IT FINALLY happened though in an unexpected way. On January 3 2026 Trump ordered US military special forces to launch a deadly assault against Venezuela which involved 150 military aircraft and helicopters (taking off from 20 different bases across the hemisphere) that bombed Caracas, Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira.

The attacks led to substantial loss of life and destruction of buildings and infrastructure with at least 40 civilians killed, many while in their sleep.

US forces surrounded the premises where President Nicolas Maduro was located, met fierce resistance from the presidential bodyguard, US forces killed all 40 of them including 32 Cubans internationalists and violently kidnapped the president and his wife, Cilia Flores — both of whom sustained significant injuries — who were flown to the helicopter carrier USS Iwo Jima and then on to New York.

In New York, the US Deptament of Justice (DoJ) indicted them with utterly trumped-up charges (pun intended) of drug trafficking and narco-terrorism, fallacy confirmed by the DoJ itself dropping the claim that the Cartel de los Soles/Cartel of the Suns, that President Maduro was falsely alleged to have run, is a criminal organisation that actually exists.

This has been the toxic allegation, repeated ad nauseum over months and months by the world corporate media.

At his first appearance at the NY court President Maduro stated: “I am the president of Venezuela, and I consider myself a prisoner of war. I was kidnapped in my home in Caracas. I am innocent, not guilty. I am a decent man, and I’m still president of my country.”

With this act the Trump administration has perpetrated the most brazen violation of international law by trampling upon every one of its principles with the illegal deployment of a highly intimidating war fleet in the Caribbean Sea and then ordering a vicious military assault against a sovereign nation, bombing its cities, killing indiscriminately its citizens and abducting the president and his wife.

The National Assembly following a rule by Venezuela’s Supreme Court on January 6 2026 has sworn in Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez as interim president. Rodriguez stated she will stay in charge until the legitimate president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro was safely returned together with his wife.

Rodriguez’s assumption of the presidency was strongly and unequivocally supported by Venezuela’s armed forces and all key state institutions.

She described what was being done to Venezuela and the brutal abduction of the nation’s president as “barbaric” and added that Washington’s actions showed that “the masks have slipped,” that the true objective of the assault was to dismantle Venezuela’s political independence and reimpose colonial-style rule,” reiterating that: “No external agent governs Venezuela.”

Trump claims he is now running Venezuela and has threatened Rodriguez, that non-compliance with US dictat on her part will have severe consequences. He has threatened a second military strike if [the interim government] do not “behave.”

US State Secretary Marco Rubio has spoken about US control of Venezuela in terminology of a “colonial master.”

The international community is in shock by the brazenness of Trump’s attack following three month-long naval blockade. This clearly raises an ominous spectre: with the US war fleet still deployed in the Caribbean Sea, the US can apply a similar treatment to just about any country in the Western hemisphere.

Parliamentarians in Britain, highly concerned with such appalling behaviour by the Trump administration and particularly by the linguistic acrobatics in support of the utterly illegal and brutal attack displayed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Cabinet, have tabled an early day motion, which is worth quoting at length since it poignantly captures what the US attack on Venezuela means.

“This House condemns in the strongest terms the military aggression ordered by Donald Trump against Venezuela on Saturday January 3, which involved widespread aerial bombardment, loss of life and the kidnapping of Venezuela’s president; notes that this action constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and the principles of the United Nations Charter, including the prohibition on the use of force and the principle of non-intervention in the affairs of sovereign states; believes that, whatever justification is offered, this military aggression is aimed primarily at securing control over Venezuela’s oil resources, the largest proven reserves in the world; further notes that this attack forms part of a wider attempt by the United States to reassert colonial-style domination over Latin America, as set out in recent US National Security Strategy and reinforced by subsequent statements from the US State Department; also notes with deep concern threats made by President Trump of further military attacks against Venezuela if the interim President does not comply with US demands, and further notes with concern similar threats against Colombia, Mexico and Cuba; calls for the immediate cessation of all illegal US military action against Venezuela and the safe return of Nicolas Maduro; strongly opposes the position adopted by the Prime Minister in response to this attack; and calls on the UK government to unequivocally condemn this unjustified act of aggression against Venezuela, to uphold the United Nations Charter and international law, and not to abandon these core principles in order to appease President Trump.”

Starmer has refused to condemn the US gross violation of international law and has been widely criticised by all parties including his own. Emily Thornberry, Labour chair of the foreign affairs select committee, referring to the US attack on Venezuela, said: “We should call what it is: a breach of internationalist law.”

