New Orleans, LA – On October 3, over 200 students and youth rallied for Nicolas Maduro and Celia Flores at the New Orleans Healing Center. The protest called by the Anti-War Action Network (AWAN) condemned the horrific treatment of Cilia Flores, who is currently experiencing a life-threatening heart condition. New Orleans Stop Helping Israel’s Ports (NOSHIP), an AWAN affiliate, organized the demonstration alongside Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

“When I met farm workers, indigenous organizers, and trade unionists in Venezuela, all of them denounced the Yankee imperialist attacks on their sovereignty!” cried Ebtesham Ahmed, a member of New York University SDS. Ahmed visited Venezuela mere weeks before the kidnapping of Maduro and Flores. They lifted their fist to the crowd, sharing a chant they learned in Venezuela: “¡Yo solo sé tres palabras en inglés, Yankee go home!”

Protesters held signs that read “Free First Lady Cilia Flores!” and “Stop U.S. war on Venezuela!”

Maduro and Flores have been held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York for over 200 days. Their capture on January 3 resulted in the death of 100 people in Venezuela. During their imprisonment, the United States has maintained suffocating sanctions on the country.

Trump has openly bragged that taking Venezuela’s resources and labor will bolster the U.S. economy, but student activists rejected this exploitation. “My enemy is not the people of the world, they're our allies. I stand with the people of Venezuela as they stand with us, against our true enemy, Donald Trump and the ruling class of the United States,” shouted Khalid Hamu, National SDS secretary.

Freedom Road Socialist Organization member Chris Maldonado connected the struggle to his family’s fight against sanctions in Cuba, stating, “Whether it's my country or Venezuela, it is important that we don’t sit idly by while the U.S. monopoly capitalists plot to murder revolutionaries, strangle sovereign countries, and profit off of exploitation. We must stand up and fight back!”

As the rally ended, NOSHIP organizers made sure to give everyone in attendance a call to action for Maduro and Flores. “The Anti-War Action Network will be at every single court hearing that they have, demanding their freedom and an end to the attacks on Venezuelan sovereignty. We ask that you join us in signing our petition, and rally in your city every time AWAN calls a day of action,” said NOSHIP member Cristine Farah.

People interested in supporting Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores can sign AWAN’s petition at tinyurl.com/awanfreemaduro and follow their Instagram @antiwaractionnetwork for days of action in solidarity with Venezuela.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #AntiWarMovement #Venezuela #CiliaFlores #NicolasMaduro #AntiWarActionNetwork #SDS #Featured

New York, NY – On October 3, New Yorkers joined the Anti-War Action Network National Day of Action to demand no U.S. intervention in Venezuela and “Free Cilia, free Maduro.” Waving Venezuelan flags and holding signs that read “Support women’s health! Release Cilia Flores,” 50 local activists and community members rallied outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, in Sunset Park, where Maduro and Flores are being held prisoner on bogus charges of narcoterrorism.

The rally marked nine months since Maduro and Flores were abducted from Caracas, Venezuela during an illegal U.S. raid, which killed over 100 people. It also came only five days before Cilia Flores is due in court for a hearing to decide whether she should be released under house arrest as a result of her worsening health. Since being kidnapped, Flores has experienced increasingly severe cardiac issues, including what her lawyers believe was a heart attack on July 29.

Additionally, court documents filed on September 30th revealed that in May 2026, the U.S. government attempted to force Flores to undergo heart surgery without her consent, transporting her to the hospital without warning and without a chance to consult with her lawyers. Her lawyers cite these and other incidents as part of their argument that Flores must be released to house arrest in order to undergo the needed heart surgery, which she would not be able to effectively recover from while in custody at the MDC.

At the rally, speakers kept the focus on Flores and highlighted these revelations from the court documents.

Briony Smith, who led the action on behalf of Brooklyn Against War, said “Now, Cilia needs us to come to her defense. Cilia is facing the same mistreatment, medical neglect, and denial of her bodily autonomy that so many women in the U.S. prison system face. We are here because she should never have been illegally abducted from Caracas. We are here because every woman has the right to make their own medical decisions. We are here because we must fight for Cilia as fiercely as she has fought for the women and people of Venezuela.”

Other speakers at the rally represented a broad coalition of anti-imperialist organizations, including Black Alliance for Peace, Workers World Party, All African People’s Revolution Party, Struggle La Lucha, Colectivo Bravo Pueblo, Movimiento Revolución Ciudadana, and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Amidst chants of, “Free the prisoners, free them all! Free Cilia from these walls,” Joe Wilkins of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization said, “So when we, as citizens of the United States, say ‘Free Cilia Flores,’ we’re not asking! We’re demanding that our government takes its boot off the neck of Venezuela, off Latin America, off the Caribbean, off West Asia, off the Pacific, off everyone it’s holding as a political prisoner! The Freedom Road Socialist Organization will not rest until these two political prisoners are free.”

