By Feroze Mithiborwala | February 1, 2026
The smoke rising from the barricades of the 23 de Enero barrio is more than a signal of unrest; it is the incense of a dying empire. As the caretaker administration of Delcy Rodríguez prepares to hand the keys of the Orinoco to a triad of Washington hawks, Wall Street vultures, and crony-capitalist oligarchs, the Venezuelan soul has begun its counter-offensive.
What the West calls “pragmatic reform,” the Global South recognizes as the most brazen act of colonial plunder since the dawn of the 20th century.
The Enforcement of Silence: DAET and SEBIN
To understand the stakes, one must understand the iron fist Rodríguez is attempting to wrap around the people’s throat. The DAET (Strategic and Tactical Actions Directorate) is the elite, high-intensity arm of the National Police, formed to consolidate tactical units into a singular force for urban intervention.¹ Meanwhile, the SEBIN (Bolivarian National Intelligence Service), created by Hugo Chávez to protect the state from foreign subversion, is being perverted and subverted by the caretaker government into a tool for domestic surveillance and the “surgical” removal of revolutionary dissenters.² By deploying these forces against the very base that built the Bolivarian process, Rodríguez has effectively declared war on the commune – and she is doomed to fail.
The Ghost of 1908: A Century of Struggle Under the Hammer
The current crisis is not a modern aberration but a ghost from 1908. That year, Vice President Juan Vicente Gómez—backed by the looming threat of U.S. naval “Gunboat Diplomacy”—seized power while President Cipriano Castro was in Europe.³ Gómez immediately dismantled the nascent nationalist protections on the subsoil, granting predatory, unregulated concessions to foreign oil syndicates that would hollow out the nation for decades.⁴ The “1908 Terms” became synonymous with the “Protectorate Era,” where the Venezuelan state functioned as a mere extraction subsidiary for foreign capital. By reverting to this vassal status in 2026, the Rodríguez cabinet is not just changing a law; they are attempting to surgically remove the last 25 years of sovereign history from the national consciousness.⁵
The Rodríguez-Trump Pact: An Instrument of Surrender
The pact finalized in January 2026—negotiated in the shadow of the utterly illegal “extraction” of Nicolás Maduro—is the ultimate dream of the “Crony-Capitalist” lobby led by Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and the billionaire vulture fund manager Paul Singer.⁶ Under the guise of “stabilization,” the deal forces a radical rewrite of the Hydrocarbons Law, granting foreign majors over 50% equity and absolute “operational control” of strategic fields for the first time in decades.⁷
More insidious is the financial architecture: an escrow system managed by the U.S. Treasury through Qatari banks. All oil revenue is deposited into blocked accounts, with “humanitarian releases” only permitted if the U.S. Treasury approves the Rodríguez cabinet’s monthly budget line-by-line.⁸ This is not an economic deal; it is a bankruptcy liquidation where the U.S. acts as the receiver. It effectively turns the Venezuelan presidency into a middle-management position for the American empire, ensuring that every drop of Venezuelan oil pays off the debt-claims of oligarchs before it buys a loaf of bread for a Venezuelan child.⁹
Why the Republic Rejects the Shackle
The rejection of this deal by the masses is not based on “ideological stubbornness,” but on the fundamental survival of the Republic as a sovereign and independent nation. The pact represents a total surrender to “Diktats” that would make Venezuela the most vassalized state in the hemisphere.¹⁰ To accept this is to accept:
- Labor Erasure: Foreign “operational control” explicitly suspends the collective bargaining rights and the worker-management model of the PDVSA cooperatives.¹¹
- Sovereignty as a Line-Item: Allowing U.S. Senator Marco Rubio and the Treasury to audit the national budget is an existential insult to the concept of sovereign self-determination.¹²
- The Looting of the Future: By ceding the Orinoco, Rodríguez is mortgaging the next fifty years of Venezuelan development to pay for a “peace” that only benefits the oligarchs and their new American partners.
The Great Legendary Hugo Chavez, President Nicolas Maduro, with the portrait of Simon Bolivar in the background.
“Dignity of the 4th”: The Millions Mobilise for the Second War of Independence
The uprising scheduled for February 4, 2026, is being framed by its organizers as a “Second War of Independence.” The date is a sacred invocation of the 1992 uprising led by Hugo Chávez, signalling that the current struggle is a direct continuation of the fight against neo-liberalism.
Estimates suggest a mobilisation that will swell into the millions, as workers from the oil heartlands of Anzoátegui and Zulia march toward the capital to join the communal councils of the barrios.¹⁴ This is a “total-body” revolt. Unlike the elite-led protests of the past, this movement is rooted in the very people who built the Bolivarian process. From the Petare slums to the refineries of Falcón, the decree is clear: the Rodríguez-Trump pact is an illegal document signed under duress, and it will be torn to shreds in the streets of Caracas.
