"We will defend our homeland": Venezuela pledges to resist after US bombings and apparent kidnapping of Maduro

The Trump administration had threatened that it would carry out land strikes against Venezuela for months, and even declared that the government of Venezuela is a “terrorist organization”, interpreted as a pre-text for bypassing the US Congress in order to take unilateral military action.

Caracas under bombardment -- image via X

By Zoe Alexandra & Devin B. Martinez, People's Dispatch

Explosions were reported at key military bases and other sites across the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and surrounding areas in the early hours of Saturday, January 3. The Venezuelan government said in an official statement that the attack was perpetrated by the United States and constitutes a “grave military aggression” against “Venezuelan territory and population”.

In a post on his Truth Social platform after the attack, Trump said that the Venezuelan president had been removed from the country by the US, with more details to come in a press conference in Mar-a-Lago at 11 am.

“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country.”

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez spoke to Telesur shortly after and confirmed that “Following this brutal situation and brutal attack, we are unaware of the whereabouts of the President Nicolás Maduro and that of the First Lady Cilia Flores.”

Rodríguez demanded that the Trump administration “provide immediate proof of the life of President Maduro and of the first lady.”

She addressed the Venezuelan people and informed that, “President Maduro was already very clear and had already warned the Venezuelan people that an attack of this type could take place because of the United States’ desperate greed for energy [resources] … He has given very clear instructions to the Bolivarian Armed Forces so that in perfect military, popular, and police unity, all plans to defend the homeland would be activated … We demand respect for international law. We condemn this brutal and savage aggression against our people that has cost the life of officials, members of the military, that become martyrs of our homeland, and that has cost the lives of innocent Venezuelan civilians.”

Rodríguez declared: “We will defend our homeland. No one can undermine the historic legacy of our liberator Simón Bolívar. The Venezuelan people in perfect national unity should be active to defend its natural resources, and should be active to defend the most sacred that a homeland can have, which is its right to independence, its right to the future, its right to have a free homeland without any of external tutelage and not becoming anyone’s colony. We will never again be slaves, We are sons and daughters of Bolívar. And we once again demand an immediate sign of life of Nicolás Maduro and a sign of life of the first lady, the first combatant, Cilia Flores.”

The airstrikes come after repeated threats by US President Donald Trump that his government would soon carry out “land strikes” against Venezuela. The first of which reportedly occurred on December 30, when Trump announced that the US had bombed a docking facility on the coast of Venezuela. 

An “attempt to impose a colonial war”

The government in Caracas has called the bombing campaign an imperialist attack by the United States and an attempt to “impose a colonial war”. 

“The objective of this attack is none other than to seize Venezuela’s strategic resources,” reads the communiqué. “Particularly its oil and minerals, attempting to forcibly break the political independence of the Nation.”

According to sources in Venezuela, the targeted sites include:

• Tiuna Fort – major military complex in the southwest of Caracas

• La Carlota Base – airbase/airport in Caracas

• La Guaira Port and Naval Command – port facility and naval command located in La Guaira state

• Higuerote Airport – airport in the coastal town of Higuerote, in the state of Miranda

  
  

María Corina Machado, the far-right Venezuelan opposition figure and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, told CBS News in mid-December she was fully supportive of Washington’s recent strategy against her country. When asked if she’d welcome US military action in Venezuela, the Nobel laureate did not rule it out.

“I will welcome more and more pressure so that Maduro understands that he has to go,” she said.

Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López reported in a statement two hours after the attacks that “missiles and explosives were launched from US helicopters and aircraft,” and that civilian areas were also hit in the attacks. As of now, the casualties are still being counted.

In response, the Venezuelan government has activated all of its national defense plans “to guarantee peace and sovereignty” and “to immediately transition to armed struggle”.

“Today, with the spirit of Bolívar, Miranda, and our liberators, the Venezuelan people rise once again to defend their independence in the face of imperial aggression.”

From boat strikes and piracy to open war

The US airstrikes are a massive escalation in its recent military campaign against the Bolivarian nation.

In December, the US began seizing Venezuelan oil tankers in the Caribbean Sea by force, as Trump bragged that they would “keep the oil”. The Maduro government called the seizures of oil “acts of piracy”. The White House, on the other hand, continued pursuing Venezuelan oil ships, claiming that the nationalization of Venezuelan oil in the 1970s amounted to “theft” from the United States.

This justification confirmed suspicions, both in Caracas and around the world, that the recent US aggression against the South American nation is driven by economic factors rather than national security concerns or drug trafficking.

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