substituting one mafia for another, except this one is white-collared.

Another example of a political agenda decided far away from Caracas is a new “dialogue” process with an opposition faction headed by Dinorah Figuera, president of a way-beyond-expired opposition-majority National Assembly, elected in 2015. Through an avalanche of communiqués, we were told that this process will set up “an agenda with concrete milestones and schedules” to “strengthen democracy.”

Figuera means nothing to 99 percent of Venezuelans and she confessed she came to meet National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez on the instructions of the US State Department. She is the perfect example of the rottenness spawning from Washington, heading a “parliament” years after its term ended because the US still recognized it as Venezuela’s “sole legitimate authority” and there were still hundreds of millions of dollars in Venezuelan assets abroad to manage, or pilfer… She didn’t clarify much about the upcoming negotiations, beyond platitudes about “coexistence” and “democracy”.

Once more it was up to Washington to offer details. In its own statement, the State Department announced the talks aimed to rebuild “democratic institutions,” appoint a new electoral council, establish “guarantees” for political participation and the “protection” of civil liberties for open political debate.

Of course, no tale of US influence over Venezuelan politics could be complete without María Corina Machado. The far-right leader is getting antsy while on the sidelines, with no moves to play except trying to get Trump’s attention. For example, after the killing of Niño Guerrero, she wrote that “all these achievements were unthinkable six months ago. Therefore, we recognize and thank President Trump.”

Having been left out of the recent dialogue initiative, notwithstanding the repeated coronation ceremonies from her acolytes, Machado saw a golden opportunity to recoup political capital with the natural disaster in Venezuela. She has a comms apparatus standing at the ready for photo ops and video testimony, showing how she is somewhere and the government is not. But the Trump administration showed little appetite for this kind of circus, and despite Machado being airborne to Curaçao en route to Venezuela, ordered her to turn around.

The explanation is simple: the White House is not done in terms of tying down with shamefully anti-sovereign energy deals and burying us in debt until the second coming of Christ. As such, it is not the time for turmoil.

And though certain Machado aides announced that she would defy Trump, the truth is that she has stood pat, at least for now, while waiting for Washington winds to change.

At the end of the day, Rodríguez, Figuera, Machado, and many others are fighting for their place in the spotlight. But the Trump administration is the one writing the script, and even more so after the earthquakes. Though the tale may seem farcical at times, it is ultimately a tragedy for the Venezuelan people.

Jessica Dos Santos is a Venezuelan university professor, journalist and writer whose work has appeared in outlets such as RT, Épale CCS magazine and Investig’Action. She is the author of the book “Caracas en Alpargatas” (2018). She’s won the Aníbal Nazoa Journalism Prize in 2014 and received honorable mentions in the Simón Bolívar National Journalism prize in 2016 and 2018.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

Caracas, July 9, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) –  Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez has called on UK King Charles III to release her country’s gold reserves held at the Bank of England in order to finance relief and reconstruction efforts following the devastating earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24.

“I have decided to send a letter, among others, to the King of England asking for the release of the gold being held at the Bank of England. That gold belongs to our people and should be used to address the terrible, tragic consequences of the twin earthquakes,” Rodríguez said in a televised broadcast on Wednesday.

The acting president also revealed that she held a phone conversation with International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva to discuss the release of Venezuelan resources that remain blocked by the institution.

Earlier on Wednesday, during a virtual meeting with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil likewise urged countries holding Venezuelan assets abroad to “begin a process of releasing” those funds so they can be used for the country’s recovery.

Gil specifically referred to the gold reserves held by the Bank of England and Venezuelan funds blocked under US sanctions. Around 31 metric tons of gold, currently valued at approximately US $4.2 billion, remain frozen in London. In addition, nearly $5 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) allocated by the IMF in 2021 also remain inaccessible.

On Wednesday, Rodríguez and Georgieva reportedly discussed the use of Venezuela’s $350 million SDR reserve fund, which is different from the SDR allocation.

On June 25, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued General License 60, authorizing earthquake relief-related transactions until October. However, OFAC’s waiver does not authorize the unblocking of assets subject to US sanctions regulations or “any other transaction or activity prohibited by another Executive Order.”

Meanwhile, 113 prominent economists, including Isabella Weber, Jeffrey Sachs, and James K. Galbraith, signed an open letter calling for immediate action to “unfetter Venezuela’s humanitarian response and reconstruction from ongoing economic and financial sanctions, asset freezes, and onerous debt burdens.”

“We urge governments, international financial institutions, and creditors to act now, on the principle that lives, public health, and economic recovery take precedence over coercion and collection,” the statement read. The economists suggested mechanisms including emergency liquidity, sanctions relief, and debt cancellation as a “minimum response […] to allow Venezuelans to rebuild with dignity.”

Along similar lines, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher warned that the earthquakes are likely to generate “a very difficult economic situation” that could reduce Venezuela’s GDP by “several percentage points,” arguing that sanctions “must be eased so they do not hinder the arrival of humanitarian assistance or recovery efforts.”

Fletcher added that during emergencies, access to financial resources, banking channels, and international cooperation mechanisms can determine how quickly aid, supplies, and reconstruction funding reach affected communities.

Preliminary assessments by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimate infrastructure and essential services losses at approximately US$6.7 billion. However, the final figure could reach $8.7 billion, depending on housing and asset losses, and the estimates do not include the full extent of infrastructure damage or the long-term reconstruction costs.

For its part, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) estimates that rebuilding Venezuela will require approximately $37 billion. According to its assessment, $24 billion would be needed to replace damaged buildings—including homes, schools, businesses, and hospitals—while another $13 billion would be required to repair critical infrastructure such as telecommunications, highways, and electricity networks.

Different analyses have placed the recovery costs between $12 and $20 billion.

So far, however, the Trump administration has pledged $300 million in humanitarian assistance, whereas Venezuela’s US-based frozen assets are valued at $11-13 billion. The White House also retains control over Venezuela’s oil export revenues, returning a portion of the funds to Caracas at its discretion.

Rodríguez announced on Wednesday that countries offering humanitarian aid can monitor its distribution through a digital platform used to coordinate deliveries across the 87 temporary shelters established for displaced families throughout the country. The acting president has vowed to prioritize the well-being of families who lost their homes and to provide new housing solutions in the coming months.

