The events now taking place in Venezuela show the interference of US imperialism, of the imperialist countries of the European Union, the intervention of the OAS and the reactionary governments of Latin America; they show the use of reactionary violence by the oligarchy and reaction that are trying to restore their privileges and put an end to the social realizations produced in the first stage by the so-called “Bolivarian Revolution.”
Yankee imperialism does not tolerate the measures taken by the Venezuelan government to recover its oil exploitation and China’s interference in its economy and is intensifying its actions to regain and expand its interests in the exploitation of oil, other natural resources and the exploitation of the Venezuelan market.
The social and political confrontation is taking place on the streets and involves millions of people from the working classes and youth, from all social classes and strata, the Armed Forces and the Police; it incorporates – by the bourgeois opposition – elements of the lumpen who are acting as mercenaries.
The government of Nicolás Maduro has shown its inability to respond to the most urgent needs of the Venezuelans, to create what they themselves called “endogenous development”; with the inefficiency of its administration and its conciliatory positions with the business owners, it has allowed shortages of food, medicines, toiletries; it has consented to the growth of criminal gangs that severely threaten security; it has given rise to the gigantic growth of the external debt and has opened the country to the Chinese and Russian imperialists; it is trapped in high levels of corruption. Venezuela is undergoing an economic crisis that is worsening daily, that is increasing unemployment and shortages, causing inflation to reach over 700% and a recurring monetary devaluation.
These circumstances are taken advantage of by reaction and imperialism for the ideological and political manipulation of hundreds of people as opposed to Bolivarianism, who are demanding the resignation of Maduro and the holding of early elections.
These violent clashes that are sharpening daily are increasing the political crisis and threaten to resolve it in favor of imperialism, the oligarchy and reaction.
We have stated in the past that in Venezuela the social revolution is not taking place, that socialism is not being built, that the policy established there does not go beyond democratic transformations. These circumstances are true today.
The Venezuelan workers desire change, the benefits of socialism that have not been answered by the “Bolivarian revolution” and “21st century socialism,” they are losing hope and can be won to a greater degree by the right.
The advanced workers, the consistent leftists, the democrats and revolutionaries, the Venezuelan Marxist-Leninists are building an alternative for the benefit of the present and future of the workers and people, they are facing great difficulties that make the development of the process very complex; they are correct and sooner rather than later they will lead the struggle for the revolution and socialism and, no doubt, they will win.
The events that are taking place in Venezuela once again show that populism and reformism are not answers to the masses’ desire for change. They show that the “Bolivarian revolution” and “21st century socialism” cannot destroy the chains of capitalist exploitation and imperialist domination; in Venezuela and throughout the world – now and at various times in history – they show that they are forms of one or another sector of the ruling classes, which objectively become supports of the capitalist system.
We Marxist-Leninists reaffirm our conceptions: only the social revolution of the proletariat, only socialism is the way to achieve social justice, freedom and democracy for the workers and people, only the workers can create their own liberation and with it the emancipation of all of humanity.
The Coordinating Committee of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations, the Meeting of Marxist Leninist Parties of Latin America, reject the intervention of US imperialism (including the threat of the imposition of an economic blockade) and the European Union, the complicity of the reactionary governments of Latin America; they condemn the reactionary violence of the oligarchy and the right. They proclaim that the problems of Venezuela must be solved by the Venezuelans, by the workers and the people.
We express our support and solidarity with the working class and people, the democrats, the anti-fascists, the consistent leftists and revolutionaries, with the proletarian revolutionaries organized in the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Venezuela; we extend our solidarity to the organizations that make up the Popular Front and to the unitary process of the left-wing social and political forces that are part of the Anti-imperialist Popular Revolutionary Union, UPRA:
COORDINATING COMMITTEE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF MARXIST-LENINIST PARTIES AND ORGANIZATIONS
MEETING OF MARXIST-LENINIST PARTIES OF LATIN AMERICA
Quito, July 2017