In June 2025, a twelve-day war left Israel suffering from fuel supply scarcity following the retaliatory response of Iran to its provocative surprise attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities. Many refineries used by Israel were damaged, including the largest one – the Haifa plant. The drone damage to the refineries forced Israel into an import surge, including of Venezuelan oil, for the first time in seventeen years. A shipment of Venezuelan oil to Israel was arranged a month after the unlawful US invasion of Caracas and removal of Nicolás Maduro as leader in Venezuela.
This article argues that the US invasion on Venezuela constitutes a violation of international law and operates as an advancement of imperial interests in the Middle East by fuelling Israeli military capabilities to continue its occupational attacks on Palestine and other sovereignties.
A Brief History of US and Venezuela Relations
The United State’s bloody history as a global power in Latin America stretches over half a century. From Mexico to Argentina, attacks on sovereignties have been marked by overthrowing governments and supporting opposition militias, to advance the international imperial-capitalist interests of the US and its allies, including in Venezuela.
In 1948, the first democratically elected president, Rómulo Gallegos, wished to impose a fifty percent taxation on foreign oil companies in the country. That same year, Gallegos’ government was overthrown by Pérez Jiménez, who became president in 1952 and had favourable policies for US oil interests, receiving a Legion of Merit by the US shortly after. This history sets the tone for the present and helps us understand the current struggles of the people in the face of US imperialism.
Anti-capitalist and anti-US imperialist Hugo Chávez took office in 1999 and suffered from a failed coup in 2002 in which US officials had met with Venezuelan military agents and opposition activists. Chavez renationalised the oil industry in 2007, transferring operational control from foreign oil giants to the state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela. Two years later, Venezuela severs ties with Israel and halts oil exports to the occupying state in Palestine. Amid Venezuela’s economic crisis, in 2020, the South American state sent oil barrels to Israel, being the first and last known shipment made to the occupying state between 2009 and 2026.
While pushing foreign oil giants’ interests in the country, Venezuela strengthened its ties with Russia, China, and Iran. Chavez died in 2013, paving the way for the presidency of Nicolás Maduro, which was marked by increased inflation and economic decline. Between 2014 and 2017 – under Barack Obama and Donald Trump’s administrations – the US imposed sanctions on Venezuela, plunging the state into an economic crisis, and leading to extreme food and medicine shortages. In 2018, Maduro is controversially re-elected for another term and the US expands its sanctions on Venezuela. As leader of the opposition party, Juan Guaidó declared himself interim president and was recognised as such by Washington and its allies; while the US continued widening sanctions on Venezuelan industries. In the next election criticised by the United Nations for its conduct, authorities announced Maduro as the winner, though the results had been heavily disputed.
The country’s deteriorating economic conditions deeply hurt the Venezuelan people, worsening domestic political unrest and leading to protests that were met with violence by Maduro’s brutal government and police. Over a hundred people were killed. Renowned political scientist and international relations scholar, John Mearsheimer, spoke about US sanctions as a strategy to starve people and make them rise against their governments; citing a study by The Lancet which found that between 1971 and 2021, US sanctions led to the death of thirty-eight million people. Mearsheimer referenced Venezuela as one of the target states of this strategy.
The Twelve-Day War and Israel’s Oil Crisis
On the 13th of June 2025, Israel attacked Iran, striking nuclear facilities, killing key military commanders and nuclear scientists.
The initial Israeli attacks were carried out by two-hundred jets, hitting around a hundred targets, while Iran retaliated by firing a hundred drones back. During this time, the US contradicts itself by originally stating that its ally’s attacks were unilateral, but later warning of further attacks if Iran refuses to give up its nuclear program. The occupying state in Palestine justified the attacks as being preventive, relying on fearmongering tactics by pointing out Iran’s nuclear warheads.
The unprovoked attacks on the night of the 13th constituted a violation of international law, as Israel’s justification for the attacks as self-defence were baseless; an Iranian nuclear attack was neither imminent nor a future possibility based on the available evidence. The war continued for the following twelve days, causing casualties on both sides.
Among the thousand retaliation missile attacks by Iran, ninety percent were intercepted by Israel’s defence systems. However, Iran did render Israel’s Haifa refinery non-operational, inflicting severe damages to pipelines and transmission lines caused by missile strikes. This led to a shutdown of the refinery and its subsidiaries, causing Israel to become a net oil importer, stripping away its “self-sufficiency” and forcing it to turn to its Western allies for oil. By December 2025, Israel still relied on imports to meet local demands.
