Solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolutionary Project of Venezuela—Release and Repatriate Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores!

September 3, 2026

The Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective (AISC) condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the ongoing United States imperialist assault against Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolutionary Project. AISC demands the release and repatriation of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Combatant Cilia Flores. The US campaign against the sovereignty of Venezuela escalated dramatically on January 3, 2026, when the pariah state invaded the country, kidnapped Maduro and Flores in criminal breach of international laws, [1] and killed more than 100 people.[2] The murdered included 32 Cuban officers who were part of President Maduro's security detail. They were martyred for their internationalist solidarity with Venezuelans and protection of the Bolivarian Revolution. Since January 3, the U.S. has accelerated its imperialist seizure of Venezuelan resources. It has also used the kidnapping and imprisonment of President Maduro to directly and by example threaten leaders throughout the Americas who defy U.S. imperialism and build sovereignty in opposition to it.

President Maduro and First Comandante Flores have been held for months despite condemnations and demands for their release by multiple governments and hundreds of organizations throughout the world. The US decapitation campaign is part of a decades-long hybrid warfare campaign aimed at regaining control of Venezuela’s natural resources and overthrowing the Bolivarian Revolution. The US and Western countries more broadly consider this revolution dangerous because it has proven itself to be a powerful people’s challenge to US imperialist domination of the Americas. Since kidnapping Maduro, the US has escalated its economic and military threats against Cuba and Nicaragua, extrajudicially assassinated hundreds of Caribbean fishermen, and sponsored fascist candidates and interfered in elections across the region. The scope of this revived imperialist project in the Western Hemisphere is broad but its foundations are weak.

The Venezuelan communes, the backbone of the Bolivarian project together with the military-civil defense alliance, stand firm against US threats and escalations, as do the revolutionary projects in Cuba and Nicaragua. The people of Bolivia continue to fight against their neocolonial government with widespread street protests, labor strikes and demonstrations. In Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Honduras the people overwhelmingly came out against fascist presidential candidates in recent highly contested elections, showing their support for regional sovereignty through the ballot box. The revived imperialist project across the Americas lacks an organic basis; it is a house of cards that will fall. History has proven as much. In the 1980s and 1990s, following decades of dirty wars and violence led by US-trained and backed military juntas, many parts of the region liberated themselves from the clutches of empire, proving the region has the capacity and political will to defeat the Yankees and their traitorous compradors. It will do so again.

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As AISC detailed in Red Paper #1, this attack is an existential conflict between US imperialism and the sovereignty of Nuestra América. The US war against Venezuela has had two interrelated aims: escalating the counter-revolutionary assault on states that overturned imperialist property structures to reverse surplus value drain, and weakening the architects of an emergent polycentric world order. Venezuela was targeted because it was reclaiming its sovereign power—directing surplus value to the masses and forging stronger economic, diplomatic and military relations with other anti-imperialist states, particularly China and Iran. This disrupted capital's ability to superexploit labor and dominate Venezuela’s energy resources, disrupting imperialism's material basis: control over resource and capital flows. This is why a dying US imperialism prioritizes Venezuela's destruction, especially as its bases of control and extraction are destroyed in West Asia.

Anti-imperialist forces globally have responded to the US attack, decapitation of leadership, and expansion of imperialist control over resources with condemnations, protests, labor actions and grassroots mobilizations. States like China and Russia have demanded Maduro's immediate release, with Russia calling the capture an "unacceptable encroachment on sovereignty."[3] Iran condemned the attack as an act of "state terrorism" and a "manifest violation of the Charter of the United Nations,"[4] while Cuba mobilized mass demonstrations denouncing "an era of barbarism, plunder and neo-fascism." North Korea denounced the "rogue and brutal nature of the US,"[5] and even Spain refused to "recognize an intervention that violates international law."[6] South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa “utterly reject[ed]" the US actions, demanding Maduro's immediate release and calling upon the UN Security Council to intervene,[7] while his ruling African National Congress officially slammed the military raid as an act of "US imperialist aggression."[8]

The Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective echoes this outrage and stands firmly with the Venezuelan people as they defend their sovereignty and self-determination. We unequivocally recognize Nicolás Maduro as the legitimate president of the people and country of Venezuela.

