First statement after the attack.
First statement after the attack.
In response to the US attack, the Venezuela government made a first written statement. UWI publishes the first official statement from Caracas below.
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela rejects, repudiates, and denounces before the international community the grave military aggression perpetrated by the current government of the United States of America against Venezuelan territory and its population in the civilian and military areas of Caracas, the capital of the Republic, and the states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira. This act constitutes a flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations, especially Articles 1 and 2, which enshrine respect for sovereignty, the legal equality of states, and the prohibition of the use of force. Such aggression threatens international peace and stability, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean, and seriously endangers the lives of millions of people.
The objective of this attack is none other than to seize Venezuela’s strategic resources, particularly its oil and minerals, attempting to forcibly break the nation’s political independence. They will not succeed. After more than two hundred years of independence, the people and their legitimate government remain steadfast in defending their sovereignty and inalienable right to determine their own destiny. The attempt to impose a colonial war to destroy the republican form of government and force a “regime change,” in alliance with the fascist oligarchy, will fail, just as all previous attempts have.
Since 1811, Venezuela has confronted and defeated empires. When foreign powers bombarded our shores in 1902, President Cipriano Castro proclaimed: “The insolent foot of the foreigner has profaned the sacred soil of the Fatherland.” Today, with the spirit of Bolívar, Miranda, and our liberators, the Venezuelan people rise up once again to defend their independence against imperial aggression.
People in the streets
The Bolivarian Government calls upon all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilization plans and condemn this imperialist attack. The people of Venezuela and their Bolivarian National Armed Forces, in perfect popular-military-police unity, are deployed to guarantee sovereignty and peace. Simultaneously, the Bolivarian Diplomacy of Peace will raise the corresponding denunciations before the UN Security Council, the Secretary-General of that organization, CELAC, and the Non-Aligned Movement, demanding the condemnation and accountability of the US government.
President Nicolás Maduro has arranged for all national defense plans to be implemented at the appropriate time and under the appropriate circumstances, in strict adherence to the provisions of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Organic Law on States of Exception and the Organic Law of National Security.
In this regard, President Nicolás Maduro has signed and ordered the implementation of the Decree declaring a state of external emergency throughout the national territory, to protect the rights of the population, the full functioning of republican institutions, and to immediately transition to armed struggle. The entire country must mobilize to defeat this imperialist aggression.
He has also ordered the immediate deployment of the Command for the Integral Defense of the Nation and the Governing Bodies for Integral Defense in all states and municipalities of the country.
In strict adherence to Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, Venezuela reserves the right to exercise legitimate self-defense to protect its people, its territory, and its independence. We call upon the peoples and governments of Latin America, the Caribbean, and the world to mobilize in active solidarity against this imperial aggression.
As Supreme Commander Hugo Chávez Frías pointed out, “in the face of any new difficulties, no matter how big or small, the response of all patriots…is unity, struggle, battle and victory.”
Caracas, January 3, 2025