Greek Communists denounce despicable and dangerous stance on Venezuela by government, bourgeois parties

Demonstration in solidarity with Venezuela outside the US embassy in Greece -- image via X

The government and bourgeois parties in Greece have taken a despicable and dangerous stance on developments in Venezuela

The government’s position and the prime minister’s statements on developments in Venezuela, together with the reactions of other bourgeois parties and their sham quarrel over who best defends “international law”, constitute a monument to shame, promoting military involvement to serve the interests of capital.

After hours of silence, the prime minister posted a pathetic statement, repeating the ridiculous pretexts for the crude and blatant intervention, effectively recognizing the “right” of the USA to organize coups, overthrow governments and intervene wherever it suits its interests.

“This is not the right time to comment on the legality of recent actions”, crudely asserts Kyriakos Mitsotakis in his post, discarding even what they call “international law” and using it whenever it suits them to justify their crimes.

Once again, the masks fall, revealing what drives the relations between capitalist states and the foreign policy of both the current and previous governments: the interests and profits of capital, the plundering of natural and energy resources, and the fierce, relentless competition for control over “spheres of influence” and markets. This is the quintessence of their imperialist laws.

The other bourgeois parties, through their statements and interventions, have only heightened the hypocrisy and whitewashing of the real motives behind the military attack on the Venezuelan people.

PASOK, SYRIZA, New Left (the social democratic parties in Greece) and others denounce the intervention as “Trumpism”, glossing over the fact that aggression towards the peoples of Latin America —and beyond— has been the policy of all US administrations, Democratic and Republican alike, treating the region as a “backyard” and “zone of strategic interest” for the US bourgeoisie against its competitors, China and Russia.

Indeed, it was under the Democrats that the “national emergency for Venezuela” was declared in 2015, along with related sanctions, which were later extended alongside coup attempts and bargaining, such as the joint management of oil resources by the US Chevron and the Venezuelan state-owned company.

As for the complaints about violations of “international law” by “the law of the powerful”, these are the same people who cheered the overthrow of Assad in Syria and recognized jihadists as a “transitional government”, imposed by the US and its allies.

They are the same people who, two years ago, erased seven decades of Israeli occupation of Palestine, speaking of “Israel’s right to self-defence”, parroting the pretexts of “terrorism” used by the murderous state of Israel and its Euro-Atlantic allies to justify genocide against the Palestinian people.

They glorify the EU, which even recognized Venezuela’s coup leader Guaidó, while fully covering up US intervention and whitewashing all pretexts, confirming its decisive contribution and participation in the criminal plans against the Venezuelan people.

There are also those who present themselves as “anti-system” figures within the system, such as Konstantopoulou (former president of the Hellenic Parliament, former SYRIZA member and current president of the Course of Freedom party), who remained silent until last night regarding the dirty US intervention. When she finally spoke, she complained that the US attack was carried out “without any democratic legitimacy, completely ignoring Congress”, repeating the familiar platitudes about violations of “international law”.

Velopoulos (president of the Greek Solution party and former New Democracy member), after prolonged silence, rushed to echo the imperialist pretexts regarding “drug trafficking” in Venezuela. Once again, it is clear that their fake “anti-systemic” stance amounts to nothing more than a doormat for US-NATO.

Standing in opposition to all of them and their dangerous stance towards the people is only the KKE. From the outset, it condemned this imperialist crime and expressed unwavering solidarity with the people of Venezuela, affirming that they alone are responsible for deciding and determining their own future and that of their country.

The mass rallies on Saturday in Athens outside the US embassy, and in other cities provided an initial, immediate response and sent a clear message: the government and other parties have no right to involve the people in dirty US-NATO plans that ignite new hotbeds of war and bring closer the threat of a general conflagration.

Published in Rizospastis, the organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece