On January 24, the Anti-US Struggle Headquarters, 21st Century Che Guevara (Defense Brigade), and the People’s Democracy Party (PDP) held an anti-imperialist, anti-fascist parties’ rally in front of the US Embassy in Seoul under the slogan: “Free Maduro, the anti-imperialist fighter and people’s leader! Down with the aggressor US imperialism!”
The moderator stated, “Since the beginning of the year, imperialist America, which has carried out the bombing of Venezuela and the illegal arrest of President Maduro, has repeatedly seized oil tankers and is laying bare before the world its true nature as the worst aggressor and plunderer in history,” and added, “With the united strength of the people of the world, let us surely overthrow the aggressor imperialism and win the independence of the world and lasting peace.”
Participants chanted the slogans, “Free Maduro, the anti-imperialist fighter and people’s leader!”, “Down with the aggressor and plunderer, US imperialism!”, “Smash the war-mongering schemes through anti-imperialist and anti-US struggle!”, “Withdraw the occupying, invading US imperialist troops!”, “¡MADURO LIBRE!”, “¡No pasarán! (They shall not pass!)”.
The co-standing chair of the Anti-US Struggle Headquarters said angrily, “The United States is a country with no lineage, born as an illegitimate child of Britain. When the US first came to dominate this land, the very first thing it did was assassinate or execute the leading figures of this land. From the very first year of liberation from Japan, US imperialism was obsessed with occupying this land. They arrested countless people, shot them to death, trampled them to death, threw them into prison, and made people of the same nation fight against each other.”
He continued, “In order to dominate Venezuela, US imperialism committed an outrage unheard of in the world by forcibly abducting President Nicolás Maduro, who was legitimately elected. That is gangsterism—how can you call that a democratic republic?” He went on to declare, “Imperialism must disappear from the face of the earth. It must be dismantled. What they are after is annihilating humanity through war and slaughter, and tending to their own economy. We know very well how the Korean War broke out. The day when the truth of that history is written into textbooks is not far off.”
A member of 21st Century Che Guevara said in a raised voice, “The imperialist camp is splitting apart. The World Economic Forum ended as a talking show for Trump, but it laid bare the divisions within the imperialist camp. The world today is not facing the question of whether to side with the United States or not, but whether to side with imperialism or not. If one stands with US and European imperialism, the war in Ukraine and the war in West Asia can never be resolved peacefully. Whether Trump’s so-called ‘Peace Committee’ becomes an international body that pushes aside the UN or not, there will never be any peace.”
Meanwhile, she criticized, “In its National Security Strategy, the United States claims that drug cartels, dictatorships, and terrorist organizations are ‘pathogens,’ and that it can exercise an ‘unlimited right of preemptive strike’ anytime and anywhere if they are considered a threat to the United States. Based on the imperialist US doctrine of ‘America First,’ any country that becomes a threat to the United States is turned into a drug cartel, a dictatorship, or a terrorist organization.”
She went on to stress, “The invasion of Venezuela and the abduction and arrest of Maduro and Cilia have branded the existence of US imperialism onto the entire world. After Venezuela, Cuba, Central America, and South America will be next. The imperialist forces of aggression will move on to the war in East Asia and fully launch World War 3. Standing together with the people of Venezuela and showing solidarity with the anti-imperialist, anti-US struggle is the most realistic way to defend peace in the ‘Republic of Korea (ROK).’”
Han Myeong-hui, representative of the People’s Democracy Party, condemned, “The United States is putting forward ‘Neo-Monroe Doctrine’ and focusing on the ‘fortification of the Western Hemisphere,’ including Latin America. It has illegally arrested President Maduro of Venezuela and is trying to put him on trial in a US court; following its ambition to dominate Greenland, it is also considering a plan to blockade Cuban waters to prevent Cuba from importing oil in order to bring about regime change there.”
She added, “It is a well-known fact that Israel’s intelligence agencies are behind the anti-government protests in Iran, and in the ‘ROK,’ under the name of investment in the United States, 350 billion dollars are being plundered, while the operational scope of the US Forces Korea is being expanded to cover the whole of East Asia, and the intention to turn the ‘ROK’ into a forward base of US imperialist aggression is being openly revealed. Before US imperialism, the ‘ROK’ is Venezuela, and Venezuela is the ‘ROK.’ That is why we shout ‘No pasarán!’ and declare that imperialism will not be allowed to pass through Venezuela.”
After reading out the statement, “Let us overthrow US imperialism, which is running amok with piracy and acts of aggression!”, the participants sang “The International.”
