WGC Statement in Solidarity With Venezuela and Towards Latin American Caribbean Sovereignty

From the Women and Gender Constituency, we emphatically reject imperialism and its violent military and financial intervention. We shall not forget the attacks by the United States against the Venezuelan people, and we reiterate our international solidarity.

The recent actions of the United States cannot be justified under the imperialist discourse promoted by the Donald Trump administration of “defending democracy” or “fighting to eradicate drug trafficking.” From a feminist and anti-imperialist perspective, we recognize the continuation of a project of destabilization, occupation, extermination, and colonialist domination that has historically used Latin America and the Caribbean as a territory of extraction, control, and sacrifice in the service of corporate power.

We reject the ongoing unilateral economic sanctions, financial blockades, trade restrictions, interventionism, and criminalization narratives by the United States, which have been normalized by countries in the Global North and by the far right in our region. In Venezuela, as in many other countries, unilateral coercive measures have had documented effects that have deepened barriers to access to food, medicine, and essential services such as health and education — all vital for advancing toward systems grounded in care. These restrictions have deepened gender inequalities, economic injustices, and the care burdens that historically fall on women, gender non-conforming people, children, Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant communities, and rural communities.

Dispossession is not abstract in the body-territory: the territories that are disputed are also bodies that become ill, are forcibly displaced, provide care in precarious conditions, or are used as currency for political pressure. Imperial logic treats territories as resources and people as collateral damage. This same logic is evident in the dispute over oil, biodiversity, and minerals deemed critical for a few, where geopolitical interests take precedence over people’s right to decide upon their lives.

The attacks against Venezuela represent a flagrant violation of international law and an attack on its territorial integrity, sovereignty, and the Venezuelan people’s right to self-determination. They also constitute a serious violation of Article 2 of the United Nations Charter, which prohibits the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity and political independence of States. This intervention is not limited to a single country in the region, but constitutes a threat to global security, sovereign equality, and the self-determination of peoples, and is part of the continuum of the genocides in Palestine, Sudan, Western Sahara, among many other territories.

Given this situation, a structural transformation of the multilateral system is urgently needed to respond effectively to the challenges of global governance and the interests of the majority, rather than those of transnational corporations. Evading the structural causes of multiple crises through vague commitments, corporate solutions, and rhetorical discourse is a direct affront to the people of the world. The criminal intervention against Venezuela and the resulting attacks on the international order highlight the urgent need to dismantle power asymmetries, corporate capture of political decision-making, and mechanisms of concentrated wealth accumulation.

From the WGC, we call for the efforts of the UN80 initiative to respond to the reality of the South and not to corporate interests that perpetuate imperialism. It is time to move towards a systemic transformation in which care, not capital, takes precedence. Along the same lines, we call on all Member States to promote the candidacy of a Secretary-General committed to multilateralism and human rights, and to uphold their promise to prioritize women and gender-nonconforming candidates.

We firmly reject any form of imperialist intervention that deepens the suffering of peoples and limits their self-determination. The solution to the multiple crises we face cannot come from sanctions, blockades, forms of tutelary governance, or external threats, but rather from sovereign and democratic processes.

We call on the international community, particularly the governments and organizations of the Global North, regions where power is concentrated, to challenge imperialist logic and its establishment, and to advocate for respect for collective human rights.
In a regional context where authoritarian, denialist, and ultra-conservative discourses are resurgent, it is essential to maintain a clear position: there is no climate, social, or gender justice under imperialism. Defending Venezuela against external aggression also means defending the right of our territories to exist without being constantly disputed by interests that are alien to life.