The final speaker of the rally, Michela Martinazzi, also of Brooklyn Against War stated, “The billionaire class thrives on the oppression of women,” said Martinazzi, “from the heartbeat bill to trans women, to kidnapping women by ICE, Black women killed by the police to the thousands of women overseas Vietnam to Korea to the Philippines. By demanding that Cilia receives appropriate medical care, we are standing up for women everywhere neglected by this rotten system!”

After a short march, the rally ended with a moment of celebration. Participants signed cards and sang Happy Birthday for Flores, whose 70th birthday is on October 15.

The same organizations will also rally on Thursday, October 8, outside of the Federal Courthouse in Manhattan, beginning at 9:30 a.m. and continuing through Flores’s hearing, which is scheduled for 10:30 that day. The rally will be followed by a public press conference.

#NewYorkNY #NY #NYC #AntiWarMovement #Venezuela #CiliaFlores #NicolasMaduro

New Orleans, LA – Hundreds of student activists from across the country will arrive in New Orleans this Saturday and Sunday, October 3 and 4, for the 20th National Convention of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). October 3 will also mark nine months since the United States shamefully invaded and attacked Venezuela, kidnapping President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.

New Orleans Stop Helping Israel’s Ports (NOSHIP), a partner of the national Anti-War Action Network, has led the local struggle against intervention in Venezuela. The intervention has accomplished nothing but more suffering. In particular, the June 24 earthquakes near the capital city of Caracas killed over 6000 people and injured nearly a quarter million more.

“Our city was also devastated by a federal policy of neglect. Now we have the Trump administration trying to cut off aid and resources to more innocent civilians experiencing a disaster. Here, we find that especially alarming and abhorrent,” said Charlie Schully of NOSHIP. “That’s why it is fitting that the largest rally for Venezuelan sovereignty this week may be right here in New Orleans.”

Schully pointed to the fact that the United States is freezing Venezuelan assets in the International Monetary Fund, preventing them from accessing their own funds, and the decades of sanctions which have grown worse. “We call for their leaders to be freed, particularly Cilia Flores, who is quite literally dying in an American prison. But we also demand an end to U.S. sanctions and freeing up their nearly $5 billion in assets!”

Silas Gillett, of Liberate and Unite New Orleans (LUNO) Students for a Democratic Society, said that “Students for a Democratic Society stands in full support of jailed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.”

“As students and youth, we remember the student movement’s history of fighting against U.S. interventions abroad, from Vietnam to Palestine,” Gillett added. “As young people, we refuse to sit by and allow this imperialist government to spoil our world’s future by starting chaos and crises in independent countries. We all have a stake in the fight against foreign interventions. Whatever rights the U.S. imperialists can take away from people abroad, they can take away from us.”

NOSHIP will partner with local chapters of SDS to bring the rally and march against U.S. intervention in Venezuela to downtown New Orleans right after the first day of the National Convention. The rally will begin on Saturday at 5 p.m. in front of Armstrong Park. Activists will march through the French Quarter and end on the steps of Jackson Square.

You can sign the Anti-War Action Network petition to free President Maduro and First Lady Flores at www.tinyurl.com/awanfreemaduro.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #StudentMovement #AntiWarMovement #Venezuela #NicolasMaduro #CiliaFlores #AntiWarActionNetwork #SDS

New York, NY—On September 9, a motion was filed for Venezuela’s First Lady Cilia Flores, petitioning for her release from the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), and for her to be instead placed under house arrest in New York City, due to the severity of her heart condition.

After she and President Nicolás Maduro were illegally kidnapped by the U.S. in January of this year, her health has rapidly deteriorated throughout her imprisonment.

First Lady Flores is the 69-year-old wife of Venezuelan President Maduro and a sitting deputy of the Venezuelan National Assembly. She was lead attorney for Hugo Chávez’s defense, securing his release from prison in 1994, and emerged throughout the 1990s and 2000s as a key figure in the victory of the Bolivarian Revolution. She was the first woman to serve as president of the National Assembly, from 2006 to 2011, before becoming attorney general of Venezuela from 2012 to 2013. In 2017, she was once again elected to the National Assembly. Throughout her career, she has remained a staunch defender of human rights and the achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution.

According to court documents, she was in good health before the illegal U.S. invasion of Venezuela, in which the U.S. abducted her and Maduro from their home in Caracas and killed over 100 people. Now, after eight months imprisoned at the MDC, she suffers recurring chest pains, has lost two molars, has lost more than 25 pounds, and likely suffered a minor heart attack on July 29.

The MDC is notorious for horrific conditions. Detainees go weeks without seeing the sky or breathing fresh air. Power and water cut out, sometimes for up to a week at a time. And there is a well-documented pattern of medical neglect. In one case, cited by Federal Judge Jesse Furman in a January 2024 decision on conditions at the MDC, the jail refused to transport an inmate for surgery to repair his broken cheekbone; when he finally received surgery, his cheek had to be rebroken. In another case in 2024, a man named Terrence Wise died in custody after months of medical neglect let his lung cancer proliferate unchecked. This context makes Flores’s fragile health all the more alarming.

