Since early September, the Trump administration has been carrying out attacks on fisherman boats, killing dozens of people. The attacks are under the claim that these boats are connected to drug cartels despite zero supporting evidence. The United States “Department of War” is carrying out violations that threaten Venezuela’s sovereignty, pushing towards an all-out war that would have devastating consequences for the people of Latin America and the working class in the United States.
At the same time, Trump during his second term has escalated aggression against Cuba, redesignating it as a “State Sponsor of Terrorism” after Joe Biden removed it from the list in the last days of his presidency. For Cuba, this designation, along with the decades-long U.S. blockade, results in severe shortages of medicine, food, fuel, and basic necessities. Trump’s administration has also cracked down on Cuba’s medical missions to other countries, falsely accusing the government of “forced labor” and “human trafficking” and suspending the visas of high-ranking Latin American and African officials facilitating these programs.
Those of us who live in the belly of the beast shoulder a profound responsibility to stand with Venezuela and Cuba. As U.S. politicians have time and time again abandoned its working class at home, it was these socialist governments that — despite their own domestic challenges brought by ongoing U.S. aggression — extended material help and solidarity in times of crisis.
Chavez’s Bolivarian government delivers fuel to South Bronx
In 2005, then-president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez visited the South Bronx in New York City during the 60th UN General Assembly session. This came after a dozen U.S. Senators wrote a letter asking the 10 largest oil companies to use their record profits to help low-income families pay for home heating oil – CITGO Petroleum Corporation, a Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela’s national oil company, was the only corporation to heed the call. The South Bronx was, and continues to be, one of the poorest Congressional Districts in the United States. During his trip to New York City, Chavez was invited to visit the neighborhood by its Congressional Representative Jose E. Serrano, a Democrat who at one time also invited Fidel Castro to the South Bronx. Chavez spent several hours talking to grassroots community organizations spanning from environmental justice struggles to women of color collectives.
The visit resulted in a three-year program that took off from 2007-2010 with Venezuela providing $1 million annually. Petro-Bronx, a coalition of grassroots organizations and residents, formed and put control of how the funds were used in the hands of a neighborhood comprised of 500,000 working people. Hundreds of thousands of households, shelters, and Indigenous tribes benefited from the Petro-Bronx initiative. This agreement also led to the economic recovery of the South Bronx within the first year of its implementation. Venezuela’s contributions to supporting the South Bronx are fondly remembered by its residents.
Serrano stated of Chavez: “He related to the Bronx, because in so many ways it was just like the Latin America that he wanted to change … He felt very comfortable with the people, and the people felt comfortable with him. You can’t deny the work he did in the Bronx.”
Over the course of eight years, Citgo donated 7 million gallons of heating oil. Solidarity between Chavez’s government and the working and poor in the Bronx was undeniable, especially in a period where the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama gave virtually no material support to one of the poorest districts in the nation.
Cuba and Venezuela’s hand of solidarity to victims of Hurricane Katrina
Two decades ago, Hurricane Katrina cut through the Gulf Coast of the United States, devastating cities in places such as Florida and Mississippi. New Orleans’ majority Black residents experienced the brunt of the disaster, exposing the veins of deep structural inequality, racism, and governmental neglect in the United States. Over 1,800 people died while millions were internally displaced in the midst of a calamitous government response in the initial days of the disaster from the Bush administration. The city abandoned its people, leaving roughly 16,000 to 30,000 stranded in the Louisiana Superdome for seven days. Conditions in the dome rapidly deteriorated with generators failing, sanitation nonexistent, and plumbing giving out. Tens of thousands slept in pools of urine, toilets were backed up, and critical supplies such as food and baby formula ran out. There are varying reports that list at least 10 people died while trapped in the Dome.
As the disaster unfolded in the first few days, it was the Cuban government that extended a formal offer of unconditional solidarity. On Sept. 2, Fidel Castro announced that Cuba was ready to send a medical brigade of 1,586 doctors, equipped with 36 tons of medical supplies. Castro stated that they could move their medical brigade in groups of 100, arriving within 12 hours of permission being granted. This level of readiness and preparation from Cuba’s world-renowned doctors came from the experience of providing free and socialized healthcare to millions of people across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In the same year Chavez sent heating oil to the South Bronx, the Venezuelan government – through the CITGO Petroleum Corporation – pledged to donate $1 million towards Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Venezuela’s offer included two mobile hospital units, 120 rescue and first aid experts, and 50 tons of food.
The Bush administration ultimately refused both offers, despite Louisiana’s then-governor Kathleen Blanco reportedly welcoming the assistance. This rejection, rooted in Cold War-era hostilities of the U.S. capitalist class, cemented deep consequences for the victims of the storm with one Black resident famously stating, “Where was our government? We were left to die.” In that moment, the priorities of the U.S. government revealed the weakness in its inability to respond to a major crisis while rejecting desperately needed aid from its southern neighbors.
Fund people’s needs, not the war machine!
The U.S. is continuing to punish the people of Venezuela through sanctions, covert operations, and diplomatic recognition of opposition figures like Maria Machado. In their prioritization of fueling the war machine with trillions to the Pentagon, they simultaneously neglect economic relief and stability for the working class in the United States. The United States’s hostility contrasts with Cuba and Venezuela’s internationalism. Whether it be 2005 or 2025, the United States’s rule book of imperialism remains fundamentally incapable of solving very real domestic and international crises.
Despite Venezuela feeling the weight of U.S. sanctions, the Bolivarian government under Maduro sent 46 tons of aid to Cuba and Jamaica to support the two nations affected by Hurricane Melissa. Additional preparations are underway to send Cuba 3,000 more tons of aid. This aid delivery takes place on the 25th anniversary of the Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement signed by Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro. This agreement laid the basis for the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA). Cuban Ambassador Jorge Mayo Fernandez said, “While the empire pressures and threatens the peoples of our America, sister Venezuela crosses the Caribbean with ships and planes of solidarity — planes of love.”
People of the Americas want peace and regional cooperation. When our class suffers here at home, it’s other countries and their population that continue to defend a life of dignity over capital. The international community has already shown that it rejects the U.S. blockade against the Cuban people and the violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty!
Feature image: Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Credit: Flickr/Newsmuse (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
