‘The Struggle Is One’: Palestinians in Venezuela Oppose US Aggression

December 2, 2025

President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro. (Photo: Kremlin, via Wikimedia Commons)

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By Louis Brehony

Venezuela has strongly opposed the genocide since October 2023, with Maduro labeling Palestinian resistance a “critical battle against fascism and colonialism.”

The November 29 statement by US President Donald Trump that Venezuelan airspace would be “closed in its entirety” was the latest shot in a war against the socialist government of Nicolás Maduro.

Having made spurious claims of bringing “peace” to the Middle East, leaving Gaza’s Palestinians displaced, blockaded and continually massacred, US imperialism is driving an increasingly bloody campaign for war on Venezuela. Despite its distance, Palestine looms large in Latin America, with Palestinian activists among the most prescient voices against US-led aggression.

A Warmongering Narrative

Like many other young Palestinians, Fares Matar received a scholarship to study at Cuba’s Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM). Involved in solidarity organizing, which in socialist Cuba has state backing, Matar spoke to the Palestine Chronicle from Caracas, Venezuela.

Keen to point out that US aggression on Venezuela represents “not an isolated event” nor an “internal crisis,” Matar points to a wider context:

“This recurring policy reveals the essence of the imperialist project: to punish any country that chooses to be sovereign and stable, whether in the Arab world, Latin America, or Africa. Venezuela—just like Palestine—faces the tools of the same project: economic sanctions, media warfare, political distortion, and military or intelligence pressure—all means used to subjugate peoples.”

The Trump administration accuses the Maduro government of running a drug-trafficking Cartel of the Suns, outrageously placing a $50m bounty on the socialist president’s “arrest and/or conviction.” A record warrant, this greatly increases the $ 15m reward set by the first Trump government in 2020, claiming Venezuelan coordination with Colombian FARC leftists in military and narcotics smuggling.

Aimed at Venezuela and its allies, the Caribbean is witnessing the most significant US naval deployment since its invasion of Panama in 1989, utilizing the navy’s newest and largest aircraft carrier, the Gerald R Ford. Claiming to be targeting Venezuela-backed drug trafficking maneuvers, US warships carried out 78 recorded strikes on Caribbean vessels between September 2 and November 16, killing over 80 people by December 1.

Alongside these operations, former UN Special Rapporteur Alfred De Zayas estimates that 100,000 Venezuelans have died as a result of US, EU, and British sanctions.

War on a Political Alternative

While the threat of an all-out invasion is higher than ever, Matar points out that the narratives, pretexts and “fierce political, media and economic attacks” faced by Venezuela echo previous imperialist interventions.

Visiting US-occupied Puerto Rico on November 25, Chief Military Adviser and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine told marines that they were “on the front lines of defending the American homeland.”

Mirroring the disregard for human life seen in the Zionist genocide on Gaza, The Washington Post reported on September 2 that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth had told troops to “kill everybody” on Venezuelan boats. Despite the call of UN human rights chief Volker Türk for an investigation into the attacks as extrajudicial killings, on November 30, Trump doubled down on supporting repeated strikes against survivors of initial missile attacks.

Referring to SOUTHCOM troops as “warriors,” Hegseth claimed on November 28 that these were “lethal, kinetic” and “legal” strikes, designed to “kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people. Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.”

Despite classifying Cartel of the Suns as a terrorist group, even anti-Maduro academics like Pérez Guadalupe admit that the cartel does not exist, let alone ship from Venezuela to the US.

Referencing Iraq, Matar told the Palestine Chronicle:

“Yesterday it was the alleged weapons of mass destruction; today it is drug trafficking and human trafficking, allegations refuted by official international bodies, specifically designed to demonize and besiege Caracas.”

Venezuela possesses the world’s largest oil reserves, rivaling Western-allied Arab Gulf states. Since the electoral victory of Hugo Chávez in 1998 and the launching of the Bolivarian project for socialism, Venezuela has reoriented its foreign relations from an authoritarian history of loyal dependence on imperialism to channeling funds into social provision.