AISC demands:

  1. The immediate liberation and repatriation of President Maduro and First Lady Flores.
  2. The immediate release of all Venezuelan export earnings under US Treasury control to the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV); the return of all other seized Venezuelan state assets, including CITGO and Venezuela’s stolen gold.
  3. The immediate lifting of all US unilateral coercive measures against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, its officials, and associated entities to allow the country to resume global trade relations on its own terms.
  4. The immediate withdrawal of all US imperialist & zionist military assets and bases from Venezuela and the region more broadly, consistent with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States’s (CELAC) 2014 declaration of the Americas as a "zone of peace."
  5. The US payment of reparations to Venezuela for the destruction inflicted in the January 3 bombing, as well as for the economic losses incurred to the people of Venezuela by US sanctions since 2015.
  6. Justice for the families of the over two hundred fishermen extrajudicially executed by US forces in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific since 2025.[9]

As a collective committed to challenging US-led imperialism and supporting the sovereignty and national liberation of the Global Majority, AISC calls on all anti-imperialist forces in the US and across the world to unite in defense of Maduro and the Bolivarian Revolutionary Project of Venezuela, including its central institutions, the communes and civil-military defense alliance. The defeat of US imperialism remains the fundamental task confronting those fighting for equality, justice, and peace.

We call on all organizations, unions, and faith groups, especially in the US and Canada, to take whatever actions they can to release and repatriate President Maduro and First Combatant Flores and defend the sovereignty of Venezuela and the broader Americas. This includes issuing similar statements and resolutions, organizing protests and pickets, and joining the monthly protests in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on the 3rd of every month until President Maduro and First Combatant Flores are freed and repatriated.

Read our full analysis in AISC Red Paper #1: "The Terms of Struggle in Venezuela: Imperialism vs Sovereignty".

Notes

[1] American Friends Service Committee, “What You Need to Know about the U.S. Attack on Venezuela,” AFSC, 2026, afsc.org/news/what-you-need-know-about-us-attack-venezuela .

[2] “U.S. Military Command That Attacked Venezuela Gutted Its Civilian Harm Team,” Airwars, 12 Jan. 2026, airwars.org/citations/u-s-military-command-that-attacked-venezuela-gutted-its-civilian-harm-team .

[3] "Russia condemns U.S. armed aggression against Venezuela at UN Security Council." China.org.cn, 6 Jan. 2026, http://www.china.org.cn/world/Off_the_Wire/2026-01/06/content_118263528.shtml .

[4] "Iran's statement at a UN Security Council meeting on Venezuela." China Daily, 6 Jan. 2026, https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202601/06/WS695c4261a310d6866eb321cc.html .

[5] "DPRK FM spokesperson strongly denounces the US hegemony-seeking act committed in Venezuela." Global Times, 4 Jan. 2026, https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202601/1352232.shtml .

[6] "Spain will not recognize US intervention in Venezuela, PM says." Investing.com , 3 Jan. 2026, https://www.investing.com/news/economy-news/spain-will-not-recognize-us-intervention-in-venezuela-pm-says-4428530 .

[7] "South Africa utterly rejects U.S. military action in Venezuela: president." China.org.cn , 7 Jan. 2026, http://www.china.org.cn/world/Off_the_Wire/2026-01/07/content_118265368.shtml .

[8] "Anti-imperialist protest held outside U.S. Consulate in South Africa." Xinhua, 23 Jan. 2026, http://www.china.org.cn/world/Off_the_Wire/2026-01/23/content_118297255.shtml .

[9] See María Teresa Ronderos et al., "Bombed, Without the Right to a Defense: The Faces behind the 179 Killed in Trump's Southern Command Attacks," EL CLIP, 2026, www.elclip.org/bombardeados-sin-derecho-defensa-comando-sur-victimas-caribe-pacifico/?lang=en ; and "Trump Condemned for 200+ Extrajudicial Killings After Yearlong Murder Spree at Sea," Common Dreams, 2 Sept. 2026, www.commondreams.org/news/boat-strikes .

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