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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://resumen-english.org/2025/11/geopolitics-resistance-and-the-battle-for-venezuela/">resumen-english.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Geopolitics, Resistance and the Battle for Venezuela</h1>
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<p>By Cira Pascual Marquina on November 23, 2025</p>
<p><em><strong><img src="https://i0.wp.com/resumen-english.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/11-26-atilio-boron.jpg?resize=300%2C169&ssl=1" alt="" width="300" height="169"></strong></em></p><p><em><strong>A
Conversation with political theorist Atilio Borón provides a
comprehensive analysis of Washington\u2019s new military activity in the
Caribbean and how to resist it.</strong></em></p>
<p><em>With US warships stationed off Venezuela\u2019s coast and a new
regional right-wing bloc forming under Washington\u2019s tutelage, the
Western hemisphere is entering a volatile phase. Yet today\u2019s
confrontation unfolds in a world very different from the one that
allowed the US to dictate regional politics with little resistance in
the past. China\u2019s rise, the return of progressive governments in key
countries, and projects like the Bolivarian Revolution challenged US
power. In this changing landscape, few analysts have been as persistent
or as lucid as Argentine Marxist thinker Atilio Borón.</em><span id="gmail-more-32744"></span></p>
<p><em>Here, Borón offers a broad and urgent reading of the current
escalation: why Venezuela remains a strategic target, how Washington is
trying to reorganize the continent, and what lessons can be drawn from
Hugo Chávez\u2019s political and pedagogical legacy. His analysis covers both
the dangers of the present moment and the strengths that could prevent a
wider military attack from the empire.</em></p>
<p><strong>How do you understand the current continental situation and
specifically Washington\u2019s recent military build-up and attacks in the
Caribbean?</strong></p>
<p>Latin America has long been described as a continent in dispute, and
today that dispute is sharper than ever. The region has become the most
important arena in a global contest in which the United States is trying
to reassert control to oppose new actors that are gaining ground.</p>
<p>For decades, Washington largely relied on soft power to manage the
hemisphere. What we are witnessing now, however, is an open display of
brute military force. I would even dare say\u2014although this deserves
deeper study\u2014that this is the largest imperialist air-naval military
buildup in our region since the October 1962 Missile Crisis.</p>
<p>Why? Because the world system is undergoing a dramatic
transformation. There is no returning to the global landscape of fifteen
years ago. New actors have emerged with decisive weight, fundamentally
reshaping geopolitics. Take China: in the late twentieth century and
even at the start of this century, US strategists hardly took it
seriously. I recall attending a major international seminar in Buenos
Aires in the late 1980s where US economists projected that China would
only begin to matter around 2030. History has proved them spectacularly
wrong.</p>
<p>Let\u2019s look at the numbers. In 2000, total trade between Latin America
and the Caribbean with China was about $12 billion a year. By 2005\u2014the
year the US-led Free Trade Agreement of the Americas was defeated in Mar
del Plata\u2014that figure had already jumped to $50 billion. By 2024,
according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
[ECLAC], it had reached approximately $538 billion. This alone helps
explain why US foreign policy today can be summarized in three words: <em>keep China out.</em></p>
<p>But the problem for Washington is that keeping China out is no longer
possible. China is already the main trading partner for Brazil and
Chile, likely for Colombia as well, and the second-largest for Mexico
and Argentina. And globally, China maintains significant economic
ties\u2014through trade, investment, or both\u2014with more than 140 countries. <em>China is here to stay.</em></p>
<p>India also has a growing presence in the region, though with a lower
profile, while Russia plays a role in infrastructure and defense
projects in several countries. All of this is unfolding in a region that
is extraordinarily rich in natural resources\u2014resources the United
States desperately needs.</p>
<p>Take the case of rare earth minerals. Roughly 80% of known global
deposits are in China, and China controls close to 90% of the world\u2019s
processing capacity. Some Latin American countries have smaller
reserves, and Washington is now scrambling to secure access to them in
Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and even Venezuela.</p>
<p><strong>How does this new global balance of power affect Washington\u2019s strategy in Latin America and the Caribbean today?</strong></p>
<p>First, it\u2019s important to understand the new situation in the region.
Unlike the early 2000s, when progressive governments confronted the
imperialist order openly and in a relatively unified bloc, today the
landscape is more mixed. There was indeed a conservative reflux, but the
old status quo was never fully restored, and new progressive dynamics
have emerged.</p>
<p>Mexico now establishes cautious but meaningful limits to US pressure.
