DSA Lawrence statement against the kidnapping and war in Venezuela

January 3rd, 2026

"This kidnapping and these acts of war violate international law and the UN Charter."
DSA Lawrence

In the early morning hours of January 3rd, 2026, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. had launched airstrikes against Venezuela and that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife had been forcibly removed from the country by U.S. forces. Major U.S. outlets confirmed that U.S. special operations units carried out the seizure of Venezuela’s internationally recognized head of state. This kidnapping and these acts of war violate international law and the UN Charter.

This action is also a continuation of U.S. colonial campaigns, which began in April 2002 to seize resources in Venezuela and the global south. At that time, the United States backed a coup against Venezuela’s democratically elected president at the time, Hugo Chávez. Chávez. He was kidnapped, removed from office, and briefly replaced by an unelected business leader who immediately moved to privatize Venezuela’s oil industry and dissolve democratic institutions. That coup collapsed only after mass popular mobilization restored Chávez to power. Today, the U.S hopes to replace Maduro with María Corina Machado, who openly announced she would sell off 1.7 billion dollars of Venezuelan assets to the U.S.

U.S. aggression toward Venezuela is rooted in a decades-old doctrine for colonial control of the Western Hemisphere. Since the Monroe Doctrine, the United States has claimed Latin America as its sphere of control. The Trump administration has since revived calling it the "Donroe Doctrine". Its 2025 National Security Strategy declares U.S. “preeminence” in the Western Hemisphere and asserts the right to own or control “strategically vital assets,” openly framing Latin America as a colonial domain to be denied to China and other rivals.

Venezuela is targeted because it refuses to be subordinate to private corporations. It holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves alongside major deposits of gold and critical minerals. In 2007, Chávez nationalized the oil industry, ejecting U.S. corporations that refused minority stakes. Since then, U.S. officials, including Trump himself, have openly claimed Venezuela’s resources “belong” to U.S. companies.

Kansas has a role to play in all this. Our state is a hub of aviation and defense production, generating nearly $7 billion annually. Kansas produces roughly 35% of U.S. general aviation aircraft and approximately 70% of embedded aircraft systems used worldwide, components central to modern military operations, surveillance, and force projection. Kansas military installations and manufacturing capacity are part of the infrastructure that makes U.S. colonial expansion possible.

Most importantly, Venezuela has also played a vital role in building a multipolar world, supporting regional unity through ALBA and CELAC, standing with Palestine, and aligning with Global South movements resisting imperial domination. This is one of the many reasons Venezuela has been repeatedly targeted.

As Kansans and Lawrencians, we must reject the use of our labor and resources in the service of empire. We call for an immediate end to U.S. military aggression against Venezuela, the release of all abducted officials, and the withdrawal of U.S. forces. We demand our representatives oppose funding for this war and the colonial doctrine behind it.