Chris Slee , like all Marxist-Communists , is criminal garbage

 Criminally colluding or criminal negligence,  take your pick.

" . . .  Chris claims that "The Venezuelan government's response was two-fold.  On the one hand it put on a display of popular readiness to defend the country.  On the other hand it wanted to avoid panic, which could damage the economy, already hit by the sanctions."

 

But this is at best a partial outline of what the government has done and focuses on its rhetoric rather than its actions.

 

Apart from the militia recruitment campaign (we will have to see what if anything comes of this beyond a media show), as well as its ongoing policies of repression against the left (https://surgentes.org.ve/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/BASTA-DE-CRIMINALIZAR-LA-LUCHA-POR-LOS-DERECHOS-HUMANOS-FINAL.pdf) and privatisations (https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/venezuela-turkish-investors-to-take-over-state-owned-sugar-mills-under-strategic-alliances/), the two other significant actions that the Maduro government has taken, but which have been less promoted by the pro-Maduro left, have been:

 

* The release of about a dozen high profile opposition leaders from jail, most of whom had been detained on the pretext of organising or planning terrorist actions around the time of last years presidential elections and this years parliamentary elections. This included a key ally of far right leader Maria Corina Machado https://signalscv.com/2025/08/venezuela-releases-political-prisoners-us-ramps-up-pressure-with-naval-armada/ 

 

* The mobilisation of more than 15,000 troops, including navy ships, to patrol the border with Colombia and the waters around Lake Maracaibo, not in the name of defending against an imminent imperialism invasion but as a stepping up of its Operation Relampago that began earlier this year against drug traffickers. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/27/venezuela-deploys-warships-drones-to-coast-as-us-naval-squadron-nears

 

As far as I can see there are only two possible readings of these actions: either a) the Maduro government is extreme silly to release terrorists and deploy troops to the west and south-west in the face of an invasion coming from the north or b) the pressure that the Trump administration is applying, combined with Maduro's willing to accept Trump's terms, has led Maduro's government to agree to more of Trump's demands, which have to do with political prisoners, drugs and oil (something Trump secured last month).

 

Surely if we want to oppose imperialism we have to acknowledge these facts and attempt to understand their significant and what they might mean for imperialism's next moves rather than raising alarm bells about imaginary warships of the Venezuelan coast or pretend the Maduro government is actually standing up to Trump. . . . "  ( F. Fuentes )