The United States' aggression against Venezuela, including the illegal kidnapping of its constitutional president, Nicolás Maduro, has activated the Latin American left, which reacted in a united manner by expressing collective condemnation of the treacherous action.

There have been popular protests, expressions of denunciation, the burning of the US flag and effigies of Uncle Sam returned to the streets of several countries. A wide spectrum of political parties and diverse organizations repudiated the intervention, and nearly 700 parliamentarians from the hemisphere and other regions of the world signed a condemnation declaration.

Even presidents who were critical of Maduro following the recent Venezuelan elections, such as Chile's Gabriel Boric, Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Colombia's Gustavo Petro, raised their voices in unison to reject the hegemonic military intrusion.

Trade unions, social organizations, and human rights defenders declared themselves in a state of permanent mobilization against Maduro's detention and are organizing simultaneous protests for what they have called an anti-imperialist day towards the end of January.

"We must set aside differences to unite in concrete actions: declare a day of peoples' rebellious consciousness; a continental strike; mobilization and reflection of diverse social, political, cultural, and scientific sectors," urged Argentine Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.

His call resonated strongly when representatives of almost a hundred Argentine organizations gathered at the headquarters of the Autonomous Argentine Workers' Central Union (CTA-A) on Monday the 5th and decided to hold a protest that same day in front of the US embassy in Buenos Aires.

The reaction against Washington's illegal offensive is beginning to articulate on a continental level, with a common message: in the face of the US military and diplomatic escalation, the street, international pressure, and regional coordination are reemerging as the main tools of resistance, describes elDiarioAR.

The Nobel Peace laureate's exhortation had an almost immediate echo. Within just 24 hours, the São Paulo Forum led a multisectoral meeting with political and social leaders from across Latin America to reject US interference in Venezuela.

During the meeting at the CTA-A, the declaration "In Defense of Sovereignty, International Law, and Regional Peace!" was presented. Within 24 hours, it had been signed by 634 legislators from the region and the rest of the world, rejecting the bombings perpetrated against Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.

The meeting at the CTA-A was a display of that unity—from Peronism to Trotskyist left, from social movements to trade unions, from human rights groups to cultural organizations, the anti-Yankee cause cut across diverse ideological expressions with a common denominator.

The São Paulo Forum, a historic hub for Latin American leftist articulation, promoted among others by Lula da Silva, Hugo Chávez, and Fidel Castro, held a virtual summit on Tuesday the 6th with over 120 leaders from various countries and sectors.

They shared opinions and ideas with representatives of the Puebla Group, the Progressive International, and the Mundo Sur Group. Representatives from Mexico's ruling Morena coalition, Colombia's Historic Pact, and former UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, now a parliamentarian, also joined.

According to elDiarioAR, former Argentine ambassador to Venezuela Oscar Laborde stated after the meeting that it was a gathering to define how Latin America's leftist movements will collaborate against Maduro's kidnapping.

Participants agreed on a common framework for action: reject the US appropriation of natural resources and common goods, condemn the military approach to Venezuelan territory, and insist on an immediate de-escalation of US aggression in the Caribbean.

With a calendar still being developed for the so-called "Solidarity Meeting with Venezuela," they tentatively set the dates for January 28th and 29th, coinciding with the twelfth anniversary of the declaration of Latin America and the Caribbean as a "Zone of Peace" by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

They also analyzed holding a "Continental Anti-Imperialist Day," likely in Colombia, Mexico, and Cuba.

Following new threats from President Donald Trump during the week, telephone exchanges took place between Lula, Petro, and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

elDiarioAR reports that in February, Colombia will host the CELAC–African Union summit. In parallel, social movements and popular organizations are preparing a people's summit in Bogotá to demonstrate for Venezuela and against US foreign policy. Additionally, on February 24th, there will be a specific activity on agrarian reform and peasant movements.

The activation of Internationalist Solidarity Brigades to travel to Venezuela in the short term was also agreed upon. These brigades are composed of doctors, lawyers, and other professionals that the Caracas government may need.

Washington's military intervention also sparked massive protest demonstrations over the weekend in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Cuba, Mexico, and Germany, among other countries.

The General Secretary of the CTA-A, Hugo Godoy, stated that the continent's trade unions decided to be in permanent mobilization to build bridges with anti-Trump sectors within the United States itself.

The president of the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA), American Fred Redmond, backed a statement repudiating "the US military aggression and the violation of Venezuela's sovereignty."

This space maintains links with politicians like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. "Trump is not only putting Latin America at risk: he is overstepping all norms of international relations," affirmed Godoy.

Although they do not share Maduro's views—notes elDiarioAR—progressives spoke out against Trump. The Progressive Alliance of the Americas, which brings together groups from Santa Fe socialism to European social democracy, stated that "democracy cannot be kidnapped nor imposed by force."

Thus, the Venezuelan crisis has once again functioned as a catalyst for a leftist political and social fabric that seemed dispersed in the face of the advance of the continental far-right led by Trump from Washington and Argentina's Javier Milei from Buenos Aires.

Amid this wave of rejections, new voices are emerging—young people, previously unknown, who are taking committed stances, such as American Jessica Plitcha, who was arrested by police for expressing her harsh criticism of Trump to the press in her country.

Agents took her to the police station accused of obstructing traffic, but as they could not prove the charges, they had to release her. Upon leaving the holding room and arriving at the station lobby where friends and supporters of the cause awaited her, the first thing Jessica did was shout in Spanish: "Long live Venezuela! Long live Maduro!"