The latest official update placed the death toll from the earthquakes at 3,889, while the number of injured remains at 16,740 and the number of displaced people stands at 17,907.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

Mérida, July 7, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan government has launched a reconstruction program to recover damaged housing and infrastructure in the wake of the June 24 double earthquake.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez oversaw the official launch of the Great Mission Venezuela Renace (“Venezuela reborn”) on Monday, with dozens of brigades simultaneously deployed to evaluate the condition of affected structures. Officials have estimated 190 flattened buildings and 856 with some level of damage.

“Venezuela is a seismic country and we have to ensure that, from a technical standpoint, families are protected from risk,” she said during a televised broadcast in Caracas. “This reconstruction is a task for the whole country, and it’s not just about infrastructure.”

Technical brigades will classify buildings using a traffic-light code, with green meaning they are safe to be occupied, yellow meaning that they require work before families can move back in, and red that they must be cleared for significant repairs or demolition.

On Sunday, the acting president appointed Jacqueline Faría to head the new government program. She will be “responsible for coordinating and leading housing and infrastructure recovery efforts to provide timely assistance to families affected by the earthquakes.”

During a meeting with governors from affected states, Faría detailed the mission’s first purpose as generating “a diagnosis for action.” The Venezuelan official underscored the need for an exhaustive structural census for reconstruction work.

Faría, who has held multiple cabinet posts since 1999, will be replaced by Francisco Garcés as minister of transport.

The new mission is going to unify the existing infrastructure-oriented social programs “Barrio Nuevo, Barrio Tricolor,” “Juntos Todo Es Posible,” and “Venezuela Bella” to execute repairs and allow families to reoccupy their homes as soon as possible. 

Rodríguez announced that an initial US $200 million fund, set up with resources frozen by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will be used for the reconstruction and recovery of the affected areas.

During a Saturday meeting with her economic team, the acting president reported talks with public and private banks “to activate the mortgage portfolio,” adding that loans would be subsidized up to 80 percent. Rodríguez went on to announce the exoneration of fees and taxes related to property transactions and a temporary ban on the export of construction materials.

The June 24 twin earthquakes, with 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude and their epicenter near Morón, Carabobo state, have left an official death toll of 3,685 and more than 16,000 injured. The search for bodies continues to be a priority task for Venezuelan teams and volunteers, especially in the coastal La Guaira State where most of the building collapses are concentrated.

Coordination of these search and rescue operations has been transferred to Venezuela’s Civil Protection agency. Unofficial counts estimate over 40,000 missing people.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has noted a growing displacement of affected families from La Guaira to other regions and has warned of the “many needs” of the population.

The wind-down of the search and rescue operations to find survivors has seen most of the foreign specialized teams leave the country in recent days. Venezuelan authorities have acknowledged the role played by international brigades and decorated them.

On July 4, acting President Delcy Rodríguez decorated US rescue teams with “Hero of Venezuela” and “Canine Heroes of Venezuela” medals. During the ceremony, the acting president thanked the American people for their help, expressing her wish that the rescuers “carry in their hearts part of the Venezuelan people.”

US emergency rescuers included the Los Angeles USAR International Team and Virginia’s Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 1.

In addition to its emergency brigades, Washington also deployed hundreds of military personnel to the Caribbean nation following the natural disaster. US forces have taken control of operations at the Simón Bolívar International Airport and La Guaira port after executing repair works. Helicopters and surveillance drones are likewise flying daily over the capital and surrounding areas.

Venezuela’s earthquake recovery efforts have also seen the controversial arrival of a diplomatic and military delegation from Israel led by Home Front Command Chief of Staff Brigadier General Elad Edri.

The Israeli mission has held multiple meetings with Venezuelan officials and, according to Edri, was asked by the Rodríguez government to evaluate infrastructure conditions and formulate a reconstruction plan.

In a press conference, the acting president expressed her appreciation for the arrival of the “highly trained and professional” Israeli team.

Caracas and Tel Aviv have not held diplomatic relations since former President Chávez severed ties in 2009. Both Chávez and his successor Nicolás Maduro recurrently condemned Israel for genocide and excoriated its war crimes in Gaza and Lebanon.

The Maduro administration publicly endorsed South Africa’s activation of the Genocide Convention against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2024.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

The U.S. has attacked Venezuela through various means for decades and kidnapped President Maduro but is now claiming to assist with earthquake relief. If it’s role in Haiti is any guide, that so-called aid from the U.S. is a Trojan Horse bringing more plunder and control.

For decades, the U.S. has waged a carefully planned and unrelenting attack on Venezuela’s economy using unilateral coercive measures, commonly known as economic sanctions, to destabilize and destroy the country’s socialist Bolivarian government. Though the earthquakes that devastated the nation were not caused by the U.S., the destabilization of the Venezuelan government, economy, and infrastructure was. The damage from those sanctions was so pervasive that any natural disaster large enough would be catastrophic, leading to foreign aid being used not only to produce enormous capitalist profits for foreign interests but also to bring the country more firmly under U.S. control. This is the situation Venezuela faces today.

George W. Bush imposed the first coercive measures against Venezuela in 2006. Democratically elected President Hugo Chávez had the nerve to criticize the U.S. for its bloodthirsty response to 9/11 and refused to support or participate in the U.S. sham counterterrorism efforts. Chávez did so in a very public and embarrassing way for Bush, as he declared from the lectern at the United Nations that George W. Bush was the devil, and that the podium that Bush had just delivered his own remarks from still smelled like sulfur. Bush responded by declaring Venezuela a state sponsor of terror along with Cuba and Iran (notice a pattern here). Bush also claimed that Venezuela refused to adhere to international counternarcotics agreements, breathing life into the claim that the Bolivarian government was a sponsor of narcoterrorism. But even before that, in 2004, Bush restricted non-humanitarian aid to the country, claiming they weren’t doing enough to stop human trafficking. Bush did all of this after the failed U.S.-backed coup against Chávez in 2002 that was tied to his administration. 

