September 16— The US Administration has blown up a second Venezuelan fishing boat. They killed another three people in addition to the first eleven. They sent warships off Venezuela’s coast and troops to the US-Mexican border. They lied that this was to “stop drugs.”
Venezuela is in US imperialism’s crosshairs for two main reasons. It has the world’s largest oil and gas reserves and a growing economic, military, and political dependence on Russia and China.
The US-NATO imperialists are fighting through proxies against the China-Russia-Iran imperialists for world domination. They must expel these rivals from the Americas if they can. They aim for a Fortress America, from Argentina to Canada, denying their rivals the region’s vast natural resources, including oil, and military bases.
Capitalist analysts emphasize that these incidents are about oil for immediate profits. They deny or downplay the question of World War III. It will take time and huge investments to fully develop Venezuela’s oil deposits, which are harder and more expensive to extract.
The US warships off the Venezuelan coast and blowing up fishing boats in international waters (one was turning back!) are warnings to rivals. They show a US – unable to compete economically with China – desperately resorting to military force.
The successful recent BRICS and SCO summits, led by China and Russia, further fuel US desperation, propelling it towards open world war.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s recent visit to Ecuador shows the US “anti-drug campaign” to be a hypocritical farce. Seventy percent of the world’s cocaine, produced in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, transits through Ecuador on its way to the US and Belgium.
Workers in Ecuador know that bananas are exported in unchecked containers stocked with cocaine. Ecuadorian president Noboa’s family is the biggest exporters of bananas. They profit from the drug trade.
Rubio’s visit was to further integrate Ecuador into Fortress America. Noboa made it possible for the US to build a naval base in the Galapagos. More will come.
But Fortress America is a pipe dream. Latin America is moving towards China. For example, China, with Brazil, is planning a $50B, 1700 Km Transoceanic Railway from Brazil to the Chinese-built port in Chancay, Peru. It will ship products and mineral resources directly to Asia. Chinese firms are investing in a record 39 projects in Brazil across diverse industries.
Mexico, Latin America’s second largest economy, is also engaging with China. China recently helped finance the Tren Maya mega-project in southern Mexico. This will be extended to Belize and Guatemala. Chinese imperialism is increasingly involved in Mexico’s mining, solar energy, and construction and transportation equipment, including car parts and EVs.
Chinese imperialists are determined to replace US imperialists as the world’s main imperialist exploiters. Chinese imperialism’s recent massive military parade in Beijing shows that it is also preparing to decide this on the battlefields of an already expanding World War III.
US rulers are just as determined and more desperate. They have a grave economic crisis while China is expanding its global markets, access to natural resources, and cheaper labor to extract maximum profits. US imperialism’s only choice left is the military option to try to halt its global hegemony’s decline.
The imperialists want to force workers to kill and die for the rulers’ empires. Comrades in Ecuador know that Rubio’s visit and Noboa’s ties with the US guarantee that Ecuador will play an important role. The US wants to use Ecuadoran workers against Venezuelan workers as proxies. Like the US uses Ukraine against Russia.
In Venezuela, masses of workers are ready to fight US imperialism. They rightfully hate it for imposing inhumane sanctions that deprived them of their basic necessities. But instead of supporting Maduro and the Venezuelan capitalists who want oil profits for themselves and crumbs for the masses, workers need to fight to get rid of all capitalist exploiters.
We need a communist world where the masses share food and all resources collectively only to meet our needs —without money, profits, capitalists, or imperialist war. Workers need communism, not Maduro’s state capitalism (socialism).
Workers and rank-and-file soldiers and sailors in Ecuador, Venezuela, and worldwide have the same interests and needs! We can’t side with any imperialist exploiter. Our future depends on uniting against all the warmakers and their murderous system.
We need to fight for and build communism, where the masses worldwide will collectively produce everything needed for the dignified life we deserve, instead of producing for the murderous bosses’ profits.