ActionAid Association strongly condemns the military aggression and external political interference directed against Caracas and other parts of Venezuela. These actions constitute a grave violation of national sovereignty and international law, and represent yet another expression of coercive power exercised against a sovereign nation of the Global South.

The assault on Venezuela cannot be viewed in isolation. It reflects a familiar and dangerous pattern in which military force, economic coercion, and political destabilisation are deployed when sanctions, diplomatic pressure, and regime-engineering narratives fail. The underlying motive is clear: to reassert external control over Venezuela’s sovereign political choices and its strategic resources—particularly oil and minerals—and to forcibly impose a political order aligned with imperial and corporate interests.

Across Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, peoples recognise this script all too well. Militarisation and regime change have never delivered democracy or human rights. Instead, they have devastated economies, hollowed out social protection systems, and inflicted disproportionate harm on women, workers, displaced populations, and other marginalised communities—those least responsible for political conflict yet most exposed to its consequences.

ActionAid Association is deeply concerned about the humanitarian consequences of escalating aggression. When sovereignty is violated in the name of geopolitical dominance, access to food, livelihoods, healthcare, and social security is systematically undermined. The selective invocation of human rights and democracy to legitimise violence not only erodes international norms but also weakens the very principles it claims to defend.

We affirm that lasting peace, democracy, and dignity can only emerge through inclusive, locally rooted political processes, free from external coercion and military pressure. The future of Venezuela must be determined by its people alone.

Across the Global South, this pattern is neither new nor misunderstood. From Latin America to Asia and Africa, peoples and movements increasingly recognise how the language of democracy and human rights is selectively deployed to legitimise coercion, sanctions, and military force. This growing clarity is strengthening South–South solidarity, as nations and communities build collective resistance against imperial overreach and assert the right of peoples to determine their own political, economic, and social futures. Peace cannot be imposed by force, and justice cannot grow under occupation. Only solidarity among peoples can secure a future founded on dignity, self-determination, and shared humanity.

Mr. Sandeep Chachra, Executive Director of ActionAid Association has said:

“The assault on Venezuela follows a long and dangerous imperial script of destabilisation, demonisation, and the imposition of a compliant political order while claiming moral authority. This is a blatant violation of sovereignty that will only deepen humanitarian suffering for ordinary people. ActionAid Association rejects the use of human rights rhetoric to legitimise aggression and stands firmly with the people of Venezuela and the Global South in resisting neo-colonial domination. ActionAid Association stands in principled solidarity with the people of Venezuela and with all Global South communities resisting domination in all its forms. We call upon governments, peoples’ movements, and civil society across the Global South to raise their voices collectively against imperial aggression, and to reaffirm South–South solidarity rooted in justice, sovereignty, and the protection of civilian lives and livelihoods. We demand an immediate cessation of military aggression, an end to external interference and economic coercion, and a renewed global commitment to internationalism based on equality between nations and the rights and dignity of peoples.”