Oakland, CA – On Sunday, January 4, 60 protesters rallied in Fruitvale Plaza in response to U.S. military strikes in Caracas, Venezuela, and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.

The Freedom Road Socialist Organization, the Oakland Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and the Community Service Organization called the action.

Esperanza, with Community Service Organization Oakland, highlighted the termination of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan migrants by the Trump administration last year, saying, “The U.S. government cannot claim liberation abroad while caging, persecuting and disappearing immigrants at home. If this administration truly cared about Venezuelans, it wouldn't have terminated TPS in October, leaving thousands of Venezuelans, one of our impacted communities here in the U.S., leaving them vulnerable for mass deportation to meet Trump’s deportation agenda. The U.S. intervention abroad creates displacement and meets those forced to migrate with criminalization, detention and violence.”