Above photo: Opening day of People’s Assembly for Peace and Sovereignty in our Americas, Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 9, 2025. WW: Mairead Skehan Gillis.
Caracas, Venezuela – A delegation from the U.S. traveled to Venezuela to attend the People’s Assembly for Peace and Sovereignty in our Americas held in Caracas from December 9–11. The activists represented organizations opposing U.S. imperialist wars and took part in a coordinated week of action across 100 cities from November 15-23 to demand “No U.S. War on Venezuela!” and “No Troops on Our Streets!”
It was of utmost importance to participate in the assembly hosted by the Venezuelan government and the Simón Bolivar Institute to show unwavering solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution as it defends itself against growing U.S. aggressions, sanctions and war maneuvers in the Caribbean while simultaneously promoting a Zone of Peace across the hemisphere.
The conference went on despite desperate attempts by the U.S. government to impose illegal travel restrictions and a “no-fly zone” over Venezuelan airspace that it had no authority to impose or enforce. The Simón Bolivar Institute made every attempt to bring as many people as possible to this gathering. In total, 376 international delegates from 40 countries touched down in Caracas from across Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, the United States and parts of Europe. The majority of delegates could not get flights, because of the no-fly zone’s impact on the size of every international delegation in attendance.
Only 10 delegates from the U.S. out of 43 who received an invitation made it to the assembly. They represented Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Students for a Democratic Society, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Struggle La Lucha, Workers World Party and Palaver Collective. Also attending from the U.S. were representatives of Tricontinental and the Venezuela Solidarity Network.
Those who were blocked by the U.S. war threats from attending held a press conference on Dec. 10, with strong leadership from the National Lawyers Guild, to condemn this repression of the antiwar solidarity movement. (workers.org/2025/12/89530)
‘No blood for oil!’
The Trump administration claims that their bombing of Venezuelan and Colombian fishing boats in the Caribbean Sea with no regard for international law or due process, killing at least 87 people to date, is in response to drug trafficking led by Venezuela’s democratically elected president, Nicolás Maduro. These blatant lies are told to cover up the true intentions of the Pentagon, Wall Street and the CIA to carry out yet another war for oil and topple the leadership of the Bolivarian Revolution.
In fact, Maduro and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela have committed to use Venezuela’s natural resources for the benefit of the Venezuelan people. The socio-economic gains taking place thanks to the Bolivarian socialist process are a direct threat to the decaying capitalist system in the U.S. that is headed in the direction of an economic crisis.
The imperialists’ goals were made obvious by the criminal seizure of a massive Venezuelan oil tanker on December 10 during the peace conference. It was headed to supply oil to thousands of people across the Caribbean, including in Cuba.
President Nicolás Maduro condemned this act of war at an encounter between Venezuelan people and the international solidarity activists in the Amalivaca Socialist Commune in Caracas on December 11. He proclaimed that “the mask has fallen. They want to rob the oil from Venezuela and not pay for it. But since the time of Bolivar, by presidential decree everything that is below the ground — whether it’s gold, minerals, oil or gas — belongs to the sovereign people of Venezuela by constitutional mandate and no one, nothing will be able to steal it. No blood for oil!”
The three days of international exchange at the People’s Assembly were of special political significance, because it was an opportunity to show solidarity with the Venezuelan people and unite across shared struggles for liberation with a common enemy of capitalism and Western imperialism. Tactically, it was an opportunity to defy the illegal, U.S.-imposed no-fly zone through the determination to hold this event by any means necessary.
A key point made by Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez at the conference was the continued influence of the 19th century Monroe Doctrine on U.S. neocolonial foreign policy in contrast to Simón Bolivar’s plans for the unification of the people of the Americas, which remains at the forefront of Venezuela’s relations in the region.
Building a global anti-imperialist front
Panelists also highlighted the development of Popular Power in Venezuela; the resurgence of anti-colonialist resistance in Africa; ending the continued genocide against the Palestinian people; the role of the corporate media in propagating an information war against the socialist processes of the Global South; and the need to amplify the voices of the youth generations to strengthen our movements.
On December 11, the U.S. delegation also participated in the formation of the Francisco de Miranda Solidarity Committee between the people of Venezuela and the people of the United States. Residents of the Socialist Commune El Panal 2021 presented the proposal to formalize this new mechanism of concrete interchange given the need to unite against a common enemy and share updates on what the respective people’s movements are tackling.
The delegation talked about the increasing attacks on the U.S. working class, including ICE raids in all major cities, an unaffordable cost of living, rising unemployment and homelessness, cuts to social benefits like SNAP (food stamps) and Social Security, a crumbling health care system led by reactionaries without regard for science, rampant racism promoted by the ruling class and the war against the LGBTQIA2S+ community. The delegation also stressed that a large majority of the U.S. population is opposed to a war against Venezuela that is built on lies while it becomes increasingly difficult to survive in the U.S.
There is an undeniable need to overthrow capitalist imperialism and replace it with a socialist system built by the working class. This newly-founded solidarity committee is a way to simultaneously deepen the resistance against the ruling class, defend Venezuela’s revolutionary process and strengthen internationalist unity through practice.
Long live the Bolivarian Revolution! U.S. hands off Venezuela!
Victory to the Resistance! ¡Venceremos!
The writer represented Workers World Party at the December 9–11 conference.