Unlawful Attacks on Caracas
Israel Delgado
Under Joe Biden, the US government kept a policy of engagement and dialogue with Venezuela. However, Trump’s destabilising presidency reversed this, escalating tensions between the two states before invading Caracas and abducting Maduro and Cilia Flores. Trump politically instrumentalised the growing anti-immigration sentiment in the country to accuse Maduro of driving Caribbean migration to the US and for fuelling drug trafficking activity in the region. Furthermore, the Trump administration masked military buildup in the Caribbean Sea as an “anti-trafficking campaign” aimed at neutralising threats to US national security. The operation instead aimed to uphold the global hegemony of the United States.
On January 3rd 2026, operation “Absolute Resolve” began with bombing military locations in Caracas and disabling Venezuelan air defence systems. In a perfectly curated mission to abduct Maduro and Flores, Delta Force troops broke into their compound and kidnapped them by helicopter. After Trump labelled Maduro leader of the Cartel de los Soles, which was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation by the US Department of State, this attack was justified to arrest the couple on drug-trafficking charges. United States’ officials have also relied on the rhetoric of good and evil, based on West-versus-Rest dichotomous relations, arguing, without evidence, that Maduro was allowing Hezbollah a base in the Western Hemisphere.
International Political Order
The invasion of Venezuela that led to the abduction of Maduro and Flores, and the death of civilians in Caracas, is a violation of international law, with many warning it could further destabilise the international order.
When Western states were suffering from the consequences of their own actions and desperately needed a change of narrative, they drafted and signed the UN Charter in 1945. Today, the United Nations still vests its powers from the Charter, considered a binding treaty between its member states, and comprises the main principles of international relations, including the foundations of state sovereignty.
Article 2(4) of the UN Charter reads: “All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations”. And though international law does authorise foreign intervention in some cases, it is legal within the frame of self-defence or with the authorisation of the UN Security Council, both of which were not met in the context of the US military invasion of Venezuela.
These US actions should be considered a provocative attack on the territorial integrity of Venezuelan sovereignty and an initiation of armed conflict with the country. The imperial state’s pretext for the invasion of Venezuela, be it the liberation of its people from an illegitimate leader or an anti-drug trafficking operation, does not constitute legal justification.
Moreover, even if the US did not want to constrain itself with international legal processes, and officials of the Trump administration were eager to liberate Venezuelans from the wrath of Maduro and communism, it must be considered why, then, they pushed for revoking the Temporary Protection Status of 348,000 Venezuelans in May 2025, sending them right back to the belly of the beast.
J.f Manzanero
A Convenient Oil Shipment
The US attack on Venezuela came less than a week before a meeting between Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, while further violating international law by threatening Iran with the use of force after the twelve-day war ceasefire. The capture of Maduro further paved the way for US appropriation of Venezuelan oil, which it audaciously claimed as “rightfully theirs” during vilifying discourses against Venezuela’s nationalisation policies. A month after the unlawful invasion, Venezuelan oil was exported to Israel, and once Israel’s oil was refuelled, the United States and the colonial state in Palestine began their unlawful bombings on Iran and reignited a war in the Middle East.
A Demand for Justice
Israel’s oil scarcity was replenished through the US violation of international law and the UN Charter, further fuelling the current war with Iran. This has led to the death of civilians in the Middle East, and a focus shift from Palestine while Israel continues its assault on Gaza and the West Bank.
The actions taken by global and regional hegemonic powers determine the outcome of units in the international system which advance their imperial-capitalist interests. We cannot treat the lives and futures of people as mere pawns that serve the greedy interests of the few. Even those who violate international law understand it, masking their actions as “bringing democracy” or “liberating the people from tyranny”.
This is not a claim of clean hands at the level of the Venezuelan and Iranian regimes. We condemn the violations of both governments towards their people and support the liberation of Venezuelans and Iranians, however, by their own terms, and not the terms of foreign forces that strike their lands and economies.
We, at Activists Without Borders, call for:
- The United States and Israel to stop their assaults on Palestine and first strike attacks on countries in the Global South.
- The United Nations to address the relentless violations of international law that are destabilising the international system and leading to the disproportionate deaths of people in the Global South.
- An end to the long tyranny of the Global North and their appropriation of the role of saviours.