The aggression toward Venezuela did not end with the Bush presidency. In December 2014, Obama signed the Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act after U.S. intelligence agencies and the Department of State claimed that the Venezuelan government was committing human rights abuses against government opposition members. This was done in response to the Maduro government charging opposition members with engaging in conspiracies to overthrow him. Obama imposed sanctions on seven Venezuelan officials, and in  March 2015, he issued an Executive Order implementing these sanctions and expanded them to block their visas and freeze the U.S. property of the targets. Obama publicly declared Venezuela an “…extraordinary threat to the national security of the United States.” 

In response, President Maduro said in a nationally televised speech, “President Barack Obama, representing the U.S. imperialist elite, has personally decided to take on the task of defeating my government and intervening in Venezuela to control it.” One of the impacted Venezuelan officials, Diosdado Cabello, said, “What is being planned are attacks against our land, against our country, military attacks.” It took the U.S. a few years, but…

President Donald Trump imposed more, wider-reaching economic coercive measures in 2017 during his first term. In addition to recognizing unelected opposition figure Juan Guaido as president of Venezuela, Trump also sanctioned the state-run oil company PDVSA, denying the government access to U.S. financial markets. He froze PDVSA’s assets and finally imposed a near-complete economic embargo on the country. And in 2020, the Trump Justice Department indicted President Maduro on charging the president and 14 others with narcoterrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, and gun charges. It also accused him of coordinating with the leftist guerrilla peasant militia Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Founded as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party, which sought to redistribute land and resources that the Colombian government denied to the desperately poor peasants in rural areas. After years of fighting with the government, FARC was officially dissolved in the 2016 Peace Accord with the Colombian government. They are now a legal left-wing political party, initially called the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force and later renamed the Comunes (Commons). Trump then issued a $15 million bounty for information leading to Maduro’s arrest. Not to be outdone in attempting to enact regime change in Venezuela, President Joe Biden doubled the bounty to $25 million, with no additional indictments added.

The measures barred Venezuela from importing equipment, spare parts, and industrial chemicals to maintain its oil production facilities and shipping capabilities. Oil infrastructure across the country deteriorated, and oil production was driven far below the previous 3 billion barrels a day at its 2008 height to barely above 300,000 barrels a day.  

While many people accurately note that the U.S. is after control of Venezuela’s enormous oil reserves, the country’s mineral wealth is also crucial to the U.S. and much of the world, as it includes bauxite and rare earth minerals critical for weapons systems, satellite manufacturing, and AI technologies. When we consider the struggle we are engaging in to stop the proliferation of these technologies from being used to violate our privacy, whatever freedom we have left, our environment, and our very lives, consider that the U.S. pursuit of these materials has already directly caused the instability, suffering, worsened health outcomes, and deaths of tens of thousands of Venezuelans.

Venezuela relies largely on oil exports to fund its public sector commitments; the collapse of oil exports crippled its primary source of public revenue, making it impossible to import essential goods like food and medicine. The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) estimated that 40,000 Venezuelans died due to economic coercive measures between 2018 and 2019 alone. Former U.S. Special Rapporteur Alfred de Zayas estimated the deaths to have been over 100,000 by 2020. But this is neither unexpected nor unwanted by the U.S. government. Economic sanctions are designed to cause so much hardship for the people of a country that they will rise up in frustration and anger at their own government. U.S. officials understood that imposing economic sanctions on the country would prevent it from importing not just materials to maintain the oil sector but also necessities for the Venezuelan people, such as food, medicine, fuel, and even toilet paper. But public infrastructure, from hospitals and office buildings to apartment buildings and water systems, also fell into disrepair as materials needed to maintain it could not be imported due to sanctions. With the physical buildings weakened, the country was far more vulnerable to disasters like the June 2026 earthquakes than it would have been had the sanctions not been in place.

By the time Trump returned to the White House in 2024, despite the immense damage already done to the country’s economy and infrastructure, they had not done what successive U.S. presidents wanted: to bring about the collapse of the Bolivarian government in Venezuela. Trump imposed more measures after his return to office, doubled Biden’s bounty increase on Maduro to $50 million, and eventually carried out the violent kidnapping of President Nicholas Maduro and First Combatant Cilia Flores in the pre-dawn hours of January 3, 2026, with the help of the Navy and Marines of the Southern US Command (SOUTHCOM), which also carried out the indiscriminate murders of Caribbean fisherfolk in the months prior to the kidnapping. The bounty was never paid to anyone. He also added to the original 2020 indictment against Maduro by adding his now-kidnapped wife and National Assemblywoman Flores, and adding charges of “…narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States.” They are both held in separate solitary confinement cells in the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, NY, awaiting their sham trials.

It is an obscenity that the same SOUTHCOM is now deploying forces to Caracas to provide post-disaster air traffic and airport support. But it is a greater crime that the U.S. has positioned itself and its interests to finally get what it wants – control of Venezuela’s oil and minerals sectors and eventual privatization of public services that define the Socialist Bolivarian government – even if it is a natural disaster that provides them the perfect opportunity to achieve it. This, after expropriating Venezuela’s oil industry and profiting from selling the stolen crude, Trump sending a measly $150 million in “aid” to the country he stole their sovereign materials from is a settler colonial level insult.

This is “disaster capitalism,” popularized by Naomi Klein in her book The Shock Doctrine, but a well-documented aspect of imperialist plunder. In the process of imposing economic shocks through sanctions by an external entity or through the implementation of neoliberal policies internally, Klein explains how governments and corporations exploit the shock of an unplanned, catastrophic event to impose radical, wholesale austerity and control. Disaster response becomes the vehicle for enormous foreign investment and development, foreign control of that development, and ultimately the usurpation of the existing but weakened state in favor of the foreign governments and corporate interests behind the aid money. Economic policies that would be rejected under normal circumstances are more easily imposed on an already vulnerable state when that state and its people are rendered desperate by a natural disaster. 

The use of disaster relief as a Trojan Horse for neoliberal plunder and control after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti may give us a terrifying vision of what could be in store for Venezuela today.

The earthquake in Haiti was used as a pretext for the US to assert near-total control over the country’s recovery, if not the country itself, along with its foreign allies in the UN-imposed Core Group that governs the island nation. Aid and reconstruction, and the billions of dollars for it, were directed by those and other foreign governments and contractors, bypassing the Haitian state under then-president René Préval. International entities justified this by claiming Haiti was hopelessly corrupt. What they were, however, was in disarray after the earthquake destroyed much of the government’s infrastructure, including the National Assembly and the National Palace, and years of imperialist control usurped its sovereignty. 