Voice of the Resistance: The Vanguards
Among the 45 leaders currently targeted for arrest by Rodríguez’s security forces, these voices have defined the moral clarity of the movement:
- Wills Rangel (Oil Union Lead): “We will lock the refineries before we hand the keys to foreign bosses. PDVSA is the heart of the people, not a Trump asset.”¹⁵
- Elias Jaua (Former VP): “The revolution does not negotiate with pirates. We are in a state of open resistance against this Vichy government.”¹⁶
- Rafael Ramírez (Former Oil Minister): “Rodríguez is auctioning our blood to the very people who starved us. It is high-tech treason.”¹⁷
- Braulio Álvarez (Peasant Leader): “The land and the oil are one. We will block the roads to the Orinoco with the bodies of the poor if we must.”¹⁸
- Gen. Alexis Rodriguez Cabello: “The FANB was born to expel empires, not to protect their drilling sites. Our oath is to the people “¹⁹ (FANB is the National Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela)
- Samuel Moncada (Diplomat): “By accepting U.S. Treasury ‘audits,’ Rodríguez has castrated our national dignity in front of the world.”²⁰
- Pascualina Curcio (Economist): “This is not reform; it is the final looting of the Republic’s savings by Wall Street vultures.”²¹
- Iris Varela (Chavista Militant): “If they want our oil, they will have to walk over every woman in the 23 de Enero.”²²
- Jorge Arreaza (Bolivarian Strategist): “The legacy of Chávez belongs to the people, not to a caretaker cabinet of surrender.”²³
- Gen. Alexis Rodríguez Cabello: “The FANB was born to expel empires, not to protect their drill sites. Our oath is to the people.”²⁴
The Failure of the Crackdown and the Global Shift
Attempts by Delcy Rodríguez to use the DAET (Strategic and Tactical Actions Directorate) and SEBIN (Bolivarian National Intelligence Service) to crush this uprising are destined for failure because the security apparatus itself is fracturing along class lines. When the order is given to fire upon a grandmother from Catia or an oil worker from Falcón, the “Patriotic Guard”—the true sons and daughters of the revolution—will refuse.²⁵
This victory in Venezuela will resonate as a thunderclap across the world. It will give fresh courage to the Resistance across the Americas, from Cuba to Gaza, across Palestine, all the way to the front of Iran, showing that even the most high-tech military hegemon cannot defeat a unified people. It will strengthen the resolve of Iran and the Multipolar Block led by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS+, NAM, SCO), proving that the era of U.S. “extraction diplomacy” and the ‘Unipolar World of a No-Rules Based Dis-Order of Wars and Chaos’ is over, with the US Empire a fast-declining power.
The Fall of the Caretaker
Delcy Rodríguez has lost all sense of direction and credibility. She is no successor to the legacy of President Nicolás Maduro or the immortal Hugo Chávez. She has traded the “Plan de la Patria” (Plan for the Homeland) for a seat at a table where she is merely a guest and worse.
On the 4th of February, the Venezuelan people will once again march in the millions to save their revolution.
This writer foresees that The Rodríguez-Trump deal will be incinerated, the caretaker government will be forced to resign, and a new government will take over, rejecting the deal and reinforcing the values of the revolution.
The Bolivarian flame will burn brighter than ever before.
The Chavistas have already won. Venceremos!
References and Citations
- UN Human Rights Council, Report on DAET Repression Mechanisms, September 2023.
- “History of SEBIN and its Roles,” Wikipedia/DISIP Archive, 2024.
- V. M. Resta, “Venezuela: The Path of Oil,” Luiss Thesis, 2020.
- Venezuela, land of oil, GovInfo Public Records, 2024.
- V. Prashad, “The 1908 Surrender in 2026 Caracas,” Tricontinental, January 2026.
- “Trump Claims Historic Venezuela Deal,” Military.com, January 2026.
- “Lawmakers Approve Hydrocarbons Changes,” BNN Bloomberg, January 2026.
- “Executive Order on Venezuelan Oil Revenues,” Sanctions News, January 2026.
- M. Blumenthal, “Venezuela: Plunder & the Rule of Law,” The Grayzone, January 2026.
- A. Parampil, “Corporate Coup: The End of Empire,” The Grayzone, January 2026.
- “FSTP Strike Declaration,” FSTP Communiqué, January 2026.
- “Statements on US Oversight,” India Today, January 2026.
- J. Sachs, UN Security Council Emergency Briefing, January 2026.
- “MASSIVE MARCH: Venezuela Oil Sector Protest,” Cradle Intelligence, January 2026.
- W. Rangel, Official Address to CBST, January 2026.
- E. Jaua, Speech to the Communal Councils, January 2026.
- R. Ramírez, Public Manifesto, January 2026.
- B. Álvarez, Zamora National Front Communiqué, January 2026.
- A. Parampil, The Grayzone Investigative Report, January 2026.
- S. Moncada, UN General Assembly Draft, February 2026.
- P. Curcio, Venezuelanalysis, January 2026.
- I. Varela, Radio Miraflores Broadcast, January 2026.
- J. Arreaza, Alba Movements Declaration, January 2026.
- Leaked Internal Memo, FANB Command, January 2026.
- “Internal Fissures in the FANB,” El Universal, January 2026.
Feroze Mithiborwala is an expert on West Asian & International Geostrategic issues. He is the Founder-Gen. Sec. of the ‘India Palestine Solidarity Forum’. He was among the key organisers of the First Asian Convoy to Break the Siege of Gaza (2010) and the First Global March to Jerusalem (2012). Founder of the ‘India Iran Friendship Forum’ and ‘Indians in Solidarity with Venezuela’. He is also the Vice-President of Hum Bharat Ke Log, We the People of India, an organisation committed to Communal Harmony, National Unity and Constitutional Democracy.
Contact: feroze.moses777@gmail.com