Hands Off Venezuela!: Release Political Prisoners Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores

“¡Váyanse al carajo, yanquis de mierda! Que aquí hay un pueblo digno.” — Presidente Hugo Chávez

Al-Ahrar Palestinian Prisoner Support vehemently condemns the United States of America’s blatant war of aggression against Venezuela and the reprehensible kidnapping of democratically-elected President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.

We stand against the attempts of reactionary warmongers like Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and María Corina Machado to destabilize and invite foreign intervention against the sovereign nation of Venezuela.

We express our utmost solidarities with the Venezuelan people against imperialist attacks and strongly affirm the Venezuelan peoples’ right to self-determination.

Get Involved! Local Calls to Action in Toronto

January 17, 2026 — No War on Venezuela! Art Build (location and time to be announced)

January 24, 2026 — No War on Venezuela! Rally at the Toronto U.S. Embassy at 1 pm

Follow Venezuela Solidarity Coalition on Instagram and keep an eye out for more solidarity actions.

Or grab some comrades and plan your own!

Timeline of Recent Escalations

September 1, 2025 — The United States launches “Operation Southern Spear” with the goal of heightening military and surveillance interventions against Venezuela under false pretenses alleging drug trafficking
September 1, 2025 — The United States bombs a small civilian speedboat under false pretenses of drug smuggling, marking the U.S. military’s first publicly-acknowledged airstrike in Latin America since the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989
December 10, 2025 — The United States launches a piracy operation, illegally sanctioning and blockading oil tankers moving in and out of Venezuela
December 18, 2025 — The United States military murders by airstrike four more people in international waters
December 30, 2025 — The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) admits to carrying out a drone strike on a coastal port facility in Venezuela earlier in December
January 3, 2026 — The United States aggressively airstrikes several sites in Venezuela, including the Miraflores presidential palace, and kidnaps democratically-elected President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores, making them political prisoners
Current casualties — 115 murdered, 2 kidnapped and repatriated, 2 kidnapped and taken as political prisoners, unknown missing

Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores are Political Prisoners

The political kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores is a violent breach of Venezuela’s sovereignty and a prime example of incarceration being used as a tool of imperialism.

Yankee imperialism has historically used incarceration as a means of strong-arming the Global South into submission, from the countless documented cases of American abuses and torture at Abu Ghraib in occupied Iraq and Guantanamo Bay in occupied Cuba to the hundreds of Venezuelan migrants deported to the Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT) maximum-security prison in El Salvador.

Launched by the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in 1999, the Bolivarian Revolution still stands staunchly against carceral violence, expressed by President Maduro identifying CECOT as a “concentration camp” and denouncing American kidnapping, deportation, and incarceration of hundreds of Venezuelans within CECOT and the resultant kidnapping of these prisoners’ children by channelling them into the American foster care system.

In a unipolar world led by American hegemony, the simple acts of identifying the brutality of criminalization, improving the material conditions of the Venezuelan people, and asserting the right to your nation’s own resources are considered “crimes” worthy of political kidnapping and incarceration.

President Maduro, Cilia Flores, and the Venezuelan people are at the forefront of the global fight against imperialism—this is why the U.S. fears their leadership and sees no choice but to condemn them to political imprisonment.

As we know from the Palestinian movement, prisoners are the vanguard, the leadership, and the compass to liberation. This will only strengthen the resolve of the Venezuelan people to resist intervention and occupation.

As revolutionary Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh says, “When the prison doors are opened, the real dragon will fly out.” President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores’ liberation is inevitable and their return to Venezuela will only invigorate the Venezuelan masses’ determination.

Terrorism and “Narco-Terrorism”

The U.S. State’s weaponization of the term “terrorism” against projects of national liberation in the Global South is nothing new.

Unfounded “narco-terrorism” accusations against President Nicolás Maduro are nothing but fabricated propaganda to manufacture consent for war against Venezuela. By U.S. officials’ own words, Cartel de los Soles is not real. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has just pardoned Honduran ex-president who was convicted of drug trafficking.

It is extremely rich for the U.S. to accuse President Maduro of drug trafficking and narco-terrorism when, by the U.S. Government’s own reports, they themselves trafficked drugs into American communities in the 1980s during yet another regime-change project in Latin America; the CIA was involved in the Nicaraguan Contras’ cocaine trafficking operations that funnelled drugs into low-income communities across the U.S.

As Al-Ahrar Toronto has said before,

The Palestinian Resistance themselves have faced the racist, colonial label of “terrorism” for decades, as have many other revolutionarries before them. It is crucial that we reject these designations first and foremost. The Palestinian Resistance and their allies in Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran are freedom fighters who defy imperialist conquest at every turn.

Just as the Palestinian Resistance and their people have done on their path to liberation, President Maduro chose the revolutionary path of upholding the Bolivarian Revolution to liberate Venezuela from the asphyxiation of capitalist-imperialism. In his attempt to improve the lives of the Venezuelan people with their full and enthusiastic support and participation in this process, the imperialists targetted and labelled him a “terrorist”.

Musa Springer reminds us that, “‘Terrorism’ has been grounded in western epistemology as any threat to the west, to the Amerikan empire, and any group or person whose political violence can be labeled as an enemy of alleged western democracy.” Decades of being steeped in white supremacist rhetoric, the term merely functions as an extention of empire.

We must reject with the strongest opposition so-called “terrorist” accusations and ultimately abandon the word altogether.

The Global Imperial Project

What the U.S. is doing in Venezuela is nothing new. But why Venezuela?

Attacking Venezuela’s sovereignty is a clear threat towards other Latin American left-wing governments, especially Cuba and Nicaragua. The U.S. has a pattern of overthrowing left-wing governments, one of their goals being to intimidate other sovereign nations into submission.