But this excuse was needed to justify the Haitian government seeing very little of the billions of dollars pledged for relief and reconstruction. The Associated Press reported in 2013 that CEPR found that out of the $1.15 billion pledged, only 1% went to Haitian companies. They found instead that “…the ‘vast majority’ of the money it could follow went straight to U.S. companies or organizations, more than half in the Washington area alone.” And what was constructed was for the benefit of foreign corporate and Haitian comprador interests, who had the protection of the United States government to bend Haiti to all of their will.  

The $224 million Caracol Industrial Park, built with reconstruction funds allocated through the recovery mission co-chaired by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, is a continuing example of disaster capitalism and the nefarious ways that Western imperialists profit from natural and human catastrophe.

In 2011, scores of farmers and other residents were evicted from their fertile agricultural land, far from the impact zone, to make way for its construction. They were given little notice to leave and insufficient compensation. They fought for years to secure a reparations agreement with the Haitian government and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in 2018, which included new land, jobs, equipment, and other compensation. Many finally received reimbursement in 2020, but not all, and not nearly enough for what was taken from them by the U.S., the IDB, and USAID, who were the major funders of the project. 

The park was designed to attract foreign garment companies with tax exemptions and cheap labor, as wages were promised to be kept as low as $1.75 a day. The garment companies did come, and the Clintons promised hundreds of thousands of jobs. But fewer than 10,000 were produced, and they were at the same low rate of less than $2.00 a day that Haitians had been fighting to raise for years before the earthquake against a small group of Haitian manufacturing, import/export, and political elites controlling the country’s existing manufacturing industries with the backing of the U.S. government. When the Haitian government passed a law in 2009 to raise the country’s minimum wage for garment workers to $3 a day and $5 a day for other sectors due to the people’s agitation, foreign companies and the Haitian elite colluded with the U.S. State Department and, with a study from USAID that said raising the minimum wage would make the garment sector economically unviable, successfully blocked the legislation. 

While Bill and Hillary Clinton have never admitted involvement in suppressing Haitian wages, Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State under President Barack Obama when the State Department cables that WikiLeaks published revealed the covert wage-suppression scheme that resulted in legislation being passed in the U.S. to favor the Haitian elite and foreign investors: the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement (HOPE) Acts I & II. There was no way the Clintons were not involved, as it was the Clinton Foundation through which they did much of their work in Haiti, and Haitians hold them responsible for the abysmal outcome.

By the end of 2011, one year after the earthquake, most of the promised aid had not been disbursed, and what was went to projects unrelated to housing, feeding, or providing any aid or support to the displaced, like the Caracol Industrial Park.  The scandal was compounded by revelations that some major aid organizations achieved very little with the funds they received, so no one could really account for where the billions of dollars went, other than into the pockets of non-Haitians. 

Today, Haiti is still among the poorest countries in the world. Haitians have continued to protest not just against the minimum wage, but also the lack of sovereignty and human dignity imposed upon them as they endure a rise in U.S.-fueled gang violence, attacks on Haitian immigrants from this administration, continued control from the UN-appointed Core Group with no elected leadership chosen by them, and another UN invasion/intervention to quell unrest. 

This is the future that the U.S. wants for Venezuela. To make Venezuela like Haiti or something close to it, at least in the manner of creating a dismantled state that the U.S. can swoop into, plunder, and control. Although Haiti and Venezuela may not be perfectly similar in many ways, but the use of an earthquake to further imperialist takeover of a country already weakened by relentless Western hegemony in response to the successful liberation struggle of largely Afro-descendent and Indigenous peasantry to free themselves from European settler colonial domination and capitalist exploitation are complementary examples of how a natural disaster is be used to deepen imperialist control under the guise of aid, instead of the most powerful and wealthiest country in the world using that power and money to help suffering human beings. And then the same country calls those states failed, and demonizes the government and the people as immature, unable to govern themselves, and an example of the failures of socialism or communism.

As U.S. officials are on the ground in Venezuela openly “coordinating” with the Interim President Delcy Rodriguez, it must be understood that this is done with the threat of her own indictment and imprisonment on bogus charges of narcotrafficking, human rights abuses, corruption, or grave robbing, depending on how amusing the U.S. wants to be with the sham accusations over her head. 

And now, the U.S. is poised to use this unbelievably tragic disaster as an even bigger cudgel to force the Venezuelan state to concede much, much more, seizing this opportunity to tighten its control over the country’s oil and mineral resources, effectively absorbing it into the U.S. sphere of influence, to be used as a weapon against the rest of the U.S.’s designated enemies, Cuba, China, and Russia. Venezuela has had friendly relations with all of these countries, and all countries that the U.S. is also softening up with sanctions, embargoes, and threats of worse treatment. 

We must expand and deepen the struggle against the U.S. re-colonization of the Western Hemisphere and join our struggling brothers and sisters in the Global South for an end to imperialist aggression, hegemony, and gangsterism, and we must target the enemy in whose camp we reside with clarity and purpose.

Because natural disasters will never stop happening. But disaster capitalism never has to happen again.

Not if we destroy capitalism and the empires that are erected upon it.

Jacqueline Luqman is a radical activist based in Washington, D.C., as well as a co-founder of Luqman Nation, an independent Black media outlet available on YouTube (here and here) and Facebook.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

Source: Black Agenda Report

Caracas, July 2, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) Commander General Francis Donovan has announced the deployment of some 2,000 military personnel in response to Venezuela’s June 24 earthquakes.

“The US military, the Department of War, has roughly 2,000 teammates in the area on land, air, and sea around Venezuela,” Donovan said in a Wednesday press briefing. On Tuesday, Donovan told Reuters that US forces had 900 servicemen and women in Venezuelan territory.

The US general claimed that the military presence aims to improve logistics and that US forces will leave once “they are done.” He also expressed confidence that the mission would improve “military-to-military” relations with Venezuela.

