Milwaukeeans hold emergency rally: ‘Free Maduro!’ ‘Hands off Venezuela!’
Milwaukee, WI – On Saturday, January 3, around 50 Milwaukeeans gathered at Red Arrow Park, otherwise known as Dontre Hamilton Park, as part of an emergency rally in response to the illegal kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores by U.S. forces. They brought Venezuelan flags and signs with messages such as “Free Maduro” and “Hands off Venezuela.”
The rally was declared a day after the U.S. invaded Venezuela, bombed its main cities, killed a combined 80 Venezuelans and Cubans, and kidnapped the president of Venezuela and his wife to take them back to try them illegally in the States. This invasion was followed up by President Trump’s own words about how this invasion was “about oil.”
Wisconsin State Representative Ryan Clancy, representing Wisconsin's 19th Assembly District, stated, “It was shocking for me to hear Trump come out and say, ‘We're going to turn control of Venezuela over to the biggest oil companies and take control from the people of Venezuela and put it in corporate hands.’”
Casey Serrano from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization told the crowd, “Venezuela is not a narco-terrorist state, it is a democracy that threw off the Spanish under the leadership of Bolivar, that threw off the imperialist collaborators under Chavez, and the people of Venezuela have taken to the streets demanding Maduro back, demanding their sovereignty!”
In between speeches, the protesters chanted in support of Venezuela, shouting, “No war with Venezuela!”, “1, 2, 3, 4! Intervention no more!” “No blood for oil! U.S. off Venezuelan soil” and “No troops on the ground! No bombs in the air! U.S. out of everywhere!”
As the Trump administration increases its attacks and ramps up propaganda against Venezuela and greater Latin America, Milwaukee will take to the streets to resist and educate about the real danger in the world – the U.S. war machine.