Austin stands with Venezuela, rallies against U.S. military aggression
Austin, TX – On January 4, about 275 people took to the streets in front of the City Hall in Downtown Austin to protest the American military aggression directed against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. This rally was organized in response to the brazen kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro.
This illegal kidnapping represented a major escalation in the war being waged against the Bolivarian Republic. In the months before this attack, the U.S. government killed at least 87 people in the Caribbean Sea in the name of combatting “narcoterrorism” and waged economic warfare and authorized covert operations against the Bolivarian state.
Jesse Valdelamar, who spoke on behalf of the Austin Immigrant Rights Action Committee, said, “This kidnapping is the desperate action of a dying empire.”
Jake Holtzman, a member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, said, “We here in the U.S have a responsibility to put pressure on the U.S government. Just as millions protested in the streets against the war on Iraq, now we must protest against this war on Venezuela.” He then finished his speech by chanting “No war on Venezuela!”
Gumbo Vedros, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, spoke on how “the President, the oligarchs all hate us” and how “they didn’t even bother to manufacture consent with this war.” Vedros ended his speech with a defiant stance: “We call it an American war machine, and like all machines, it can be broken.”
The rejection of prevailing media narratives formed a common thread in all speeches given that day.
The rally was brought to a finish with protesters chanting for an end to the war, an end to the economic sanctions, and for respect of Venezuelan national sovereignty. The organizers stressed the need for Austinites to organize locally in order to build up the anti-war movement and to resist U.S led war and military aggression.