For the first time in 200 years, Colombia has a popular government
under Gustavo Petro. Honduras is governed by Xiomara Castro, and her
party\u2019s next candidate, Rixi Moncada, is leading the polls. Venezuela
continues to resist in ways few expected, despite the enormous weight of
<a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/sanctions-kill/">unilateral coercive measures</a>, while Cuba remains a beacon for the region.</p>
<p>Washington is desperately trying to assemble a new anti-Venezuela,
anti-Cuba, anti-Nicaragua axis. It leans heavily on figures such as
Argentina\u2019s Javier Milei, El Salvador\u2019s Nayib Bukele, and the
narco-linked Daniel Noboa in Ecuador.</p>
<p>This is what\u2019s behind what some are calling a kind of \u201cmini-FTAA\u201d: a
draft free-trade agreement between Argentina, Ecuador, El Salvador,
Guatemala, and, of course, the United States. But in reality, this is
more than a trade agreement. It is an imposition. Of its nineteen
restrictive provisions, sixteen are US demands. Consider the absurdity
of allowing the export of live cattle from the United States to
Argentina, a country whose very identity is tied to its cattle industry.</p>
<p>But beyond this desperate attempt to pry open markets, Washington\u2019s
real objective is straightforward: lithium, rare earth minerals, and
hydrocarbons. Everything else is secondary.</p>
<p><strong>Why does Venezuela remain a central target for Washington, and what explains the US\u2019s new military escalation?</strong></p>
<p>Venezuela has always been considered a high-priority security concern
for the United States. Historically, US oil corporations played a
decisive role in exploiting Venezuela\u2019s oil fields. However, that
changed after Hugo Chávez came to power, and later, these companies lost
even more ground as a consequence of the US\u2019 own blockade against the
country.</p>
<p>Today, global oil markets are more strategic than ever, and geological surveys confirm that Venezuela holds the largest proven <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/infographics/subsoil-bonanza-venezuelas-natural-resources/?swcfpc=1">oil reserves</a> in the world\u2026 greater even than those of Saudi Arabia!</p>
<p>These reserves have an additional strategic advantage: they are just
four to five days away from US refineries, compared to roughly
thirty-five days from the Persian Gulf. This means shipping is cheaper
and safer, especially given that the US maintains around forty military
bases overseeing the Caribbean. With such advantages at stake, it is no
surprise that the Bolivarian Revolution\u2019s nationalization of the oil
industry and its affirmation of national sovereignty proved intolerable
to Washington.</p>
<p>The United States has tried every conceivable means to break Venezuela: the 2014 and 2017 <em><a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/tag/guarimbas/">guarimbas</a></em>;
the unilateral coercive measures that have killed tens of thousands;
the farce called \u201cJuan Guiadó\u201d\u2014famous only for its absurdity\u2014which
nonetheless enabled the theft of Venezuelan assets such as <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/tag/citgo/">Citgo</a>; and now the disgraceful Nobel Peace Prize for <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/tag/maria-corina-machado">María Corina Machado</a>, a figure deeply associated with political violence.</p>
<p>Having failed on all these fronts, Washington is now turning to
military options. Yet these, too, are extremely complex. When the US
invaded Panamá in 1989 to remove Noriega, it deployed 26,000 Marines,
and it still took a month to secure Panama City.</p>
<p>The idea of invading Venezuela is the stuff of pure fantasy, and US
strategists probably know it. Still, Washington might adopt an
\u201cIsraeli-style\u201d strategy: striking critical infrastructure such as the
Guri Dam, refineries, or airports, inflicting enormous damage. Yet this
approach also has its limits: if the US intends to seize Venezuela\u2019s
oil, it cannot destroy all of the country\u2019s energy infrastructure in the
process.</p>
<p>What makes the situation especially dangerous is Trump\u2019s instability
and recklessness. His personal and legal crises\u2014including documented
links to Jeffrey Epstein\u2014have eroded confidence in him even among
Republicans.</p>
<p>Given this scenario, Venezuela must call for international solidarity
and decisive political action. China, in particular, should respond to
the US naval escalation in the Caribbean by deploying its own fleet
around Taiwan, without firing a single shot. Such a move would send an
unmistakable message: aggression has consequences. If Washington attacks
Venezuela today, it will move against China tomorrow. A preemptive
signal is therefore essential, both for China\u2019s security and for
Venezuela\u2019s.</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_32746" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-32746" src="https://i0.wp.com/resumen-english.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/b_1567.jpg?resize=228%2C300&ssl=1" alt="" width="228" height="300" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-32746" class="gmail-wp-caption-text">foto: Bill Hackwell</p></div>
<p><strong>What is the importance of Hugo Chávez\u2019s legacy during this time of imperialist aggressions?</strong></p>
<p>Chávez is an extraordinary figure in contemporary history, not only
of Venezuela, but of our continent and the world. He revived the
Bolivarian legacy and the emancipatory vision of Latin America\u2019s
independence movements, restoring the principles of national sovereignty
and self-determination at a moment when they had been gravely eroded.</p>
<p>One of his greatest achievements was the political education of the Venezuelan people, carried out not only through <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/tag/alo-presidente/">Aló Presidente</a>
but through countless public interventions and, above all, by example.
This helps explain why the popular response to the recent call for
voluntary enlistment in the <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/opinion/millions-of-venezuelans-join-volunteer-militias-as-us-attacks-continue/">Bolivarian Militia</a>
was so massive. It is never easy to ask people to risk their lives for
their country, but Chávez\u2014and now President Maduro\u2014have succeeded
because the <em>Comandante</em> planted a seed that took deep root in the idea of the <em>Patria Bonita</em>: a beloved and dignified homeland.</p>
<p>Today, we must do everything possible to prevent the imperialist
offensive against Venezuelan soil from being carried out. The situation
is dangerous not only for Venezuela, but for the entire continent and
indeed for the world. Pete Hegseth, the current US Secretary of
War\u2014someone with no battlefield experience, and a figure with a record
of racism and misogyny\u2014adds to the danger through sheer incompetence.</p>
<p>It\u2019s no coincidence that Admiral Alvin Holsey, a seasoned military
professional, resigned as head of SOUTHCOM after seeing what was being
planned. Thanks to Venezuela\u2019s preparedness, its alliances, and its
global connections, the country is far from isolated. It has important
international relations. For these reasons, I believe the worst-case
scenario can still be avoided. But if Venezuela is attacked, one thing
is certain: there will be unity and the will to defend the <em>Patria</em>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/interviews/geopolitics-resistance-and-the-battle-for-venezuela-a-conversation-with-atilio-boron/">Venezuela Analysis</a></p>
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