Detroit, MI — On the evening of November 1, Comité de Acción Comunitaria – Detroit, Detroit Anti-War Committee, Engineers Against Apartheid, and several other organizations came together in Southwest Detroit to build an ofrenda (traditional altar) that contained candles, portraits of those who have been lost, as well as the flags of Palestine and Venezuela.

Attendees at the vigil remembered those murdered on the U.S./Mexico border, in ICE detention centers, in the street by ICE and police. Honored during the vigil as well were all those murdered by Israel in its genocide and over the past 77 years of Zionist occupation, as well as the murder of 57 Venezuelan fisherpeople killed by the Trump regime in order to start a new war with Venezuela.

This vigil came after a recent protest last Saturday, November 25, where Detroit Anti-War Committee, Comité de Acción Comunitaria – Detroit, Students for a Democratic Society, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization took to the streets in Southwest Detroit to oppose Trump’s war crimes and planned war on Venezuela. The protest demanded “Money for Detroit, not for war.” It received a tremendous outpouring of support from residents, with honks from cars driving past, and protesters chanting back, “Maduro sí! Trump no!”

Jackson Robak of Detroit FRSO stated, “It is our job not only to hold space for our martyrs but give them justice, and the only justice I can see is tearing down this system and building a new one.”

Rue Rodriguez of DCAC told the crowd, “These sanctions, leading to shortages of food and medicine, only serve to broaden the effects of terror and carnage felt by the Venezuelan people. These tactics lead to even more mass displacement, and force people to flee their homelands and come to the United States, all while at home, ICE uses the same tactics and rhetoric of military violence to justify the deportations and murders of immigrants here.” The vigil had constant reminders of these connections and the need for people to just stand in sorrow and mourn but move forward with strength and conviction to oppose Trump’s attacks at home and abroad now more than ever.

#DetroitMI #MI #ImmigrantRights #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #Venezuela