The United States aggression against Venezuela with the illegal kidnapping of its constitutional president, Nicolás Maduro, activated the Latin American left which reacted in a united manner expressing a joint condemnation against the treacherous action.

There were popular protests, expressions of denunciation, the burning of the North American flag and of Uncle Sam dolls, the symbol of the United States, returned to the streets of several countries, a spectrum of political parties and diverse organisations repudiated the intervention, and almost 700 parliamentarians from the hemisphere and other regions of the world signed a condemnation statement.

Even presidents who were critical of Maduro following the last Venezuelan elections like the Chilean Gabriel Boric, the Brazilian Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva and the Colombian Gustavo Petro raised their voices in unison to reject the hegemonic warlike meddling.

Union, social and human rights defending groups declared themselves in a state of permanent mobilisation against the detention of Maduro, and are organising simultaneous protests in what they termed an anti-imperialist day towards the end of January.

«We must set aside differences to unite in concrete actions: declare a day of rebellion of the peoples’ conscience; a continental stoppage; mobilisation and reflection of the diverse social, political, cultural and scientific sectors,» exhorted the Argentine Nobel Peace Prize winner, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.

His call sounded strong when representatives of almost a hundred Argentine organisations congregated at the headquarters of the Autonomous Workers’ Central of Argentina on Monday the 5th, and decided to hold a protest that same day in front of the US embassy in Buenos Aires.

The reaction against the illegal offensive by Washington begins to articulate on a continental key, with a common message: faced with the military and diplomatic escalation of the United States, the street, international pressure and regional coordination reappear as the principal tools of resistance, describes elDiarioAR.

The exhortation of the Nobel Peace Prize had an almost immediate echo. In barely 24 hours later, the São Paulo Forum headed a multisectoral meeting with political and social leaders from across Latin America to reject US interference in Venezuela.

At the call in the CTA-A the Declaration «In defence of sovereignty, international law and regional peace!» was presented, which in 24 hours had already been signed by 634 legislators from the region and the rest of the world in rejection of the bombings perpetrated against Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.

The meeting at the CTA-A was a demonstration of that union, from Peronism to Trotskyist left, from social movements to unions, from human rights groups to cultural groups, the anti-Yankee cause crossed diverse ideological expressions but with a common denominator.

The São Paulo Forum, historic articulating hub of the Latin American left, which was promoted among others by Lula da Silva, Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro, held on Tuesday the 6th a virtual summit in which over 120 leaders from various countries and spaces participated.

Opinions and ideas were shared by representatives from the Group of Puebla, the Progressive International and the South World Group. Representatives from the Morena coalition, which governs Mexico; from the Colombian Historical Pact, and the former British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, now a parliamentarian, joined.

The former Argentine ambassador in Venezuela, Oscar Laborde, stated after the meeting, according to elDiarioAR, that it was a meeting to define how the left movements of Latin America will collaborate against the kidnapping of Maduro.

The participants agreed on a common framework of action: reject the US appropriation of natural resources and common goods, condemn the military approach to Venezuelan territory and insist on an immediate de-escalation of US aggression in the Caribbean.

With a calendar still in development for the so-called «Solidarity Meeting with Venezuela» they set as possible dates the 28th and 29th of January, when the twelfth anniversary of the declaration of Latin America and the Caribbean as a «Zone of Peace» by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States is commemorated.

Equally, they analysed holding a «Continental Anti-Imperialist Day», probably in Colombia, Mexico and Cuba.

Following new threats from President Donald Trump during the week, telephone exchanges took place between Lula, Petro and the Mexican head of state Claudia Sheinbaum.

elDiarioAR advances that in February, Colombia will host the CELAC–African Union summit. In parallel, social movements and popular organisations are preparing in Bogotá a people’s summit to demonstrate for Venezuela and against US foreign policy. Furthermore, on the 24th of February there will be a specific activity on agrarian reform and peasant movements.

The activation of Internationalist Solidarity Brigades that would travel to Venezuela in the short term was also agreed. These are composed of doctors, lawyers and other professionals that the Caracas government needs.

The warlike intervention by Washington also sparked numerous protest demonstrations during the weekend in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Cuba, Mexico and Germany, among other countries.

The general secretary of the CTA-A, Hugo Godoy, stated that the continent’s unions decided to be in permanent mobilisation to build bridges with anti-Trump sectors within the United States itself.

The president of the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas, the American Fred Redmond, backed a statement of repudiation «of the US military aggression and the violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty.»

That space maintains links with politicians like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. «Trump doesn’t only put Latin America at risk: he oversteps all norms of international relations,» affirmed Godoy.

Although it does not share Maduro’s views – notes elDiarioAR – the progressivism spoke out against Trump. The Progressive Alliance of the Americas, which brings together from Santa Fe socialism to forces of European social democracy, for example, maintained that «democracy cannot be kidnapped nor imposed by force.»

Thus, the Venezuelan crisis once again functioned as a catalyst for a left-wing political and social fabric that seemed dispersed in the face of the advance of the continental far-right headed by Trump from Washington and the Argentine Javier Milei from Buenos Aires.

Amidst this tide of rejections new voices emerge, young people until now unknown who assume committed stances, as is the case of the American Jessica Plitcha, who was arrested by the police for expressing to her country’s press her harsh criticism against Trump.

The agents took her to the police station accused of obstructing traffic, but as they could not prove the charges they had to release her, and Jessica upon leaving the room where they were holding her and arriving at the lobby of the station where friends and supporters of the cause were waiting for her, the first thing she did was shout in Spanish: «Long live Venezuela! Long live Maduro!»