Opinion: Letter from Venezuela

Donald Trump’s economic war against Venezuela killed my father in 2017.

My father suffered from atrial fibrillation — in short, his heart did not function well and he needed life-saving anticoagulants to prevent blood clots from forming. But as sanctions that Trump imposed during his first term in office devastated Venezuela’s economy, medicines could not be imported and my father’s anticoagulants couldn’t be found. He developed a massive blood clot in his heart and died in my sister’s arms. He spent his last moments of life gasping for air as the blood clot dislodged and snuffed the life out of him, my sister in panic, traumatised and helpless, unable to do anything about it.

He died in a hallway of the hospital that saw me born, the same hospital where countless Venezuelans have died as a direct consequence of these inhumane, deadly, and racist sanctions. Others, like my godmother, died at home. She was asthmatic, and like my father, her medicine vanished as a result of Trump’s deadly sanctions. Her only crime was being Venezuelan, her destiny and final moments decided and marked by U.S. imperialism. An asthma attack took her from us, her final moments filled with agony and fear. 

These personal deaths are just two of the thousands that U.S. imperialism has taken from Venezuela. And now, the United States bombs fishermen off the Venezuelan coast and bombs Caracas, kidnapping the president and first lady. It’s a nightmare other countries, too, have suffered at the hands of the United States: Palestine, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, and so many others.

The U.S. empire’s desperate attempt to submit Latin America and steal its natural resources is nothing new. In 1823, President James Monroe invoked the now famous Monroe Doctrine, declaring the western hemisphere a zone exclusively of U.S. interest and warned European powers to stay away. Today, Donald Trump has invoked that same doctrine, claiming the western hemisphere is the United States’ backyard.

It all culminated on Jan. 3, 2026, when the unthinkable happened. The U.S. military, under the orders of Trump, launched a deadly military attack against Venezuela, the place where I was born. 

The attack was brutal and devastating, killing over 100 civilians and military members as well as 32 Cuban military personnel that were part of President Nicolás Maduro’s security detail. This illegal act came after months of threats from the U.S. government and the extrajudicial killings of fishermen off the Venezuelan coast; estimates put the number of these killings at over 100. The pretext: that these boats were carrying narcotics headed for the United States. 

It is well documented, even by the US anti-narcotics agency, the Drug Enforcement Administration, that most illegal drugs coming into the United States come from Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador through the Pacific route. And the pretext that it was fentanyl coming from Venezuela is even more absurd, since most fentanyl comes into the United States from Mexico and China. But the lies and excuses ended immediately after the attack, when Trump admitted the real reason for the attacks: control of Venezuela’s oil reserves, which are the world’s largest.

“The oil companies are going to go in, they’re going to spend money,” Trump said at the time. “We’re going to take back the oil that, frankly, we should have taken back a long time ago.”

The attack came in the cover of night and it made Venezuela a testing ground for military weaponry. These weapons completely disabled Venezuela’s air defense systems and incapacitated Venezuelan military personnel. The attack was overwhelming and it ended with the kidnapping of the legitimate president of Venezuela, Maduro, and his wife Cilia Flores. This unprecedented event has sent shockwaves throughout the world. 

The United States has never respected international law, as we can see with the country’s support of the genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza by providing the money, weapons, and political cover to Israel.

Nor was this the first time that the United States has killed Venezuelans in recent years. Trump killed my father and he killed my godmother, both deaths caused as a direct consequence of the illegal sanctions Trump imposed on Venezuela. The United States sought to destroy the Venezuelan socialist revolution through a hybrid war whose main weapons are economic sanctions. 

In the year after Trump imposed his sanctions — the year my father died — the Center for Economic and Policy Research estimated that around 40,000 Venezuelans were killed as a direct consequence of the sanctions. The sanctions destroyed Venezuela’s economy, leading to mass migration, which was later used by the Trump administration as a pretext for mass cruel deportations.

This is the arrogance of U.S. imperialism — the defiance and grotesque imposition of a worldview that says, “How dare you Latin Americans want to be free.” The ultimate goal is complete submission of the Global South. They want to impose their white, fascist, racist will on an entire people. 

The brutality of U.S. imperialism knows no limits. Its thirst for power, money, and the total control and submission of the Global South now goes unchecked. An empire drunk on death and destruction.

But the people of Bolívar, the great liberator of Latin America, will not submit, will not bend a knee. 

The people of Venezuela are united and determined to forge their own future and to have their sovereignty respected. They have been on the streets mobilizing and demanding the return of their president and first lady.

After the Jan. 3 attack, people were in panic, buying food and supplies because of the shock after the attack and the uncertainty of what was going to happen next, especially since Trump was threatening Venezuela with a second, more devastating attack. 

Today, Venezuela is relatively calm. The streets of Caracas, the capital, and the rest of the country are back to normal. People are out working, living their lives. There have been mass mobilizations on the streets of the capital and many cities across Venezuela, denouncing the U.S. aggression and demanding the return of President Maduro and Flores. The country’s main political party, Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV), founded by former president Hugo Chavez, appears to be united. These imperialist attacks have strengthened the chavismo, the socialist movement that bears his name. Even members of the opposition have denounced the attacks. Things seem normal, there are no shortages of food and medicine.

People remain focused on their daily needs since inflation is a problem, with food prices steadily rising and uncertainty of what might happen next. The interim president, Delcy Rodriguez is negotiating with the Trump administration, but it’s obvious to Venezuelans that it is hard to negotiate when someone is holding a loaded gun to your head. People are hopeful that things will get better economically. Venezuela was able to stabilize its economy under the brutality of economic sanctions, and many hope that if sanctions are lifted that life would get better.

Today more than ever, it is vital to stand up to this deadly empire — for people all over the world to stand together and speak up, organize, and mobilize. Internationalism is more important than ever before. This is a call to action. 

We see the brutality of this administration at home, with its campaign of terror using masked and violent Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and abroad with war and death. It is time to stand up and fight back, to organize, to come together, protect our communities, and build new political power. A new form of resistance. We must not fear their brutality and stand up to it with our morals, courage and love for one another.