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Washington ups the stakes in ongoing attempt to overthrow Venezuelan government

Marxist Theory · 2026-05-13

Core Argument

The article argues that Washington and the Venezuelan opposition are coordinating a renewed coup offensive against the Maduro government, exploiting genuine economic grievances among working-class communities to create a pretext for military intervention. The central claim is that the opposition's strategy is not democratic but conspiratorial: it aims to provoke an armed incident, blame the government, and trigger a military coup with explicit US backing. The article insists that Marxists must oppose both the Maduro government's failures and the imperialist coup simultaneously, rejecting the false choice between a discredited chavismo and a reactionary opposition.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis is rooted in the Marxist theory of the state and imperialism. It treats the Venezuelan state as a contested terrain, not a workers' state, and the opposition as a bourgeois faction backed by US imperialism. The article draws on the Leninist tradition of opposing imperialist intervention unconditionally, regardless of the character of the targeted government. It also reflects Trotsky's conception of the "united front" tactic: defending democratic rights against reactionary coups while maintaining political independence from the government being defended. The piece sits within the Marxist tradition's long-standing critique of "lesser evilism" — the refusal to choose between two bourgeois camps — and instead advocates for independent working-class organisation.

Conjunctural Relevance

The article is written in January 2019, at a peak of US-Venezuela tensions. Key conjunctural features include:

  • Economic crisis: Hyperinflation, water cut-offs, low wages, and broken government promises have eroded living standards and chavismo's base.
  • Geopolitical alignment: Trump, Bolsonaro (newly inaugurated in Brazil), Macri (Argentina), and OAS Secretary-General Almagro form a coordinated imperialist bloc.
  • Military dynamics: A foiled mutiny by low-ranking National Guard officers in Cotiza, a working-class barrio, signals potential fractures in the armed forces.
  • Opposition strategy: The opposition calls for mass protests on 23 January, the anniversary of the 1958 anti-dictatorship uprising, and hints at declaring Juan Guaidó interim president.
  • US escalation: Mike Pence issues a public statement endorsing "regime change"; Marco Rubio warns of alleged government plans to fire on protesters, mirroring the 2002 coup pretext.

The article identifies a dangerous turning point: opposition protests are beginning to resonate in traditional chavista strongholds, not just middle-class areas.

Where the Argument Continues

This article opens several threads that are developed elsewhere in the IDOM corpus:

  • The character of the Venezuelan state: The article asserts Maduro's government is not socialist but does not fully theorise what it is. Later IDOM articles and Against the Current episodes develop the analysis of Venezuela as a "bourgeois Bonapartist" regime caught between imperialism and a restive working class.
  • The economic crisis: The article notes hyperinflation and broken promises but does not analyse the underlying causes — overaccumulation, rentier dependence, or the failure to break with capitalist property relations. These are explored in Jorge Martin's longer texts on the Venezuelan economy.
  • The united front tactic: The article's call to "defend the right of the people of Venezuela to decide their own future" is a concrete application of the united front against imperialism, a theme elaborated in IDOM's theoretical articles on Venezuela and Syria.
  • The 2002 coup parallel: The reference to snipers as a coup pretext is a recurring motif in IDOM's coverage of Venezuela, developed in earlier articles on the 2002 events.

Connections

  • Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism — The theoretical basis for understanding US intervention as a product of capitalist rivalry and the search for markets and resources.
  • Trotsky, The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany — The united front tactic against a greater evil while maintaining independent working-class organisation.
  • IDOM articles on Bolivia (2019) — Parallel analysis of US-backed coups and the failure of "progressive" governments to break with capitalism.
  • Jorge Martin, Venezuela: The Revolution Betrayed? — A longer treatment of the Bolivarian process, its contradictions, and the Marxist response.
  • Against the Current episodes on Venezuela — Ongoing discussion of the conjuncture, the opposition's character, and the tasks of Marxists.

Key Quotes

  1. "If this means that the reactionary opposition is starting to connect with the grievances of working-class communities about water cut-offs, hyperinflation, low wages, etc., it would be a dangerous turning point."

  2. "The idea that the opposition or sections of it want to provoke an armed incident, which would justify or trigger a coup, is very feasible. This is, after all, what served as a prelude for the coup in April 2002, when snipers fired on opposition and pro-government demonstrators alike."

  3. "Washington is openly giving instructions for the removal of a government in another sovereign country. These are not just words. The US is seriously considering stepping up the economic sanctions that are strangling the Venezuelan economy."

  4. "Our position remains the same: we do not support Maduro's government, whose policies are undermining the gains of the Bolivarian Revolution and are unable to address the economic crisis. At the same time, we oppose with all means at our disposal the reactionary Trump-Bolsonaro-Almagro coup."

  5. "Let us not be fooled. Both Washington and Brussels want the same thing: to remove the president of the country by unconstitutional means. They might have slight differences about the methods, but they agree on the fundamentals."

  6. "Some have even said it doesn't matter who wins as the living conditions of workers and peasants are already so bad. They delude themselves. If Washington has its way, it would be an even greater disaster for working people in Venezuela, even leaving aside the political impact in the region and beyond."