Venezuela, The People’s Hour

ByMagdiel Sánchez Quiroz

This article by Magdiel Sánchez Quiroz originally appeared in the January 3, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Mexico Solidarity Media, or the Mexico Solidarity Project.

In the early morning of January 3, 2026, U.S. troops carried out a criminal incursion into Venezuelan territory. They bombed various strategic points in the country, damaged infrastructure, murdered military personnel and civilians, and kidnapped the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Moros, and his wife, Cilia Flores. This operation represents the most serious and violent attack perpetrated by the United States against a country in the Americas since the invasions of Grenada (1983) and Panama (1989).

Since September 2025, under the pretext of combating drug trafficking, the Donald Trump administration launched a new offensive against Venezuela that escalated from economic pressure and attacks on boats allegedly transporting drugs, to the hijacking of oil tankers and the largest naval and air blockade ever seen, with the aim of overthrowing the government of Nicolás Maduro and installing a puppet government that would hand over the country’s oil, water, and other resources to imperialism.

The offensive against Venezuela comes in the context of Donald Trump launching his Monroe Doctrine Corollary to reinforce imperial hegemony weakened by geopolitical changes at a global level.

Under the global media dominance of the United States, an attempt is being made to portray the criminal operation as having the support of the Venezuelan people. Only a few isolated and marginal displays of support for Trump have been seen in some cities in Europe and Latin America. None in Venezuela. Nor have they succeeded in getting any political force with a real presence in Venezuela to come out in support of the President’s kidnapping.

However, the psychological terror operations are building the ideal scene for the “regime change” longed for by Trump: Nicolás Maduro handcuffed and dressed in prison clothes, presented before a New York court as if it were a retrial against Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán.

Reducing the President and leader of the revolutionary process in Venezuela to a common criminal is necessary for imperialism to advance what it promises will be a “peaceful transition” between the current interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, and the unpatriotic María Corina Machado and former opposition candidate Edmundo González. This so-called “regime change” is nothing more than an attempt to impose a puppet ruler who will hand over the country’s natural resources to the United States.

Undoubtedly, the kidnapping of Maduro and his wife was made possible by both Venezuelan intelligence and security errors and a successful US infiltration of the Venezuelan president’s inner circle. However, regime change is still a long way off. Events within the country demonstrate this.

In Venezuela, the vast majority of the country went very quickly from the confusion and shock of the early morning hours to indignation, courage, and a readiness to fight.

Thousands of people took to the streets to demand the safe return of their President and condemned the US military actions. The Armed Forces have demonstrated their unity and loyalty to the people and their President. Beyond the narrative that has been promoted claiming Venezuela is living under a dictatorship that undermines civil liberties, the Bolivarian Revolution, initiated under the leadership of Hugo Chávez in 1998 and continued today by Nicolás Maduro, has succeeded in building a unity among the people, the armed forces, the police, and the Bolivarian militias that the operation of January 3, 2026, will not be able to break so easily.

An organization of 5,336 communes and Communal Circuits, together with the Bolivarian Militias already armed and deployed throughout the national territory. They are the foundation of the only power that, beyond the state apparatus, can halt the neocolonial occupation: popular power.

Today is the moment for the people of Venezuela. Their capacity to defend their territory street by street, commune by commune, as well as their unwavering resolve to resist any betrayal or attempt by a traitorous politician who presents himself as capable of guaranteeing the transition longed for by Trump, will be the most decisive factor in the sovereign future of that country.

Very difficult days are coming for Venezuela and the world. At a time when international organizations have shown their inability to stop the genocide in Gaza, we watch in horror what may come. However, overcoming horror, even in the darkest of times, is possible.

Hope can only emerge from below, from the people of Venezuela and from a consequent movement in the world that occupies the streets and defeats indifference and terror.