Writing in Al-Hadaf magazine, Palestinian analyst Mohammed Abdel Qader shows that Venezuela’s commitment to socialist transformation “generated resentment, anger and animosity from the US and the West towards the political system led by Chávez.” Imperialism cannot tolerate “a system that prioritizes the interests of the people and the country.” Abdel Qader continues:

“This is the root of the US’s hostile stance towards Venezuela, its national governments and its people, who support the leadership, whether under Chávez or his successor, Maduro.”

Venezuela Stands for Palestinian Liberation

With the development of revolutionary politics on the national level, Chávez heralded a sea-change in Venezuelan policy. The capitalist regimes of Venezuela’s past had promoted normalized relations with the Zionist state, but this was challenged by a leftist government promoting progressive causes internationally.

Opposing the war on the Middle East, the Chávez government broke off all ties with Israel during its murderous invasion of Gaza in January 2009, calling for premier Shimon Peres to be stripped of his Nobel Peace Prize; Peres had been given a lavish two-day reception under the Caldera government in 1995.

In a letter he delivered to the UN in 2011, Chávez recognized an independent Palestine and declared: “Let us be unequivocal: Zionism, as a worldview, is fundamentally racist.”

Offering a sharp critique of the forces preventing Palestinian liberation, Chávez exposed imperialist “double standards” in the Arab region, with NATO “violating international law in Libya while letting Israel act with impunity, making the US the chief accomplice to the Palestinian genocide by Zionist barbarity.”

This socialist position found continuation in Maduro, elected as Chávez’s successor in 2013. US destabilization campaigns in Venezuela have since enjoyed Israeli support, including Netanyahu’s preposterous recognition of opposition figure and attempted coup leader Juan Guaidó as “president” in 2019. Matar explains:

“For many years, Venezuela has stood by the justice of the Palestinian cause, defending its people’s right to liberation from the Zionist occupation. In return, Palestinians see Venezuela as a model of a country paying the price for its sovereignty, just as Palestinians pay the price for their right to exist on their land.”

Venezuela has strongly opposed the genocide since October 2023, with Maduro labeling Palestinian resistance a “critical battle against fascism and colonialism.” As in Cuba, Palestinians have been platformed at rallies and international events in Caracas, including Leila Khaled’s invitation to the International Conference of Solidarity with Palestine in December 2024. She told attendees:

“When we come to Venezuela, we are in our second homeland, where our dignity is, with a people who have chosen a President with a lot of dignity, Nicolás Maduro. When we come here, we speak from heart to heart because we know the meaning of the freedom that you enjoy today and we aspire to live the same freedom that you have.”

This battle has raged in the Venezuelan context, too. In October 2025, Venezuelan reactionary Maria Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Alongside her support for US military intervention and oil privatization in Venezuela, she declared “The struggle of Venezuela is the struggle of Israel,” signing cooperation agreements with Netanyahu’s Likud party and promising friendly relations with the occupation if her counterrevolution was victorious. Machado has also cozied up to European racists and called for the ‘reconquest’ of Europe from a supposed Muslim takeover.

‘Those Who Resist’

“Defending Venezuela today means defending Palestine, just as defending Palestine is defending every people facing the imperialist-Zionist machinery of oppression. The struggle is one, regardless of geography,” Matar said.

Trump’s call for the closure of Venezuelan airspace has a recent precedent. So-called no-fly zones were imposed by the US, Britain and France upon Iraq in 1991, by NATO allies in the 2011 invasion and destruction of Libya, and called for in Syria by US presidential candidate Hilary Clinton in 2016.

Venezuela’s foreign ministry responded to the November threats:

“Venezuela denounces and condemns the colonialist threat that seeks to affect the sovereignty of its airspace, constituting yet another extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the Venezuelan people.”

Venezuelans are organizing to defend the country against foreign intervention and over 8 million volunteers have joined the Bolivarian militia. Communal councils and mass organizations that stood with Palestine are now preparing to repel the invasion of their own lands. Matar told us:

“What is happening in Gaza—genocide, siege, and starvation—is similar to what is being perpetrated against Venezuela: a siege, economic starvation, attempts to overthrow the state, and the punishment of its people for choosing the path of sovereignty.”

The battle ahead, Leila Khaled told Venezuelan commune organizers, “is the fight for future generations to come.” Palestinians and Venezuelans are walking this path of resistance together.

(The Palestine Chronicle)