Washington activated its response force in the wake of the 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude double earthquakes that caused widespread destruction in the Caribbean nation, especially in coastal La Guaira State. The latest official figures reported 2,295 dead and over 11,000 injured, with thousands still declared missing.

Alongside specialized urban search and rescue units, US forces have also dispatched a significant contingent of Marines together with air and sea assets.

After carrying out repair works on a runway, the US Air Force’s Contingency Response Element (CRE) has been conducting “airfield management, air traffic coordination, communications, and security” at the Simón Bolívar International Airport. SOUTHCOM press releases have documented the arrival of multiple military transport aircraft, while MQ-9 Reaper drones and combat helicopters have conducted intelligence reconnaissance over Caracas and other affected areas.

US forces have likewise taken a position at La Guaira port with the docking of the amphibious USS Fort Lauderdale warship. US officials have assessed conditions and necessary works at the port and aim to establish a “vital command-and-control node” for the delivery of humanitarian aid.

In a Thursday press conference, Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez thanked US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for their “permanent contact and support.” She went on to acknowledge the US’ “major logistical deployment to receive humanitarian aid.”

Since the January 3 military strikes on Caracas and kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration has dramatically increased its foothold in the Caribbean nation. The Venezuelan legislature has approved multiple reforms catered to Western corporate interests, while oil export revenues are currently controlled by the US Treasury Department.

In addition, US forces ran military drills over Caracas on May 23 and conducted an extrajudicial execution of an alleged gang leader in southeastern Bolívar state in June in “coordination” with Venezuelan security forces.

Following the recent natural disaster, the US Treasury Department issued a time-limited license allowing relief-related transactions with Venezuela while maintaining its wide-reaching sanctions regime in place.

Washington and its allies likewise hold billions worth of Venezuelan frozen assets, including 31 tonnes of gold deposited at the Bank of England that the UK government has refused to release.

Edited by Lucas Koerner in Caracas.

[Updated on July 3 to include Rodríguez’s comments]

Mérida, June 29, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan and international rescue teams continue to search for survivors under collapsed buildings following last Wednesday’s back-to-back earthquakes.

The 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude tremors caused widespread destruction, primarily in the coastal state of La Guaira, which has been described as “ground zero.” Geological services have registered more than 500 aftershocks since the original earthquakes.

On Monday, Venezuelan officials reported that there have been 1,719 people killed, 5,034 injured, and more than 15 thousand displaced. According to the country’s authorities, 855 buildings have been damaged, including 189 totally collapsed, along with damage to 38 hospitals and 1,645 road structures.

“We are in critical and crucial hours to continue saving lives,” National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez stated during a Monday press conference. He confirmed that over 25,000 rescue workers, including military personnel, police, firefighters, and civil protection units, are currently deployed, supported by 3,319 international rescuers from 25 nations and 137 specialized canines.

Rodríguez added that 90% of electricity service has been restored in La Guaira State, and that a special hotline remains active to provide psychological support to relatives of the victims, displaced people, and those suffering from post-traumatic stress following the earthquakes.

Earlier on Monday, Acting President Delcy Rodríguez celebrated the rescue of 21-year-old Aaron Levi Cantillo, who was pulled alive from the rubble in La Guaira after being trapped for 106 hours. The rescue was the result of 43 hours of intense, coordinated work by Venezuelan Civil Protection and brigades from Mexico, Chile, and Argentina. Emergency workers have warned that, as time passes, the probability of still finding survivors drastically decreases.

Over the weekend, the Venezuelan government has likewise ramped up efforts to tend to displaced families, with 15 temporary shelters set up in La Guaira and a further 50 in Caracas.

Other areas beyond La Guaira have also been severely impacted. Local residents reported structural damage and service failures in Morón, Carabobo state, close to the earthquakes’ epicenters. Similarly, in Tucacas, Falcón state, residents called for assistance from authorities as they face interrupted electricity or water services.

As part of its response to the crisis, the acting Rodríguez government restricted access to the state of La Guaira, the hardest-hit area. The measure aims to prevent traffic congestion and prioritize the movement of emergency vehicles and heavy machinery. Venezuelan officials have urged the public to avoid traveling to the area to ensure that rescue efforts are not impeded.

At the same time, authorities have sought to organize volunteer brigades, both for search and rescue operations and to tend to temporary shelters, via a registration center at the Poliedro complex in Caracas. 

As of June 29, 10,834 volunteers had registered, and they have been categorized according to their area of expertise: survivor rescue, medical care, logistics at temporary camps, and other essential tasks.

Following the double earthquake, the United States government has ramped up its presence in the Caribbean nation. The US Department of State has deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) and specialized urban search and rescue units.

The Department of War has sent an expeditionary airfield management team to repair and reopen the damaged Simón Bolívar International Airport, which is now serving as the primary hub for international relief flights. The US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has stated that it is currently “managing tower and ground operations” at the country’s most important airport.

SOUTHCOM is also assessing conditions at the port of La Guaira and has docked the USS Fort Lauderdale warship to coordinate maritime deliveries. Various aircraft, including C-17 Globemaster, C-130 Hercules, MV-22 Ospreys, and helicopters, have conducted aerial surveys and transported rescue teams and supplies. 

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez personally thanked President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for US support following the natural disaster. In a social media message, the acting president said she was “deeply grateful for this gesture of friendship and cooperation.”

The Trump administration announced that humanitarian assistance to Venezuela has been increased to over $300 million. However, Washington has not offered any relief from widespread economic sanctions, only issuing a time-limited license allowing earthquake relief-related transactions.

The White House also retains control over Venezuelan oil export revenues, with the disbursement timings and amounts left at US officials’ discretion.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

Caracas, June 19, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez held a meeting on Thursday with a US-picked opposition figure to launch a new political dialogue process.

In a statement, Rodríguez, who is also the Venezuelan government’s lead negotiator, disclosed talks with “the representative of the opposition lawmakers from the 2015-2020 period,” Dinorah Figuera, to launch “a joint technical and political working group” with “an agenda containing concrete milestones and timelines” aimed at “strengthening democracy.”

In a separate statement, the expired opposition-controlled 2015 National Assembly explained that the central objective of the process is “the construction of a shared vision for the future.” The communiqué claimed that the dialogue aims to establish a “roadmap for the construction of a democratic scenario” in the country. 

