SOUTH AFRICAN communists have joined the growing international condemnation of the US’s decision to deploy a massive number of warships and military personnel to Latin American and Caribbean waters last week.

The South African Communist Party (SACP) said at the weekend that it viewed with “grave concern” the “belligerent posture of the imperialist US regime towards the state and people of Venezuela. 

“The placing of United States warships in the Caribbean waters with the obvious intention to provoke Venezuela is an act of war.”

On Friday, the US navy confirmed that the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit had been shifted to the region.

This involves the deployment of the amphibious landing ships USS Iwo Jima, USS Fort Lauderdale and USS San Antonio, along with approximately 4,000 marines.

A US defence official also confirmed to CNN that at least two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, the USS Gravely and the USS Jason Dunham, were in the northern Caribbean Sea.

The SACP accused the US of initiating “conditions for military intervention in Latin America in service of its unending ambitions for territorial expansion and political domination of its neighbouring nations.

“The actions of the US regime, through its military, to violate the sovereignty of Venezuela constitute a continuation of its official policy of political destabilisation and economic asphyxiation of the entire South American region, to serve its imperialist objectives under various pretexts.”

The SACP said it demanded the withdrawal of the US military “from the territories bordering Venezuela and the full compliance of the US with international laws and regulations.”

Last Thursday, after the US announcement, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said: “China opposes any move that violates the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and a country’s sovereignty and security.”

She added: “We oppose the use or threat of force in international relations and the interference of external forces in Venezuela’s internal affairs under any pretext.”