The United Left Platform, a coalition of revolutionary socialist organizations in the U.S., completely and unequivocably condemns the Trump administration’s illegal and unwarranted military attack on Venezuela and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, the former President of Venezuela’s National Assembly. This aggression poses an ominous threat to any power or person that stands in the way of Trump’s effort to secure U.S. imperial control over Latin America, its most important “sphere of influence.”

In the dead of night in the early morning of January 3, U.S. military forces attacked the Fuerte Tiuna military base in Caracas where Maduro was thought to be residing as well at the La Carlota airport and Higuerote airport to the east of Caracas. Air strikes by planes and helicopters were also reported at La Guaira and Aragua states. The elite army unit Delta Force captured Maduro and Flores and flew them in chains to a prison in New York.

In comments made hours after the assault, code-named Operation Absolute Resolve, Trump made it clear that the attack is but the beginning of his effort to take direct control of Venezuela. “We will run the country until we have a just transition—we can’t take the chance that someone other than us takes over Venezuela,” he stated, adding, “we are willing to wage a second and much larger attack—we are ready to do so right now.”

We should be under no illusions that Trump intends to allow any political power or personage to run Venezuela that is not under the control of the U.S. This is not just regime change—it is a formula for possible occupation, beginning with the U.S. taking total control of Venezuela’s oil and mineral resources.

Whether or not the Trump regime succeeds in this outrageous display of imperial arrogance depends on developing the strongest and broadest possible opposition to his efforts by those of us in the U.S., in Venezuela, and internationally. We urge everyone opposed to war and neocolonial domination to make your voices of opposition heard in the streets, workplaces, and unions.

As revolutionary socialists, we have no illusions about the nature of the Maduro regime, which was neither revolutionary nor socialist. However, the present and future of Venezuela is not for anyone to decide other than the people of Venezuela. We stand with all who seek to defend its right to self-determination.

Trump’s claim that the administration is motivated by controlling the shipment of drugs to the U.S. has no more basis in reality that his assertion that “crime has been totally eliminated” in Washington, DC and other cities by sending in the national guard. Less than 10% of drugs entering the U.S. come from Venezuela, while Trump recently pardoned one of the biggest drug kingpins in Central America, former President Juan Orlando Hernández of Honduras. His attacks on vessels off the coast Venezuela that have killed 110 people in recent months, like the January 3 assault and kidnapping that has killed untold numbers of others, is largely driven by his desire to obtain control of a country with the largest known oil reserves on earth.

However, the attack on Venezuela is not only about oil. Also in play is the effort to enact the Trump Doctrine that proclaims the U.S. now has the right to intervene anywhere it wishes at any time to secure total control of its most important spheres influence—while acknowledging Russia’s and China’s efforts to dominate their respective spheres so long as it coincides with U.S. interests. This is the multipolar imperialism that has now emerged with the collapse of the much heralded (but failed) neoliberal world order. As Trump declared in boasting of the U.S. seizure of Maduro, “America will never again allow foreign powers to drive us out of our own hemisphere.” We must combat this reactionary agenda by engaging in mass resistance to the U.S. attack on Venezuela.