Figuera also met with US Chargé d’Affaires John Barrett in Caracas on Thursday.

For its part, the US State Department welcomed the meeting, describing it as the “first step” toward “a free Venezuela.” The Trump administration has insisted on a “three-phase process” for the Caribbean nation which culminates with a political “transition.”

According to Washington, the proposed agenda includes priorities such as rebuilding democratic institutions, strengthening the National Electoral Council (CNE), restoring guarantees for political participation, and protecting the civil liberties necessary for an open political debate.

“The cornerstone of any transition is inclusive dialogue. We hope that conversations between Venezuelan political parties and the interim government in Caracas continue in the coming weeks so that this work can begin,” stated Thomas Pigott, spokesperson for US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Upon arriving at the airport on Thursday, Figuera told reporters that she had traveled to Venezuela at the invitation of the US State Department, with her tasks including the establishment of a “credible” electoral council. She added that her work intends to benefit all political forces while avoiding questions about whether the initiative had been coordinated with far-right leader María Corina Machado.

Figuera was among the lawmakers elected when the opposition won a parliamentary majority in December 2015. Anti-government parties attempted to use the National Assembly to overthrow the Nicolás Maduro government and pushed several laws that were struck down as unconstitutional. It was eventually sidelined after being declared in contempt by the Supreme Court, with the South American country’s legislation taken over by a government-supporting National Constituent Assembly. The ruling United Socialist Party (PSUV) retook control of the legislature in the 2020 and 2025 elections that were boycotted by many opposition sectors.

Though the 2015 National Assembly’s term expired in January 2021, it unilaterally renewed its own mandate for successive one-year periods. The defunct parliament retained US recognition as Venezuela’s legitimate authority, which allowed it to manage Venezuelan assets abroad. Washington’s backing ended in March when Trump recognized Acting President Delcy Rodríguez as Venezuela’s “sole leader.”

Figuera, who has lived in Spain since 2018, took over as president of the opposition-controlled body in January 2023 following the dissolution of the self-proclaimed “interim government” led by Juan Guaidó.

At the time, Venezuelan judicial authorities denounced Figuera’s role in an “illegitimate” parliament that aimed to “plunder Venezuelan assets abroad” and issued an arrest warrant and an Interpol red alert. While several opposition figures have benefited from an amnesty law approved by the present National Assembly in February, it is not known whether Figuera was among those whose legal cases were dropped.

Figuera’s return to Caracas also comes just weeks after the Unitary Platform—the coalition that groups the country’s main opposition parties—agreed during a meeting in Panama that far-right María Corina Machado would “lead negotiations with Chavismo to call elections” and eventually run as a presidential candidate.

Machado and the Unitary Platform have yet to comment on Figuera’s talks with the acting Delcy Rodríguez government, having previously demanded elections within a 40-week timeframe.

Since the January 3 strikes and kidnapping of Maduro, the Trump administration has wielded a strong influence over Venezuelan affairs. US officials have openly participated in legislative initiatives to open the Caribbean nation’s energy and mining sectors to Western companies while also accompanying corporate executives on trips to discuss business opportunities.

US forces likewise conducted an extrajudicial execution in Venezuelan territory earlier this month, with Caracas calling it a “joint operation” against organized crime.

Despite the diplomatic rapprochement and catering to US investment, Venezuelan authorities had previously brushed aside talk of early presidential elections. Maduro’s term, currently held by Delcy Rodríguez in an acting capacity, ends in January 2031. In a February interview with US conservative outlet Newsmax, parliamentary leader Jorge Rodríguez stated that no elections were expected in the short term because the priority was achieving economic stability.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

Following the US attack on January 3, Venezuela was left in a state of turmoil and uncertainty that does not rule out further military actions. In recent days, there was “a joint operation between Venezuelan and US security agencies in the southeast of Bolívar state, in which organized crime networks were dismantled,” according to a statement from the Venezuelan government. Days earlier, the Coordinadora Simón Bolívar, a historic Chavista organization, had denounced DEA involvement in planning a repressive offensive with the aim of “decapitating” the popular movement in the iconic 23 de Enero neighborhood, which Juan Contreras describes as “the most important in Caracas.”

A community leader, social work graduate, and president of the Coordinadora, Contreras is a longtime Chavista activist and staunch defender of the Bolivarian Revolution. Today he believes there are “shameful situations that must be denounced,” but he holds the US government – ”our enemy” – responsible. Contreras was born and raised in the densely populated and combative 23 de Enero neighborhood, where he still lives and where he welcomed us to analyze the complex situation facing Venezuela, and in particular the social movements.

How are Venezuelan social organizations responding to what has been happening in the country since the US military attack on January 3?

What happened was an act of aggression, an act of war. They [the US] sought and continue to seek to break our people, but we in the social movements have kept up our efforts because we still believe in the revolutionary process. Our enemy is the US government, which must have realized that the problem wasn’t Chávez, because Chávez died and the revolution continued. President Maduro has been kidnapped, and here we are. What we’re experiencing today is unique in history; I don’t think anything like what’s happening in Venezuela has ever happened anywhere else in the world – the closest thing was in 1989 in Panama, when they kidnapped Noriega. But here, their narrative has fallen apart: it has not been proven that Venezuela is a drug trafficking country, that its government is linked to drug trafficking, or that President Nicolás Maduro was one of the biggest drug lords, as they claimed. On the contrary, today all those narratives have been debunked, and what is clear is that they are coming after our energy reserves. The Venezuelan people are well aware of this.

Is identifying a state of war and an enemy the context for the denunciation you issued about the danger of a DEA-orchestrated attack on 23 de Enero?

