The Belgian Committee for Peace in Venezuela, Latin America and the Caribbean, organizing meetings in Brussels to support Venezuela, states:
“The aggression against Venezuela is not new and has not begun with Donald Trump. Earlier there was an attempted coup against President Hugo Chávez in 2002. Barack Obama declared Venezuela in 2015 to be « a brutal and extraordinary threat ». The governments of the United States have imposed more than 1000 unilateral coercive measures (« sanctions »). In 2018, an attempt was made to assassinate President Nicolás Maduro. In 2019, an attempt was made to appoint a puppet president. In the same year, a failed invasion also took place.
The criminal military aggression carried out by Donald Trump’s genocidal administration against Venezuela on January 3, 2026, has claimed more than a hundred lives, including Venezuelan and Cuban civilians and military personnel. During the attack, President Nicolás Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores were scandalously kidnapped, which is a blatant violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations.
Donald Trump’s administration has encouraged this colonial and mafia expedition to get their hands on the world’s largest oil reserve. Trump has indicated that his administration’s next targets are Cuba, Mexico and Colombia, reviving the Monroe Doctrine, which aims to control the Western Hemisphere, and indeed the entire world.
In Europe, there is a lot of talk about the ‘opposition leader’ Maria Corina Machado. She is in reality a vassal of Trump and a convinced anti-Palestinian one. As a member of the radical right, which can be described as fascist, she demands more sanctions against her own people, she has asked for her own country to be bombed without thinking about the hundreds of people who would die in the process, she is in favor of the privatization of resources such as petroleum, and she has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025! In 2026, she shamefully handed the Nobel Peace Prize to Donald Trump, leading to condemnations worldwide. This criminal does not actually enjoy any support in her country, and Donald Trump knows that all too well. He will use all means to achieve his goal. Not only to appropriate Venezuelan oil, but also to destroy the hopeful experiment of the Bolivarian revolution.
Let us support the Venezuelan people in their resistance to this despicable imperialist attack.”
Venezuela Rodriguez current politics
For her first foreign visit, on April 9, 2026, Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, visited Grenada to meet Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell and explore with him sectors of cooperation including oil, education, air and sea transport. Rodriguez thus confirms the fundamental orientation of Bolivarian diplomacy, which prioritizes relations with the countries of the Caribbean: “We have set the date for the launch of a comprehensive cooperation program that is likely to integrate other Caribbean countries”
Before taking the plane, the president addressed the Venezuelan people in a public speech. She first took an overview of a decade of economic blockade by the United States and the European Union, and then made the following announcements:
1️. Ban on the privatization of hydrocarbons and thus of the state oil company PDVSA. Hydrocarbons remain public property, in accordance with the Constitution.
2️. Overall, controlled and sustainable wage increase from May 1, Workers’ Day, linked to the new partially released hydrocarbon revenues.
3️. Demand for the “social protection system” and the “pay-as-you-go pension system” as they “coined by Comandante Chávez”.
4️. Gradual restoration of the balance of the pay-as-you-go pension system―”pierced” by sanctions―through the reconstruction of the “legal concept” of wages and therefore of workers’ contributions, which are also “pierced” by the blockade.
5️. Proposal for the reform of the real estate market to recover about 500,000 unoccupied homes, with “guarantees from the Venezuelan state” so that they are made available to young people and young families.
6️. The eventual recovery of “assets and resources blocked abroad”―through the lifting of certain sanctions―will be invested directly in the productive economy.
7️. Launch of a two-week national and international campaign to demand the lifting of all unilateral coercive measures imposed by the US and the EU.
All of these announcements are contingent on the lifting―especially by the United States―of all the horrific sanctions that have burdened the country over the past decade. This is what the government and the Venezuelans themselves are demanding. The new organic law on hydrocarbons was wrongly presented by some people as a privatization of oil, when it is not.
“Yes, the law facilitates certain types of contracts with the private sector that Venezuela was already using to circumvent the blockade, especially with China.
“No, it does not take away the exclusivity of the state over the final decisions and sovereignty over oil resources. Article 40, which recalls that ‘the Republic shall retain ownership of hydrocarbon deposits.’ This also referred to the country’s constitution (which has not been amended) in Articles 302 and 303, which reserve the oil business as well as ‘all the shares of PDVSA’ to the state”.
“Yesterday, the president not only cut off any debate on the privatization of hydrocarbons, which will not take place. And she has repeated it several times since January 3. Because on the other hand, there is the famous ‘Nobel Peace Prize Winner’ that campaigns for a pure and hard privatization of PDVSA and national strategic assets.
“The anti-Delcy campaign led by Washington consisted mainly of symbolically humiliating her, presenting her as submissive and under command. But the constitutional order has not changed one iota since January 3. And saying this does not detract from the observation of the enormous pressure under which the country finds itself…”
Two major earthquakes that rocked Venezuela on 24 June 2026 left thousands of children in need of safe shelter, clean water and urgent care. UNICEF has scaled up an emergency response, working alongside the Government of Venezuela and other humanitarian partners to reach children and their families with healthcare and nutrition support, water and sanitation, and psychosocial and protection services. The World Food Programme (WFP) is on the ground in Venezuela, providing logistics, food and other assistance. Many countries, from South America and elsewhere have sent donations, materials and teams of engineers, doctors and construction specialists to Venezuela. The US have sent soldiers, with the intention to stay in Venezuela.