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Audio The US hand in Venezuelas coup Hands off Venezuela interview

Marxist Theory · 2019-01-23

Core Argument

The central thesis of this interview is that the political crisis in Venezuela in early 2019 is not a spontaneous democratic uprising but a coordinated coup attempt orchestrated by US imperialism, using the self-proclaimed "president" Juan Guaidó as a figurehead. Jorge Martin argues that the economic hardships faced by ordinary Venezuelans — shortages, inflation, declining living standards — are being weaponised by Washington to achieve regime change, not resolved by the opposition's extra-constitutional manoeuvres. The claim is that the Trump administration, backed by its Latin American allies and European powers, seeks to dismantle the Bolivarian Revolution and reclaim control over Venezuela's oil reserves, which represent the largest proven hydrocarbon deposits on the planet. The interview insists that the crisis is fundamentally a clash between national sovereignty and imperialist predation, not a simple struggle between democracy and dictatorship.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis draws on the Leninist theory of imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism, particularly the notion that finance capital and the capitalist state act in concert to secure strategic resources and markets. Martin's argument echoes Lenin's Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism in its insistence that inter-state rivalry and intervention are driven by the logic of capital accumulation, not by abstract commitments to democracy. The interview also deploys the classical Marxist distinction between formal bourgeois democracy and substantive popular democracy, arguing that the Venezuelan opposition's appeals to "democracy" mask a project to restore the pre-Chavista oligarchic state. There is an implicit grounding in Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution, insofar as the analysis treats the Venezuelan process as a unfinished anti-imperialist and social revolution that cannot be completed without breaking with capitalism entirely — though this remains more implicit than explicit. The rejection of reformism is present in the insistence that no accommodation with the opposition or imperialism is possible, and that only working-class self-organisation can defend the gains of the revolution.

Conjunctural Relevance

The interview was recorded in January 2019, at the peak of the Guaidó offensive. The specific conjuncture included:

  • The US recognition of Guaidó as "interim president" on 23 January 2019, followed by similar moves from the Lima Group (Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru) and the European Union.
  • The imposition of sweeping US sanctions on PDVSA, Venezuela's state oil company, on 28 January 2019, effectively freezing Venezuelan assets abroad and blocking oil sales.
  • Hyperinflation exceeding 1,000,000% annually, combined with severe shortages of food, medicine, and basic goods — conditions Martin attributes to the economic war (sanctions, sabotage, capital flight) rather than to the inherent failures of the Chavista model.
  • The presence of Colombian paramilitaries on the border and the open hostility of the Brazilian far-right government under Jair Bolsonaro, who took office on 1 January 2019.
  • The broader geopolitical context of US-China rivalry, with Venezuela positioned as a key battleground for control over energy resources and as a test case for whether Washington can still enforce the Monroe Doctrine in its own hemisphere.

Martin argues that the economic crisis is not a natural disaster but a manufactured one: the opposition's business lockouts, the flight of capital, the collapse of oil prices (from $100/barrel in 2014 to below $30 in 2016), and the cumulative effect of US sanctions all conspired to strangle the Venezuelan economy. The interview is thus a conjunctural intervention aimed at countering the dominant media narrative that the crisis is purely internal and that Guaidó represents a democratic alternative.

Where the Argument Continues

This interview is a compressed, accessible version of a much larger body of analysis produced by the Hands Off Venezuela campaign and In Defence of Marxism. The argument continues in:

  • Jorge Martin's book Venezuela: The Revolution Unfinished (2019), which provides a detailed historical and theoretical account of the Bolivarian process from Chávez's election in 1998 through the Maduro presidency.
  • Regular IDOM articles throughout 2019–2023 tracking the evolution of the crisis, including the failure of Guaidó's offensive, the role of the Russian and Chinese governments, and the internal dynamics of the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela).
  • Against the Stream episodes that situate Venezuela within the broader Latin American conjuncture — particularly the coups in Bolivia (2019), the protests in Colombia and Chile (2019–2020), and the return of the Pink Tide under Lula in Brazil (2022).
  • Theoretical texts on the state and revolution published on marxist.com, which draw out the lessons of Venezuela for the question of whether a progressive government can survive within the framework of capitalism.

The interview leaves underdeveloped the question of the internal weaknesses of the Chavista movement — the bureaucratisation of the PSUV, the persistence of capitalist relations within the "socialist" sector, the failure to build genuine workers' control. These are taken up in more critical IDOM pieces that argue the revolution has stalled precisely because it did not go far enough in breaking with the logic of capital.

Connections

This interview should be read alongside:

  • Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism — for the theoretical framework on imperialist intervention.
  • Trotsky, The Permanent Revolution — for the argument about the necessity of working-class leadership in anti-imperialist struggles.
  • Marta Harnecker, Venezuela: A People's Revolution — for a sympathetic but more detailed account of the Bolivarian process.
  • IDOM articles on the 2002 coup against Chávez — to see the pattern of US intervention repeated.
  • The writings of the Revolutionary Communist International on "socialism in one country" — to understand the critique of the Chavista model as attempting to build socialism within the confines of the capitalist world market.

Key Quotes

  1. "What we are seeing in Venezuela is not a spontaneous democratic uprising. It is a well-orchestrated coup attempt, directed and financed by the United States government, using the figure of Juan Guaidó as a front."

  2. "The economic crisis in Venezuela is not the result of 'failed socialism' as the media claims. It is the result of an economic war — sanctions, sabotage, capital flight — waged by imperialism and the Venezuelan oligarchy against the Bolivarian Revolution."

  3. "Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world. That is what this is about. The US wants to control those reserves, and it will use any means necessary — including violence — to achieve that end."

  4. "The opposition talks about democracy, but they have no popular support. They lost every election they contested. Guaidó was not elected by anyone. He was appointed by Washington."

  5. "The only way forward for the Venezuelan people is not to beg for concessions from imperialism, but to deepen the revolution — to take control of the economy into their own hands, to build workers' councils, and to break definitively with capitalism."

  6. "This is not a conflict between two competing visions of democracy. It is a conflict between national sovereignty and imperialist domination. And in that conflict, the working class must choose a side — its own side."