This is information we’ve received from a reliable source indicating that a large-scale operation is being planned against 23 de Enero, which is not far-fetched. 23 de Enero, as a barrio, has historical significance dating back to the Fourth Republic, between 1958 after the fall of Pérez Jiménez and the advent of democracy. That threat is very real. I believe that at the time, there was an underestimation of the threats posed by the US empire: the fact that our coasts were blockaded, the fact that our airspace was blockaded… Now, what we’re denouncing here has all the hallmarks of becoming a reality. It’s not just me saying this, nor the source that gave us this information, which is a reliable one. It’s that all the propaganda out there points in that direction, starting with the journalists who now live in Miami and are waging a full-scale campaign against the colectivos. “What’s going on with the colectivos? Why aren’t they attacking the colectivos? Why don’t they disarm the colectivos?” Marco Rubio himself has said it, and just recently one of the top military leaders said it: they’re coming for the “armed groups.” The problem is that, in their narrative, they label social movements as armed groups, accusing them of being armed in order to justify their aggression. Well, today our people are armed with consciousness; today, after 27 years, our people are more Bolivarian than ever. These are the people who placed their trust in Comandante Chávez, who committed to refounding the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. That is why we can understand all this cognitive warfare being waged against Venezuela.

There are no guerrillas here; what we have here is a people with a consciousness, a mobilized people, a people who, through culture, through popular education, have managed to advance in building the Bolivarian embryo from the barrio level, with the communal councils and the communes. So, the US seeks to dismantle that organization by employing the tactic of decapitation. They want to destroy the collectives, those who raise their voices against the empire, those who today denounce what is happening in our country, those of us who disagree with what is happening today, and who have maintained a principled and firm stance in the face of that aggression and invasion by the US empire.

Based on the information you have, how would the DEA carry out an attack of that kind on Venezuelan territory?

They have been operating by applying pressure. In all our countries, we have a repressive police force. Perhaps there is a segment of the police ranks – among their core leadership – that understands human rights issues, but there are other segments that are easily co-opted. We have 27 years of experience in which generals, colonels, and captains have turned their backs on us and served the empire’s policies. So, it’s not far-fetched to say that the United States is working with certain police forces, or with specific officials who might be willing to carry out an operation against the most important symbol in Caracas, which is the 23 de Enero parish. From 1958 to 1998, approximately 160 martyrs were killed there by the police. In other words, this is not crazy: it is serious, and as the pressure on our government to move toward an electoral process intensifies, the plan of aggression may also accelerate.

So, of course, it’s entirely possible that they’ll move forward with an action like this to eliminate what they consider “the Bolivarian resistance,” represented by social movements organized into communes, communal councils, and long-standing social organizations such as the Coordinadora Simón Bolívar, which is an expression of the popular power.

Did you receive any show of solidarity from the government?

Someone with influence within the government called us, reached out, we talked, and they agreed to investigate and look into the matter. What they recommended was caution: to steer clear of any provocation. And well, we’re waiting to see if what was discussed will be carried out, that a thorough investigation is conducted into what we’re denouncing. Because up until now, we thought [the US] would never invade, but they did; we underestimated them, and they invaded. And today they have the audacity to sell our oil, manage our finances, provoke us, and say they’re going to turn us into their 51st state. And on top of that, they’ve placed us under tutelage as if they were the owners of our country. This is, of course, shameful, and we must denounce it.

That is why we, as part of the popular movement, remain mobilized and continue to denounce what happened on January 3 and the consequences we are enduring in Bolívar’s homeland.

This situation has not yet had any international repercussions. What message do you have for the social and political forces in Latin America?

It has been 200 years since the Amphictyonic Congress, that call made by the Liberator to build a confederation of nations and defend ourselves against the US empire, which was already showing its claws. What better time to call for a continentalization of the struggle of our social organizations? It is not just Venezuela that is at risk: it is all of Latin America. They are coming for their backyard. Today, brazenly and in an interventionist manner, they are meddling in Colombia’s elections and declaring which candidate they want to win. They did the same in Honduras. 

So, in light of these events, the call to expand the struggle across the continent must be a reality today. Latin America’s only chance to escape the aggression of Donald Trump’s administration is through the coordination of the popular and revolutionary movement across the region. We must unite, we must denounce this situation, and we must move forward, because they’re coming for everything. The only way forward is to make the struggle a continental one. This is something that, at one point, was not only stated by Bolívar but also attempted by Comandante Ernesto Guevara. I believe that is where we should focus our efforts: on uniting the popular and revolutionary forces of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Source: Tiempo Argentino

Mérida, June 16, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan government has signed two agreements with foreign companies as part of efforts to bolster the country’s National Electric System (SEN).

On Monday, Acting President Delcy Rodríguez penned a memorandum of understanding with GE Vernova, a company formed from the 2024 breakup of US conglomerate General Electric, at Miraflores Palace in Caracas.

“This memorandum is historic for Venezuela, so we can recover such an essential service for the Venezuelan people,” she stated during a televised broadcast. “I have asked the teams to convert this memorandum into a contract as soon as possible and start the works.”

According to Rodríguez, the agreement will incorporate 1,000 Megawatts (MW) into Venezuela’s electricity grid in the next 24 months, and 5,000 MW over four years. The acting president added that GE technicians have spent “six weeks” in the country assessing conditions of electric equipment.

Rodríguez did not disclose what the deal entails, nor what components of the electric grid will be turned over to GE Vernova, but stated that the plan concerns generation, transmission, and electricity substations.

The Venezuelan acting leader went on to thank US Chargé d’Affaires John Barrett, who was present at the ceremony, for promoting engagement with major US corporations like GE. Company executives Roger Martella and Eric Gray were likewise in attendance. Martella stated that GE’s objective was to quickly reactivate electricity generation. 

“We want to move quickly so the system can work as best as possible in a few months. We already have an agreement on technical details,” he said.

Two days earlier, Venezuelan authorities announced a separate accord with Argentina-based firm Industrias Metalúrgicas Pescarmona (IMPSA) to rehabilitate the Manuel Piar and Antonio José de Sucre hydroelectric projects, known as the Tocoma and Macagua dams. Both are located in the Caroní river, in Bolívar state, which also supplies the Simón Bolívar Hydroelectric Plant, known as the Guri Dam.

The official release indicated that the agreement aims to inject 2,640 MW into the grid. IMPSA President Jorge Salcedo clarified on social media that the company’s initial target is to restore 672 MW of capacity from Tocoma within 19 months. 

“This agreement launches a broader effort to strengthen Venezuela’s power system through a comprehensive plan that could deliver up to 2,160 MW at Tocoma and 480 MW at Macagua over the next five years,” he wrote.