Richard Burgon, Labour MP for Leeds East said: “It was the Prime Minister that decided to disregard the United Nations charter when it came to Trump’s bombing, killing, and [the] kidnapping of a head of state. I think it speaks volumes that the Prime Minister has chosen not to come to this house to explain his decision.”

Actually, Britain has a long history of being actively complicit in the US destabilisation of Venezuela.

The very fact that the US decided to just use a single “surgical” strike shows a reluctance to “go all the way to a regime change war” and risk direct confrontation with the hundred of thousands organised in popular militias.

A full-scale invasion would most likely have created a quagmire. Furthermore, there has been no fracture in the political or military leadership and no signs of confrontation from Venezuela’s extreme right-wing opposition following the US attack.

Trump himself said Maria Corina Machado enjoys neither the required support nor respect in the country.

The assumption of the presidency by Rodriguez helps dispel uncertainties and establishes a road map to preserve the constitutional order.

She has a tough job ahead of her. Venezuelan journalist and intellectual, Miguel Perez Pirela, accurately summarised her historic and strategic role at this difficult juncture: “On the one hand, she must guarantee the country remains peaceful, secure economic stability and the normal functioning of the state after the bombardment and, on the other hand, must carry out complex negotiations with Maduro and his wife’s kidnappers to bring them back to the homeland in the midst of all kind of threats and blackmail.”

On January 8 2026 Rodriguez held a meeting with the Great Patriotic Pole Simon Bolivar (GPP — Venezuela’s ruling coalition) at which she demanded monolithic unity to ensure the continuity of the revolution and the unwavering commitment to bring back “President Maduro and his wife, the preservation of national peace, and the absolute defense of the Republic’s governability and sovereignty.”

The standard mainstream media narrative about Venezuela — which is being accepted uncritically by sections of the left — is that the nation is in state of decay, submerged in chaos and economic collapse, a depiction which is far from the truth and, crucially, ignores how US sanctions wrecked the huge progress made by the Bolivarian Revolution.

Previous to the US war fleet deployment, and the January 3 military assault Venezuela, was undergoing a robust economic recovery. In 2025 the economy grew by about 7 to 9 per cent (highest in the region). Its oil industry was steadily recovering, producing over one million barrels of oil a day (third in Latin America after Brazil and Mexico), resources that had made Venezuela over 90 per cent self-sufficient in food.

Close to five million new houses have been built, inflation was down to single digits from 1.5 million per cent in 2018 to 1,4 per cent in March 2022; through the Clap (Local Committees for Supply and Production) programme millions were guaranteed subsidised food packages.

In 2024 the national budget for 2025 devoted 78 per cent to social expenditure.

These gains were possible because of the transformation carried out by president Hugo Chavez since 1999 which, among many other things, involved a drastic reduction of poverty and extreme poverty, massive expansion of free education at every level, free health care to over 20 million Venezuelans, setting up PetroCaribe to supply cheap oil under generous credit conditions to more than 13 Caribbean countries, and Operation Miracle — a programme that surgically restored, free of charge, the eyesight of over four million people from the whole of Latin America.

In essence, programmes that restored the dignity of the poor, the working class, black people, women, indigenous communities, peasants and everybody else.

No wonder thousands upon thousands of people are filling Venezuela’s streets in the last few days to protest against the brutal attack by the US.

The people are venting their outrage at the cold-blooded killing of their compatriots and demanding the safe return of their president and his wife and are organising the resistance in anticipation of a second attack.

Maduro’s wife Flores is also held in high esteem because she was Hugo Chavez defence lawyer after the February 4 1992 failed insurrection which led to his imprisonment and trial.

The extreme right that supported US aggression is nowhere to be seen in Venezuela. They know that if the US turned them into a colony, they will lose all the substantial social and political gains they have made in 26 years of the Bolivarian process.

The mobilisations in Venezuela had huge equivalents worldwide with mass pickets, marches, and demonstrations in every major city in the world strongly condemning US blatant aggression.

Millions are sick of US bullying and aggression, consciously or unconsciously, identify with the Bolivarian Revolution’s aims for a better world that began in 1999.

Furthermore, the solid and consistent internationalist stance of Bolivarian Venezuela in solidarity and support with the struggles of the global South makes it a beacon of sovereignty, dignity and anti-imperialism.

The Bolivarian Revolution has shown that a better world can be built and so it remains a beacon of inspiration to millions and millions worldwide, especially in the global South.

Say No to US war on Venezuela. Support VSC emergency statement, support the immediate and unconditional release of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores and demand the UK Prime Minister condemns the US gross violation of international law.

Venceremos/We Shall Prevail.