US Maoists Tour Venezuela, Walk Right Into Counter-Revolution

By: Trevor Loudon | The Epoch Times

As Venezuela teeters on the brink of counter-revolution, an influential delegation of U.S. Maoists from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization–Fight Back! group (FRSO-FB) is in the country building solidarity with the communist leaders of the embattled regime.

FRSO-FB (not to be confused with the similarly named Freedom Road Socialist Organization/Organizacion Socialista del Camino para la Libertad) is a Midwest-based Maoist group that supports China, North Korea, Iran, Russia, Cuba, and Venezuela.

The four Americans arrived in the country on April 28 in time to celebrate May Day with their revolutionary hosts. They probably didn’t anticipate that on April 30, Venezuela’s U.S.-recognized interim President Juan Guaidó, an opponent of the country’s Marxist government, would take to the streets. Surrounded by anti-government armed troops, Guaidó issued a call for the “military to rise up and oust socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro.”

According to an internet plea for funding for the revolutionary tourists:

“The Freedom Road Socialist Organization is sending a delegation to Venezuela for May Day, and the delegates need your help to get there.

“Four labor and anti-war activists will participate in the FRSO delegation to do eyewitness reporting for [FRSO publication] Fight Back! News. Sean Orr, Tracy Molm, Tom Burke and Mark Burton will write articles, conduct interviews and produce videos. They need your support and donations to make this a success.

“We are asking all comrades and allies who support the Bolivarian Revolution and believe in international solidarity to help us cover our travel costs.”

The members of the U.S. delegation currently in Venezuela are the following:

Tom Burke: Delegation leader Burke is a longtime FRSO-FB member based in Michigan. Burke has been active in Venezuela Solidarity work and has supported revolution in Colombia through the Colombia Action Network. In 2016, he was one of the lead organizers for the Coalition to Stop Trump and March on the Republican National Convention.

Mark Burton: A Denver, Colorado-based lawyer and activist, Burton is a member of the Denver Peace Council, which is affiliated to the World Peace Council, a still-existing Soviet-era international communist front. Burton is also a member of the Hands-Off Syria Coalition, which supports pro-Moscow dictator Bashar al-Assad. He also serves as legal counsel for former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) leader Simon Trinidad, who is now serving 60 years in a Colorado prison for involvement in the kidnapping of three U.S. intelligence contractors.

Tracy Molm: A longtime Minneapolis FRSO-FB member, Molm traveled to the Palestinian Territories in 2004 where she observed the terrorist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. She is also a prominent “peace” activist and anti-Trump protester.

Sean Orr: A younger FRSO-FB activist based in Milwaukee, Orr serves as the Venezuela correspondent for the Fight Back! newspaper. Orr is also active in the FRSO-controlled Milwaukee Anti-War Committee and is a leader of the Milwaukee Coalition Against Trump.

On their first day in Venezuela, the U.S. delegation “held a two-hour meeting with members of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) Central Committee and leaders of the Communist Youth of Venezuela.”

According to FRSO-FB’s Fight Back! News:

“The groups shared their views on the revolutionary struggle in both of their countries, and the importance of international solidarity.

“Pedro Eusse, a PCV Politburo member and trade union leader, said ‘If there is anything positive about the U.S. aggression we face today, it is that there has been an explosion of solidarity from the United States and around the world.’”

Both communist organizations agreed to “move towards a closer working relationship in the future.”

The group met with other “progressive” political leaders and members of Venezuela’s government, including Minister of Communes Blanca Eckhout, who proudly announced the building of 2.6 million new homes in the near-destitute country.

Echhout quoted Venezuela’s former President Hugo Chavez to the delegates: “Our new society cannot be capitalist because capitalism is designed to destroy our homeland, our society, and our people.”

Now as the counter-revolution unfolds, the U.S. Maoists are sending pro-Maduro propaganda back to their comrades for wider dissemination. These U.S. Maoists can only be trusted to do their revolutionary duty. Truth is whatever the revolution demands.

This is their side of the story, published in Fight Back! News, direct from Caracas, Venezuela:

“There is excitement, April 30, in the streets as tens of thousands stream towards Miraflores Palace where President Maduro leads Venezuela. While rumors of an attempted coup are broadcast on the news, special police and Venezuelan military are mobilized at key crossroads and strategic buildings. The mood is serious, but calm as the mobilization to defend President Maduro and the Bolivarian Revolution grows

“Early morning, we woke to hear a lone woman’s voice shouting, ‘My God! My God! Freedom!’ This was in response to television news that coup plotter and right-wing politician Leopoldo Lopez escaped house arrest. We soon watched video of Lopez meeting U.S. puppet Juan Guiado on the highway outside of La Carlota airport. …

“As we drove to the housing conference of the Mission Vivienda, we heard Vice President Delcy Rodriguez on the radio. … Rodriguez said, ‘We are calling all workers, all working people of the entire country, from all parts of Venezuela, to mobilize to defend our revolution and our president!’”

The U.S. delegates know that, at all costs, they must work to influence events in the regime’s favor. In case that fails, they must attempt to preemptively smear any non-socialist government that may arise:

“Lopez is now an outlaw and those helping him will face arrest and imprisonment. It is possible the U.S. wants Lopez to come to Washington DC. Trump and Bolton can then direct Lopez and Guiado in their attempts to destabilize Venezuela. The U.S. wants Venezuela’s oil under their control. Wall Street is also upset by the measures that provide over 2.6 million new homes in eight years, and health care for all.

“As we drove to an important conference on building homes, we passed a small right-wing protest of 30 people in an upper-class area in East Caracas. Working-class Venezuelans waiting for the bus were not impressed, frowning at the right-wing supporters of U.S. puppet Juan Guiado.”

The group also has alleged ties to several groups on the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organization list, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army, and FARC.

Treason can be defined as giving aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States. It is difficult to imagine that a group of U.S. communists traveling to a communist country with the intent to assist that regime would be anything other than treasonous.

Trevor Loudon is an author, filmmaker, and public speaker from New Zealand. For more than 30 years, he has researched radical left, Marxist, and terrorist movements and their covert influence on mainstream politics.