The Tocoma project dates back to the 2000s. In 2008, Venezuela’s state electricity company CORPOELEC hired a construction consortium headed by Brazilian firm Odebrecht to build the dam, with IMPSA tasked with supplying machinery. 

However, despite costs running over US $9.3 billion, more than triple the original $3 billion budget, the project was not culminated. Venezuelan authorities reported that construction was at 90 percent completion in 2016. A $1.2 billion debt owed by CORPOELEC saw IMPSA suspend activities with only two of the ten projected turbines partially installed.

According to Reuters, IMPSA is holding most of the contracted equipment in storage and will replace the missing or obsolete ones with new technology.

IMPSA was temporarily owned by the Argentine state before being privatized by the Milei administration in February 2025. The company was acquired by the US-based consortium Industrial Acquisition Fund (IAF). IAF’s main partner is ARC Energy, headed by close Trump ally and donor Jason Arceneaux.

Venezuela’s electrical system has suffered under years of US sanctions as well as underinvestment, lack of maintenance, and corruption. Around 40 percent of its installed 30,000 MW capacity is currently operational, with generation deficit around 3,000 MW meaning regular blackouts in most of the country.

Strengthening the electrical supply is a precondition for the country’s economic recovery, with growing oil production placing an additional burden on the grid.

The Rodríguez acting government has sought to address the issue by opening the electricity system to the private sector, with GE and IMPSA the first corporations formally engaged. 

On June 4, the National Assembly preliminarily approved a reform of the Organic Law of the National Electricity System. The new legal framework breaks with the 2007 legislation under Hugo Chávez that centralized the grid under CORPOELEC and defined all stages of electricity generation and distribution as “strategic for the nation.”

The reform allows for private sector participation in generation, transmission, distribution, and commercialization ativities through concessions lasting up to 25 years. It also envisions new tariff structures based on “real costs and reasonable returns” for investors.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

Caracas, June 14, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The United States launched a military strike inside Venezuelan territory that reportedly killed Héctor “Niño” Guerrero Flores, an alleged leader of criminal group Tren de Aragua.

US President Donald Trump first announced the “swift and lethal kinetic strike” via social media on Friday evening. 

“At my direction, the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero, the infamous leader of Tren de Aragua,” he wrote. “Tren de Aragua terrorists no longer have safe haven in Venezuela or anywhere else.” 

Trump added that the extrajudicial execution was “coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela.” An accompanying video showed a house or compound being blown up. 

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirmed the operation shortly afterward, adding that it had taken place earlier in the week. He reiterated the “full collaboration with Venezuelan security forces” and claimed that Guerrero was confirmed dead in the strike.

“The operation underscores the shared US and Venezuelan commitment to take the fight to narco-terrorists and deny them any safe haven in our hemisphere,” he stated. SOUTHCOM Commander General Francis Donovan also expressed “gratitude” to Venezuelan security forces for their “support to the successful joint operation.”

In a Sunday interview, Hegseth claimed that US forces were “invited” by Venezuelan authorities and that further operations in Venezuelan territory were to be expected.

The Wall Street Journal, citing an anonymous administration official, reported that the CIA provided intelligence for the strike.

For its part, the Venezuelan government headed by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez issued a Friday evening statement informing of a “joint operation” between US and Venezuelan security forces to dismantle “organized crime structures” in southeast Bolívar state.

“During the operation there were clashes with members of these criminal structures that resulted in ‘Niño Guerrero’ being neutralized,” the communiqué read. Neither Venezuelan nor US officials offered details about the operation, the alleged clashes, or additional casualties from the lethal strike against Guerrero.

Caracas went on to claim that the mission involved “intelligence sharing” between the two countries and reiterated its “commitment to fight organized crime.” 

According to the Venezuelan Constitution, the deployment of foreign military missions in the country’s territory requires approval from the National Assembly.

The military procedure coincided with a Venezuelan armed forces deployment to dislodge illegal mining outfits from mineral-rich Bolívar state as Western corporations eye lucrative exploration projects under a new, pro-business mining law. Tren de Aragua was alleged to be one of several criminal groups operating in the area.

The reported execution of Guerrero is the first recorded joint US-Venezuela military operation on Venezuelan soil. Since September 2025, the Trump administration has struck dozens of small boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, killing over 200 civilians. US authorities have claimed to be targeting drug trafficking operations but have not put forward any evidence.

In 2025, Washington likewise ramped up “narcoterrorism” accusations against the Nicolás Maduro government while setting up a large-scale military deployment near Venezuelan shores. Caracas denounced the charges as a pretext for foreign intervention, pointing to United Nations and DEA reports that repeatedly showed the South American country to play a marginal role in global narcotics trafficking.

On January 3, US forces bombed Caracas and kidnapped Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. They are currently facing trial in New York and have pleaded not guilty to charges including drug trafficking conspiracy. Despite recurring accusations in recent years, US officials have not provided any public evidence tying high-ranking Venezuelan officials to narcotics activities.

Since the attack, Acting President Rodríguez has fast-tracked a diplomatic rapprochement with the Trump White House while reforming oil and mining legislation to favor Western investment. Multiple US officials have visited Caracas in recent months, including SOUTHCOM Commander Donovan, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine.

Dating back to his election campaign, Trump consistently talked up the threat posed by Tren de Aragua in the US as part of his anti-migrant crackdown and alleged that it acted in collaboration with the Maduro government. In February 2025, the State Department designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), having previously announced a US $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of Guerrero.

However, despite repeated rumors of crimes attributed to Tren de Aragua, US intelligence agencies found no evidence of the organization having any coordinated activity on US soil or ties to the Venezuelan government. Separate reports have documented that the group runs criminal activities, including human trafficking, in several Latin American countries.

For their part, Venezuelan officials stressed that Tren de Aragua had been dismantled in Venezuela following a 2023 raid on Tocorón prison, from where the gang was believed to run its operations. Nevertheless, Guerrero was reportedly alerted in advance and managed to break out.

The 42-year-old had been in and out of prison several times before being handed a 17-year sentence in 2018 for charges including homicide and drug trafficking. In January, he was charged in New York as a co-conspirator in the case against Maduro.

Edited by Lucas Koerner in Caracas.