For 26 years the Bolivarian revolution has sought to control its oil resources and plough them into social programmes for the poor, building five million units of social housing, creating a free universal healthcare system, eradicating literacy and creating 52 new free universities. Internationally, Venezuela is a beacon of resistance in Latin America, a direct block to imperialist control in the region – supporting the anti-imperialist struggle in Cuba, in Nicaragua, in Palestine, in the Sahel, in Yemen. Venezuela is a threat because it has declared its commitment to building socialism, creating space for direct, participatory democracy and social production through the communal movement, where organised communities identify their needs and are empowered to meet them. Venezuela is a thorn in the side of imperialism and thus has been the target of coup attempts, media smears and destabilisation tactics for nearly three decades.
Former President Hugo Chavez burst onto the scene in 1992 after leading a military uprising against the repressive Andres Perez government which had imposed sweeping IMF austerity measures and ensured Venezuela was a gold mine for US moguls. The uprising was defeated, but only, as Chavez said, ‘por ahora’ (for now). The slogan was taken up by the masses who knew that tomorrow a new dawn would come. After two years in prison, Chavez was released and elected president in 1998 in a landslide victory.
Winning power through traditional bourgeois elections, the Bolivarian revolutionary movement inherited a capitalist, oil-rentier state, with key levers of the economy in the hands of oligarchs and monopolies. Chavez convoked an assembly to rewrite the constitution, a truly participative exercise involving millions. The Vene-zuelan ruling class began to shut down oil factories, freezing the production process and attacking the working class. In 2002, Chavez was targeted by a short-lived coup, which was swiftly defeated by the working class who descended from the hillside barrios to surround the presidential palace. The masses took over oil refineries and re-started production. This experience radicalised Chavez, leading him to realise that social change required a confrontation with imperialism and Venezuela’s elite capitalist class. Against this backdrop, Chavez sought to deepen working class mobilisation, launching the communal councils and communes in the pursuit of building socialism.
Chavez died of cancer in 2013. In his last speech he urged the Venezuelan government to focus on constructing the communes, transferring power to the people, declaring ‘comuna o nada!’ (commune or nothing!) Chavez named Nicolas Maduro, his former foreign secretary, as his candidate of choice, urging the Bolivarian revolution to back him. Maduro, a former bus driver, had risen through the trade union movement, and as foreign secretary he had proved crucial in negotiating Venezuela’s international relations. He was elected in snap elections in 2013 and has won every election since.
During Maduro’s presidency in 2015, oil prices crashed and the US Obama administration declared Venezuela an ‘unusual and extraordinary threat to US national security’, ushering in a raft of sanctions resulting in scarcity and hyper-inflation. During these years there was an increase in migration and in 2018 alone 40,000 died as a result of shortages of life saving medicine and other goods. Repeated US-backed coup attempts unleashed violence on the streets. Difficult and unpopular economic decisions were taken, but under Maduro, Venezuela weathered the storm. The communes organised, increasing food production, finding creative solutions whilst the state distributed heavily subsidised food boxes to working class communities. By 2022, the economy was recovering and the state increased funding for the communal movement. In 2025 there were four popular nationwide communal consultations. 20,000 local projects, each accessing up to $10,000, were completed in this manner, consolidating participatory democracy.
Facing the threat of US invasion, today the communes have integrated with some 8 million volunteers who have enlisted in the Bolivarian people’s militia. The gains of the last 26 years will not be given up without a fight.
