U.S. Hands Off Venezuela!
U.S. Out of Latin America and the Caribbean!

Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network Statement
November 2, 2025

The Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network (CWPJN) condemns the escalating U.S. threats of war against Venezuela and the rapidly expanding presence of U.S. military forces in the Caribbean. As a coalition of peace and antiwar organizations in Canada, we also unequivocally condemn Prime Minister Mark Carney for his government’s silence in the face of the Trump administration’s murderous gunboat diplomacy in the region and call on him to distance himself from any further US attacks on the national sovereignty of Venezuela.

Since the first extra-judicial executions on September 2, 2025, the U.S. military has continued to bomb small boats, killing at least 57 people in international waters off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia. These extrajudicial killings have been facilitated with the use of high-tech surveillance systems designed and manufactured in Hamilton, Ontario. As reported in the CBC article, “Canadian tech helped U.S. strike alleged Venezuelan drug boats: report”, (October 6, 2025) “an investigation by Project Ploughshares has confirmed that both operations relied on advanced electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor systems built in Hamilton, Ontario, by L3Harris WESCAM.” In the face of this example of Canadian complicity, the Liberal Carney government needs to speak out in international forums, such as the United Nations, to condemn the Trump administration’s assassinations as a flagrant violation of international law.

In early August, the U.S. government began the dangerous and provocative build-up of naval forces in the Caribbean. As of November 2, 2025, the United States has deployed at least 10,000 troops alongside guided missile destroyers, F-35 fighter jets, Blackhawk helicopters, a nuclear-powered submarine and numerous other warships and aircraft. The USS Gerald R Ford, the world’s largest warship, is reportedly on its way to the region from where it has been stationed in Europe. It needs to be pointed out in this context that, even to threaten the use of force against a member state, is a violation of Article 2 of the UN Charter.

The Trump administration has attempted to justify this military escalation under the guise of fighting a “war on drug traffickers.” However, the U.S. has provided no evidence at all that any of the people murdered were drug traffickers, or that the destroyed boats had any drugs on board. In fact, families of the people brutally murdered have stated that their loved ones were fishermen with no connection to the illegal drug trade. Furthermore, there is no evidence at all that Venezuela is a country associated with the trafficking of drugs to the United States. The United Nations 2025 World Drug Report barely mentions Venezuela, only noting that 5% of cocaine from Colombia is trafficked through Venezuela. The “drug-trafficking” allegation is merely the latest version of the (non-existent) “weapons of mass destruction” used as the pretext for the bloody Anglo-American attack and occupation of Iraq in 2003.

On October 24th, the U.S. also announced sanctions against the President of Colombia Gustavo Petro, an escalation of previous threats made against Colombia, which shares a large land border with Venezuela. Colombia used to be a reliable vassal of the US empire in South America. Now, however, with Petro’s election and lack of compliance with US foreign policy (for instance on Palestine), Colombia is also on the Empire’s chopping block.

For more than two decades, since the beginning of the Bolivarian revolutionary process in Venezuela, the government of Canada has stood beside the United States throughout its covert and overt interventions in violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty and self-determination. In fact, former Global Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland took a leading hemispheric role in the regime change operation by helping to create the infamous “Lima Group” which sought illegally to replace duly elected Venezuelan President Maduro with a pretender called Juan Guaido. Canada supported the U.S. blockade against Venezuela and imposed its own unilateral and illegal economic sanctions. This genocidal policy, referred to as a “war without bombs” by US-backed Venezuelan dissidents, such as Nobel Prize-winner Maria Machado, continues to kill Venezuelans and turn millions into refugees by denying access to food, medicines, and basic goods. It’s shameful that our federal government continues to support this latest regime change operation by the US, following the catastrophes it (and NATO) caused in countries such as the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, and Haiti.

As peace and antiwar activists, we also recognize that the Trump administration is not just planning to plunder Venezuela for its vast resources, including oil, gold and coltan. U.S. threats of regime-change against President Maduro are most importantly an attempt to destroy Venezuela’s independence from U.S. foreign policy as it attempts to regain its waning hegemony over Latin America and the Caribbean. The government of President Maduro today, and President Chavez previously, has fiercely defended Venezuela’s sovereignty in the face of U.S.-led imperialist attacks, and stood up against Zionism, imperialism, and colonialism. As just one example of that independence, the government of Venezuela broke diplomatic relations with Zionist Israel in 2009 and today continues to stand firmly on the side of Palestinians against US-Israeli genocide.

The Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network (CWPJN) calls on people across Canada to join in the growing worldwide movement demanding “US: Hands Off Venezuela!” We must be prepared to take to the streets against the murderous U.S. war machine threatening to bring death and destruction to Venezuela and the region. We must support the right of the people in Latin America and the Caribbean to sovereignty and self-determination.

Please join with the Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network and our 50+ member groups to demand “U.S. Hands Off Venezuela!” and stay tuned for any calls to action.

The Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network has endorsed the “No War on Venezuela” call to action at https://unac.notowar.net/no-war-on-venezuela-all-out-for-a-week-of-emergency-protests This call to action includes a week of emergency protests November 15–23, and actions within 24 hours of any major U.S. escalation against Venezuela. We encourage CWPJN members and all antiwar and peace organizations to register their actions at https://unac.notowar.net/no-war-on-venezuela-action-registration and with the CWPJN at canadapeaceandjustice@gmail.com

U.S. Hands Off Venezuela!
U.S. Out of Latin America and the Caribbean!