Destabalizing Global South states for political and material gain is the primary tool through which America maintains global dominance. Donald Trump invoking the colonial Monroe Doctrine (now affectionately referred to as the “Donroe Doctrine” by his supporters) makes this more clear than ever.

China has become the world’s largest trading partner with Latin America, which the U.S. views as a threat. The U.S. seeks to cut off ties between Venezuela and other countries that threaten its global dominance, such as Iran and Russia.

Venezuela has also positioned itself as a steadfast ally to other revolutionary struggles in the Global South, unapologetically displaying solidarity with Palestine, Iran, and African nations, especially revolutionary nations in the Sahel region such as Burkina Faso and Niger.

From West Asia, to Africa to South America, the playbook of invading sovereign nations and forcing regime change has not changed. America is now threatening the soverignty of Venezuela to steal Venezuela’s resources and extend its violent imperial control over the region.

Canada’s Cowardice

Al-Ahrar Palestinian Prisoner Support condemns the cowardly statement shared by Prime Minister Mark Carney on the United States’ actions in Venezuela.

Given Canada’s role as an extension of the American empire, Mark Carney’s cowardly statement comes as no surprise.

Carney arrogantly states that he does not recognize Maduro’s legitimacy, as if it is up to the lapdogs of empire to determine which governments are or are not legitimate. He props up American propaganda by referencing “human rights violations and corruption” by the Venezuelan government and laughably claims respect for the democratic will of the Venezuelan people.

As a settler-colonial state built on stolen land, and one that has been funding and supporting the destruction of Palestine and the genocide against its people, Canada’s, and Carney’s, position on the legitimacy of Maduro’s presidency holds no weight.

As citizens of this settler-colonial state, it is crucial for us to see past the language of democracy and human rights that so-called Canadian elected officials rely on to manufacture consent for the dominance of the American empire.

We Must Mobilize

As the American empire violates the sovereignty of yet another nation to feed its hunger for war and domination, the need to mobilize to destroy this empire has never been more crucial.

We call on local organizations, community groups, and community members to mobilize in support of Venezuela against American aggression. The fight against American imperialism must be unified, from Palestine, to Venezeula to anywhere in the world where America seeks to enforce its hegemony.

Our role within the imperial core is to destabilize the American propaganda machine from within. This means that in a crucial moment like this, we must never compromise our anti-imperialist stance and risk lending legitimacy to American propaganda that uses the false pretense of “human rights” to manufacture consent for its atrocities across the globe.

The discourse on Maduro being a dictator, a “terrorist”, or any other allegation is rampantly circling in liberal circles, and even in leftist circles, within the imperial core. Engaging in this discourse on any level only props up American propaganda to legitimize its atrocities against Maduro and the Venezuelan people. It is of utmost importance that we as anti-imperialists refuse to engage in any bad faith discussions about Maduro as a president, the democratic process in Venezuela, or any other discourse about the internal politics of Venezuela.

Our stance must be firmly that the internal politics of Venezuela are not ours to discuss and judge. The Venezuelan people have an inalienable right to self-determination.

Our role as anti-imperialists is to oppose any and all attempts by the American empire and its lapdogs like Canada to threaten the soverignty of any nation, particularly nations of the Global South who are fighting the battle against American hegemony.

Solidarity from the Palestinian Resistance Movement

Al-Ahrar Palestinian Prisoner Support uplifts the statements of solidarity from Palestinian resistance organizations.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) —

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine denounced what it called an “imperialist American aggression” on Venezuela, including airstrikes and missile attacks on Caracas and civilian, residential, and military sites, casting it as a new episode of ‘organized American terrorism” against sovereign states. The Front declared “unlimited” solidarity with President Nicolás Maduro and argued Venezuela is being punished for an anti-hegemony stance and for backing Palestine, portraying Washington’s pretexts as a cover for “imperial piracy” and resource theft. It affirmed Venezuela’s right to resist “by all forms,” urged a unified international progressive front, and warned the escalation risks igniting wider conflicts.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) —

Palestinian Islamic Jihad condemned the U.S. assault on Venezuela as an escalating campaign, from blockade to direct strikes, aimed at domination, occupation, and plunder, and a flagrant breach of sovereignty and international law. PIJ framed Venezuela as targeted for its steadfast support for Palestine and regional resistance forces, describing the struggle as part of a shared anti-imperialist battle. It declared full solidarity with Maduro’s government and called on global liberation movements to oppose the aggression and defend the principle of self-determination.

Hamas —

Hamas condemned the U.S. attack on Venezuela and the alleged kidnapping of President Maduro and his wife, calling it a grave violation of international law and the sovereignty of an independent state. The movement cast the assault as an extension of unjust U.S. interventions driven by imperial ambition that have destabilized multiple countries and threatened international peace. Hamas urged the UN, especially the Security Council, to take measures to stop the attack immediately.

Hezbollah —

Hezbollah condemned what it described as U.S. terrorist aggression and bullying against Venezuela, including strikes on civilian and vital infrastructure and the alleged abduction of Maduro and his wife, calling it an unprecedented violation of sovereignty and UN norms. Hezbollah framed the attack as part of Washington’s wider project of domination, resource extraction, and war-making, accusing the U.S. and “israel” of shared colonial behavior and warning the assault threatens any independent state resisting hegemony. It affirmed full solidarity with Venezuela and urged governments and “free peoples” worldwide to denounce the attack and support Venezuela’s right to defend its sovereignty.

Viva Viva Venezuela!

Alerta, alerta, alerta que camina, la espada de Bolívar por América Latina!