The implementation of the new U.S. security doctrine represents a regressive and radical reconfiguration of the regional context, directly impacting our work in favor of climate and socio-environmental justice. Recent events reflect the determination of the current U.S. administration to expand the extractive frontier of fossil fuels and critical minerals for the transition in Latin America, as well as the intention to promote other models of exploitation, regardless of the methods or the consequences for local communities. This translates into the green colonialism that researchers from the Global South have systematically identified as a threat to sovereignty.
Simultaneously, we warn with concern that the current geopolitical situation is being instrumentalized by other global actors. Under a discourse of «strengthening relations» in the face of the U.S. withdrawal, a disguised neocolonialism is hidden, seeking to accelerate asymmetric free trade agreements to ensure access to critical raw materials and cheap energy. Both direct pressure and extractive diplomacy deepen the green colonialism that the Global South has pointed out as a threat.
This new context, in addition to moving us away from the 1.5° objective of the Paris Agreement, exacerbates the vulnerabilities and development gaps derived from the prevailing economic model, while increasing the multiple risks faced by human rights defenders, journalists, and civil society organizations in the region.
The human rights crisis that persists in Venezuela and other countries in the region also reflects that the current multilateral architecture is insufficient to provide effective responses to the victims of abuse.
The U.S. military intervention and political interference in Venezuela, or in any other country, constitutes a flagrant violation of international law, violates sovereignty, threatens multilateralism, and undermines human rights. Furthermore, it is a catalyst for destructive extractivism that accelerates the climate collapse.
Considering the above context, the Climate Action Network Latin America (CANLA):
- Condemns acts of force and pressure policies, whether they come from the United States or any other military power, and whether they occur in Venezuela or anywhere else in the world.
- Reiterates that the United States has a significant historical responsibility for the climate crisis, stemming from its role as one of the main historical emitters of greenhouse gases. In this sense, even if it decides to withdraw from international treaties or weaken its participation in multilateral organizations, it is not exempt from its obligations under international law, particularly its obligation of not causing transboundary harm to the climate system, the consequences of which transcend borders and disproportionately affect Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Warns that incentivizing oil extraction contradicts climate financing commitments, can generate a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions, and perpetuates the region’s anachronistic dependence on the raw materials trade; a responsibility that falls both on external powers and the current administration of Venezuela.
- Supports the First International Conference for the Phase-out of Fossil Fuels (Santa Marta, April 2026), convened by the governments of Colombia and the Netherlands, as a novel and necessary multilateral milestone for a just and democratic energy transition.
- Unequivocally condemns all violations of human rights, regardless of the ideological affiliation that the perpetrators may champion. We stand in solidarity with the victims in Venezuela and throughout the region, especially with those who defend human rights, journalists, academics, delegates from civil society organizations, as well as Indigenous peoples and communities, Afro-descendant communities, and other ethnic communities facing persecution in various regional contexts.
- Denounces that the actions recently implemented by the United States deepen environmental racism and climate colonialism, disproportionately impacting the most vulnerable populations. Indigenous peoples and communities, Afro-descendant communities, and other traditional communities see their integrity threatened by an agenda that prioritizes the control of resources over life and justice.
- Calls for the situation in Venezuela to serve as a catalyst to transform both the international financial system and the architecture of international law, so that it not only responds to the interests of States recognized by the United Nations, but can also be effective in situations of human rights violations in local contexts, especially for minorities and highly vulnerable groups.
- Expresses empathy and solidarity with the situation faced by many civil society organizations and human rights defenders in Venezuela and throughout the region, even when there may be significant differences in our approaches and our interpretation of reality. We are united by an unwavering commitment to human dignity and life.
- Recognizes and values the persistent work that civil society organizations perform in the defense of human rights and the protection of people in situations of vulnerability, a role that acquires critical relevance in the context of a potential/future political transition in Venezuela.
- Underlines that the work of civil society organizations in a safe environment is essential for the recovery of sovereignty, democracy, and the rule of law in Venezuela.
Latin America and the Caribbean, January 2026.