Statement of the ILPS
The International League of Peoples’ Struggle stands in solidarity with the people of Venezuela affected by the back-to-back 7.2 and 7.5-magnitude earthquake, particularly in Caracas, Miranda, La Guaira, Aragua, Carabobo, and Falcón. Initial reports indicate at least 164 people have died with more than 1000 injured along with 14,000+ missing, but the count on causalities may change as more information is available. A state of emergency was declared by Acting President Delcy Rodriguez, suspending the non-essential activities and the train system to facilitate rescue efforts, disconnecting the domestic gas service to avoid further catastrophe, and mobilizing the country’s public health network in aid of those injured. We express our deepest condolences with the families of those that have been killed due to this earthquake and extend our support to those injured, displaced, and affected in general.
Throughout the Global South, particularly countries that lie atop of tectonic plates, the people are subjected to danger from seismic activity due to decrepit and unsafe infrastructure. In the semi-colonies, it is usually the bureaucrat capitalist puppets who utilize infrastructure funds as personal coffers, leaving buildings and structures without repair as seen in Mindanao, Philippines over two weeks ago through an earthquake that killed 78 people and injured 1,343 more. Similar examples of mass casualties from earthquakes in countries subjected to imperialist domination include Afghanistan in 2025 where over 800 were killed, Haiti in 2010 where 200,000 to 300,000 were killed, Pakistan in 2005 where at least 74,000 were killed, and countless other examples that are also not just limited to earthquakes as well.
Within countries asserting their national independence and/or pursuing the socialist path against US imperialism such as Venezuela, they have been subjected to monstrous sanctions that similarly leave the people vulnerable to multiple ills, including disaster from earthquakes due to the lack of modern materials for construction and repair. Especially since the US invasion of Venezuela in January, the increasing stranglehold on Cuba that have forced them to resort to capitalist reforms, and the false victories of Trump-backed puppets throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, the people are increasingly left defenseless to the effects of neoliberal impositions as well as further impositions from conditionalities on disaster relief. It is through the extreme crisis wrought on by US imperialism prior to and after its invasion of Venezuela that the likely range of the casualty rate and scale of destruction is similar to the tragic examples above.
Whether in Venezuela, the Philippines, Afghanistan, Haiti, Pakistan, elsewhere in Global South, or even in the belly of the beast as US imperialism becomes parasitic even to its own population as well, the fundamental solution that will assure our peoples’ safety in the face of natural calamities is to rid US imperialism once and for all.
ILPS once again echoes our solidarity to the people of Venezuela in the aftershock of the back-to-back earthquakes and call on our members to join in aid efforts for earthquake relief. We continue to echo the calls that we’ve made since January 2026 after the US invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping of President Maduro and First Combatant Flores along with additional ones:
Yankees Out of Venezuela and All of Latin America and the Caribbean!
Free Maduro and Flores!
Solidarity with the People of Venezuela Amidst Disaster!
Out With US Imperialism!
Signed,
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
