Yesterday the United States carried out a direct military attack on Venezuela, abducting President Nicolás Maduro and conducting strikes around Caracas — a grave violation of international law that risks plunging the region into wider conflict.

To understand how Venezuelan officials and supporters of the Bolivarian project are interpreting these events — and what they believe comes next — Jacobin founding editor Bhaskar Sunkara spoke last night with Carlos Ron, a former Venezuelan diplomat who served as one of the government’s principal interlocutors with the United States during years of sanctions and diplomatic confrontation.