Venezuela has woken up. The Venezuelan working class has stood up and is fighting the Chavista dictatorship. At this moment, there are popular uprisings all over the country against the fraud, repression and hunger to which the regime subjects the population. They march to the headquarters of the authorities, bang pots and pans in the streets, and confront the police and paramilitary forces. Every main avenue is now a trench. From the depths of the “barrios” (what are known here as villas), this uncontrollable anger springs forth. Those who were bastions of Chavismo are now the flame of rebellion. Unlike the Caracazo, all the country’s cities are in revolt here. From Caracas to Barquisimeto, from Valencia to Yaracuy. The governorates are being attacked. Venezuela is witnessing its 2001: the Venezuelazo.
The elections on Sunday were, in reality, a simulation. The leftist parties are banned and intervened. Hundreds of labour leaders were imprisoned and disappeared. A third of the population was denied the right to vote. The few who were eligible were threatened with firearms. To top it all off, only 59% of the electoral roll voted, and the results were not delivered table by table.
The opposition participated in this farce because it called for a peaceful fall of the dictatorship; it wanted to avoid a popular uprising and be part of the new “dialogue.” The Venezuelazo is also a setback for it, which will surely want to channel this anger. The discussion between Maduro and Corina Machado is not about what to do but who does it.
In 2015, the Chavista regime imposed a true anti-worker dictatorship. It subjected the population to brutal austerity, surpassing any Latin American government: salaries of 5 dollars and poverty that is around 98%. It expelled a third of the population in record time. It imprisoned 150 labour leaders and made thousands of workers disappear. It formed paramilitary groups to persecute the population. It banned any party that declared itself “socialist,” while the pro-Yankee opposition campaigned and continues to campaign wherever it wants. It supports the entire business community: the Chavista and the “squalid.” As if this were not enough, the country has the worst crime rates on the continent, and Maduro handed over the security of Caracas to drug gangs in an official agreement and broad daylight. Venezuela has been, for years, heading towards social decomposition and its working class is humiliated and trampled like no other.
The Venezuelan population does not have to put up with such a horror for one more second. He must throw out Maduro, Diosdado, Padrino and all that gang of murderers and criminals who took the lives and money of the workers. Worse still, they trampled on the name of Socialism in an adventure that Milei must envy. Between the expulsion of the population, the repression, the handouts, the help of Chinese imperialism and the business fraternity, Maduro found the strength that popular support did not give him. It is time for him and his gang of wretches to feel the repudiation and anger of people who put up with everything.
Maduro responds to the mobilisations with fierce repression. Every person who calls themselves leftist, socialist or even democrat or progressive must support this uprising and denounce the repression of the regime. The people have to settle accounts with the butchers. And with their own hands.
We call on all workers’ organisations to form a committee to support the Venezuelan popular uprising, denounce the repression and ensure that the workers themselves in struggle take the lead.
👉Long live the Venezuelazo!
👉Out with Maduro NOW.
👉Jail for the murderers and criminals.
👉Release all political prisoners.
👉For a free and genuinely socialist Venezuela.
Vía Socialista