How can we tell our children, US soldiers, to fight for their country if the main goal of that war would be theft of the Venezuelan people's oil and gold?

How can we ask our soldiers who fight and risk their lives for the interests of transnational corporations, those that always use war for the arms business and the control of more resources?

in other nations?

How can we look soldiers in the eye and tell them that it's not true they're going to fight for the democracy and freedom of another country, when in reality the only goal is for oil companies to get richer?

How can we explain to soldiers that the fight against Venezuela isn't a fight against drug trafficking, especially when we release a convicted drug trafficker sentenced in the US?

How can we tell American soldiers that, besides the real possibility of not returning alive, they could also kill innocent people—entire families, young people, and children who just want the chance to live?

How can we explain to the parents of American soldiers that the main reason for risking their children's lives is because Venezuela won't submit to the decisions of a criminal?

How can we ask the media outlets that are beating the drums of war, justifying the decisions of the Trump's interventionism, whom they constantly call a liar, should be criticized. They should tell the truth so they don't end up apologizing like they did with Iraq. Especially after having gunned down hundreds of thousands of innocent people, including American soldiers?

We cannot continue with this imperialist policy around the world, massacring entire populations with the sole objective of imposing puppet governments to control their resources; while generating more pain, death, and thousands or millions of immigrants. Especially when the leader of that country—Nicolas Maduro—has already said on numerous occasions that they want peace and to work together, but without submission.

Fortunately,A large part of the population in the United States knows that the war rhetoric of 'democracy and freedom' has been a vile lie for decades, possibly since Vietnam, but never has the position of the current president been as cynical as it is today. Currently, according to CBS News, 70% of Americans oppose intervention in Venezuela. Even worse, if lies have been used in the past to justify a US-led conflict, today the claim that the Venezuelan president is the head of a drug cartel—the Cartel of the Suns—is ridiculous and absurd, given that the majority of drugs come through the Pacific: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. With all this, the narrative that Venezuela is flooding US streets with drugs falling apart, especially when the former Honduran president, sentenced to 45 years for drug trafficking, is released, while the Trump administration does nothing to freeze accounts in US banks, the main money laundering companies for drug traffickers. Furthermore, where are all the technological advances to prevent drugs from crossing the border into the United States? Are drug cartels really so effective and advanced that they can outsmart the border security of the most militarily powerful country in the world?

As American citizens, we must and it is our obligation to raise our voices. We cannot allow a criminal to become President, making decisions that benefit a few corporations and sacrifice the lives of our children, the soldiers of this country.

Juan Jose Gutierrez has been an activist for over 30 years; he is currently the director of the Full Rights Coalition for Immigrants.