Instead of echoing U.S. imperialist propaganda on Venezuela, Zohran Mamdani can learn from Maduro's housing policies

In an interview with Jorge Ramos, Zohran Mamdani echoed U.S. imperialist propaganda when he stated that “there is no question” that Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro’s government is “one of repression.” When asked about Cuba, Mamdani acknowledged “repression” as well. While Mamdani “rethinks the role of the private sector in housing,” Maduro’s government has created 5 million homes under the Great Housing Mission Venezuela, a housing program created in 2011 by President Hugo Chávez to provide homes to low-income families at a low cost or free. What’s repressive are the U.S. sanctions against Venezuela that seek to destroy social programs like Venezuela’s Great Housing Mission.

While Mamdani supports New York City’s City of Yes and upzonings that bring corporate- and privately-owned unaffordable housing, more speculation, and rising costs to working-class communities, the Great Housing Mission Venezuela works under U.S. sanctions through “people-led self-construction brigades.” Communities organize brigades or community councils to be trained on construction and receive financial and technical support from government institutions. Maduro has pledged to combat far-right opposition to the Great Housing Mission Venezuela and stop the privatization of housing in Venezuela.

This policy clarity is noticeably absent from Mamdani’s analysis and rhetoric, who continues to yield to neoliberal and misguided pro-deregulatory development “Yes In My Backyard” (YIMBY) talking points about the private sector’s role in the housing affordability crisis. In this way, Mamdani does not position himself away from his opponent, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has “made private development a centerpiece of his housing agenda.” Instead, Mamdani talks about finding ways to reduce red tape for private developers.

Mamdani may say that rezonings should be coupled with investments in infrastructure and have more affordable housing, but he misses the lessons from Venezuela. Instead of relying on ineffective and costly public-private schemes that unleash speculation, high prices, and unaffordable housing units, Mamdani could learn from Venezuela’s Great Housing Mission’s approach to community-led and public development, where local communities construct, steward, and maintain housing using public funds. This approach keeps money and construction skills within local communities, rather than being extracted by private individuals and corporations.

The below tweet¹ is a common sentiment. Why do we keep criticizing socialist (in name) politicians like Zohran Mamdani who are trying to make living conditions in the U.S. better?

U.S. domestic policies cannot be separated from its foreign policy. When Mamdani promises a rent freeze while denouncing Maduro’s government as ‘repressive,’ he reinforces the anti-communist narratives the U.S. uses to justify sanctions, regime change, and military aggression against Venezuela. This rhetoric also legitimizes the militarization of U.S. communities and perpetuates white, Western supremacist, and American exceptionalist hierarchies that value U.S. lives over Venezuelan ones. It implies that waging economic war on Venezuelans is acceptable so long as U.S.ians are promised a freeze on rents.

The insidious part is that Mamdani’s pledge for a rent freeze is a watered-down demand from a 2020 campaign to cancel the rent. Ultimately, a rent freeze is a political gimmick— it does not address the unequal power dynamics between landlords and tenants. Evictions continued during previous rent freezes. Rather than focusing his campaign on rent rollbacks, rent cancellation, taking action against slumlords and corporations, and utilizing the full capabilities of the public sector to acquire, rehabilitate, preserve, and develop deeply affordable and public housing, Mamdani is yielding to the demands of the private sector, democratic establishment, and liberal-minded groups.

What we need is a politics that affirms humanity and personhood for all global people, not at their expense. Mamdani’s rhetoric threatens international solidarity and thus maintains U.S. imperialism. The left is divided, in part, because some are willing to undermine international solidarity and core Marxist principles—things that are needed to combat fascist authoritarianism—for domestic political expediency and careerism. This is why liberal and democratic socialist electoral politics are actively undermining our ability to achieve international solidarity and cooperative economics in our local communities. We lose our ability to support our own communities when we rely on opportunistic, careerist, and technocratic politicians who pledge watered-down demands without fundamentally pushing back against the status quo.

Instead of echoing red scare talking points and repeating U.S. imperialist propaganda on Venezuela under Maduro, Mamdani should learn lessons from Venezuelan housing policy, and use the government to support community-led and stewarded housing development.

Anti-Displacement NYC is a housing policy collective of organizers and educators that promotes decommodified housing solutions and develops political education tools and frameworks to fight against displacement and gentrification in New York City.

1. Tweet from 10/3/25 reads “man i empathize with your plight and the plight of palestine, but for the love of god can you not destroy our chances of getting people who might make living conditions better? would you rather Cuomo wins?”