Venezuela : Not one man, not one drop of proletarian blood for the Essequibo!

Prises de position - Prese di posizione - Toma de posición - Statements

In the past few weeks, a wave of chauvinist fury has been unleashed in Venezuela, based on an old dispute over the ownership of the Essequibo river region (in Guyana), to the extent that the Chavista leaders are denouncing their internal opponents - the few who openly oppose military aggression against the Guyanese population - as criminals who are "traitors to the homeland". Almost the entire political-electoral arc, including the main opposition leader, Machado, has come together in a national union with the Chavist leaders, an inter-class platform promoted by Chavez during his lifetime, the much-desired "Holy Alliance". Everyone unanimously obeyed the call to defend the country made by Maduro, Cabello, Rodriguez and others.

Caracas claims to be the victim of a territorial usurpation committed more than two centuries ago, while today Georgetown is the target of all its provocations and aggressions. To heighten the tension, Rodriguez, Vice-President of Venezuela's National Assembly, is accusing little Guyana of aggression against Venezuela! The provocations culminated in a call to the Venezuelan people for a bellicose referendum (by means of an arch-partial questionnaire) to demand the annexation of the disputed territory by the Venezuelan government, to the point of provoking a reaction from the UN's First Tribunal, which ordered (sic) Caracas "not to continue to aggravate" the dispute over the territory of Essequibo.

The first results of the referendum clearly show a victory for the "yes" side, with ten million votes - highly contested. Curious that the Guyanese inhabitants of the disputed zone were not invited to this event, since it is they who are at stake... Another aim of the referendum would be to anticipate and ease social tensions in Venezuela, which are currently low-intensity.

In fact, the only thing that could explain this escalation of aggression is the economic crisis that continues to exist in Venezuela despite the reduction in economic pressure exerted by the Biden administration, as well as the sudden discovery and exploitation of oil and minerals in the disputed Essequibo area, which is attracting a great deal of interest in Caracas (1). The subject of Essequibo had not been raised for a long time, perhaps since the 1980s. Until then, Caracas had shown little interest in discussing and resolving this colonial quarrel (2).

Whatever the outcome of this confrontation, for the proletarian masses of the region and on both sides of the border, their fate will not change. And however strongly the Chavist leaders exploit nationalist sentiment, this will only momentarily calm the miserable life endured by the proletariat in both countries. The proletarian would be naive to think that it doesn't matter what sacrifices are made as long as the "empire" is defeated.

Our first enemy is not American imperialism or British imperialism, it's Venezuelan capitalism, which is plunging proletarians into misery and forcing millions of people to flee the "homeland" of the bourgeoisie in order to live!

The only desirable and necessary war is not the imperialist war to seize Guyana's oil and raw materials, but the class war to overthrow the bourgeoisie, destroy its state and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Proletarians have no homeland, they only have their chains to lose and a world to gain!

(1) Guyana is a small country, 2/3 of whose territory is claimed by Venezuela, and where there is an abundance of natural resources essential to today's industrial and technological products. In 2015, major oil and gas deposits were discovered (as well as coltan, lithium, gold, diamonds, uranium, etc.), which have since been exploited by the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, creating a veritable economic boom in the region over the last 3 years, considerably boosting the GDP of the small country - and proportionally increasing the appetites of Caracas, which is obviously hungry for foreign currency.

(2) At that time (16th-18h century), Venezuela existed only as part of the Spanish colonial empire, respectively as the Captaincy General of Venezuela. The great American wars of independence weakened Spanish control, allowing the United Kingdom to enter the fray and seize vast territories like the Essequibo in question. In the final analysis, Caracas is only claiming territory taken from Spain at the time. Would Spain now want to claim the Essequibo from England and then cede it to Venezuela? In short, a whole tide of alternatives, each more laughable than the last.

International Communist Party

Il comunista - le prolétaire - el proletario - proletarian - programme communiste - el programa comunista - Communist Program