Defense Brigade “21st Century Che Guevara” Statement No.1
1. The plunder spearheaded by the US imperialist military is intensifying. In November, deploying the Gerald R. Ford nuclear-powered aircraft carrier strike group to the Caribbean, the United States illegally seized two tankers loaded with Venezuelan crude oil in December, stealing some four million barrels of oil and it is currently pursuing another vessel. Under the guise of a “war on drugs,” the Trump administration smeared drug-free Venezuela as a “narco-state” and labelled some civilian fishing vessels in the Caribbean as “drug-trafficking boats,” attacking around 30 vessels by the end of last December and killing more than 100 people. Now, as it hijacks tankers and steals their oil, Washington has even dropped the false pretext of a “war on drugs” and is indulging in piracy while simultaneously threatening to cause the collapse of Venezuela’s anti-imperialist people’s government and launch a ground invasion. In particular, by seizing oil bound for China and blocking tanker movements, it is carrying out a blockade not only against Venezuela but also against China and Cuba, thereby ramping up its push for hegemony and aggression across the Americas.
2. The sovereignty, peace, dignity and lives of the peoples of Latin America are under severe threat. The US President Trump is using the “war on drugs” to threaten Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico; the “war on terror” to threaten Cuba and Nicaragua; and a “trade war” to threaten Brazil. Pro-US fascist forces in Latin America are frenziedly trying to destroy anti-imperialist people’s governments, unleashing far-right riots and acts of terrorism such as the Venezuelan “Guarimba,” Mexico’s “Generation Z” protests and the murders of progressive figures in Colombia. During Honduras’ recent elections, 14,000 ballot papers were found to have been tampered with in favour of a pro-US far-right candidate, and Trump threatened to impose economic sanctions if that candidate lost. Although Honduran President Xiomara Castro denounced the election as a “coup,” the Honduran election commission declared the pro-US candidate the winner without completing the official count. In Ecuador, where a pro-US neoliberal government is in power, an illegal US military base is being built, and in Argentina, amendments to the Glacier Protection Law, stemming from a bilateral agreement with the United States, are being pushed, which could jeopardize drinking-water supplies.
3. The greatest and highest priority task facing humanity today is the overthrow of imperialism. To launch World War 3 in earnest over the past year, the imperialist warmongering forces have forcibly pushed for the “militarization” and rearmament of Europe and ignited localized wars in every flashpoint across Europe and Asia. By “approving” the introduction of nuclear-powered submarines to the ‘Republic of Korea (ROK)’ and instigating Japan’s transformation into a military superpower, they are also intensifying the war crisis in East Asia. To the ‘ROK,’ US imperialism is a daylight robbery and an occupying force; to Venezuela, it is an invading force and a plunderer. The current “Second Caribbean Crisis” demonstrates that Venezuela is the first line of the anti-imperialist struggle; if it falls here, the crisis will expand to Cuba and the rest of Latin America, and World War 3 will enter its full-scale phase. The slogan of the International Brigade fighters that shook Spain 90 years ago―“¡No Pasarán! (They shall not pass!)”―remains the banner of struggle and the banner of justice applied today in the ‘ROK’ and Venezuela. As long as imperialism exists, the sovereignty and peace of world humanity can never be realized. The overthrow of imperialism is justice and morality. The people of the world, firmly united in the world anti-imperialist front, will rise up in a general mobilization for the anti-imperialist resistance to finish off imperialism and hasten the global independence and a new world centered on the people.
January 1, 2026
Gwanghwamun, Seoul
Defense Brigade “21st Century Che Guevara”