In the last eight months while imprisoned, Flores has experienced palpitations, elevated heart-rate, chest tightness, chest pain and fatigue. On July 29, her lawyers believe she had a minor heart attack when she reported intense pressure on her chest and a shortness of breath. She is able to sleep only three or four hours a night and suffers asthma attacks when the MDC guards use pepper spray against other prisoners.

The MDC medical staff has recommended that she undergo cardiac surgery. But under the conditions at the MDC, recovery from such a surgery is unthinkable.

The medical neglect Flores faces is not accidental. Rather, it must be understood as part of the U.S. government’s strategy to punish Maduro, Flores and Venezuela for withstanding U.S. imperialism.

The U.S. government’s total disregard for Flores’ health has been apparent since it first abducted her. At her first hearing on January 5, it was reported that Flores appeared with wounds on her forehead – the new motion reveals further detail. The U.S. government was almost certainly aware that, at the time of the invasion and abduction on January 3, Flores was still in recovery from a recent total hysterectomy and had been ordered by her doctors to limit movement for three months. Despite this, when the U.S. military invaded her home, she was thrown against a wall or a dresser, causing the injuries to her forehead, which required some 20 stitches and left her with permanent scarring.

This violence, like the medical neglect she now faces, is violence against a woman who has dedicated her life to fighting for her people and standing against imperialism and intervention. It should be met with outrage from all progressive and imperialist forces. It is not enough for Flores to be merely released under house arrest; the charges against her must be dismissed, and she must be freed once and for all.

Across the country, member organizations of the Anti-War Action Network are mobilizing on October 3 to say no to U.S. intervention in Venezuela and to free Maduro and free Flores! Visit www.antiwaractionnetwork.org/ to find an organization near you and get involved.

#NewYorkNY #NY #AntiWarMovement #International #Venezuela #CiliaFlores #Maduro #AWAN

New York, NY – 50 activists gathered outside of the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, on Thursday, September 3, to protest the ongoing detention of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. Attendees represented a broad coalition of New York organizations fighting against U.S. Intervention in Venezuela, including Brooklyn Against War, Workers World Party, Black Alliance for Peace, Venceremos Brigade, and the Venezuela Solidarity Network.

Attendees held signs demanding freedom for the kidnapped Venezuelan president and first lady and joined in chants like “Free the prisoners, free them all! Free Maduro from these walls!” and “We will say it every time! U.S. sanctions are a crime!”

The protest occurred the day after motions were filed to dismiss the charges against Maduro and Flores. In the motions, the lawyers for Maduro and Flores maintain their innocence of the charges against them and further argue that the couple are immune from prosecution since they are the president and first lady of Venezuela. At the rally, speakers from multiple organizations pointed out that should the charges not be dismissed, this opens the door for the U.S. to pursue similar strategies of illegal imprisonment and prosecution against the leaders of other sovereign nations.

Speaking on behalf of Brooklyn Against War, Briony Smith said, “We know that this prosecution is baseless. We know it’s fabricated. And we know it’s illegal. But we also know that we are up against an administration rank with dangerous absurdity and hypocrisy. So, we’re going to keep fighting, and we’re going to be loud enough that the people of Venezuela can hear us, so that they know that we have not forgotten them, that we have not turned our backs on them, and that we will keep fighting until President Maduro and First Lady Flores are free!”

Protesters will return to the MDC on October 3, at 2 p.m. as part of the Anti-War Action Network’s National Day of Action against U.S. Intervention in Venezuela. The activists also vowed to rally outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan in support of Maduro and Flores on November 17, when the court will hear oral arguments to dismiss the charges.

#NewYorkNY #NY #AntiWarMovement #Venezuela #Maduro #CiliaFlores

Brooklyn, NY – On August 3, at 5:30 p.m., anti-war activists gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, demanding freedom for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. This rally was part of a picket that takes place on the third day of every month, marking the anniversary of January 3 , when the United States bombed Venezuela and abducted the two political leaders.

The organizations in attendance, including Black Alliance for Peace NYC/NJ,Brooklyn Against War, Code Pink, and Workers World Party, have been on the front lines of the struggle to free Maduro and Flores for seven months.

Chants of “Free the prisoners, free them all! Free Maduro from these walls!” and “¡Cilia aguanta, el pueblo se levanta!” rang through the isolated area surrounding the prison.

Briony Smith, a member of Brooklyn Against War and the Anti War Action Network Steering Committee, stated, “Seven months since Maduro and Cilia were illegally kidnapped from Venezuela — say shame! Seven months that they’ve been imprisoned in the United States, right here in the MDC, awaiting a bogus trial of fabricated charges. Shame!”

Smith continued, “And one more time, you all have been out here every single month. You’ve been here through the freezing cold, through brutal heatwaves, in apocalyptic smoke. We have been outside the court in January, in March, and July despite the racist, reactionary gusanos who pretend to speak for the Venezuelan people.”

The rally ended with a short march around the federal prison buildings. Protesters are determined to continue the picket, which will take place again on September 3, and are prepared to mobilize for future court dates.

#BrooklynNY #NY #NYC #Maduro #CiliaFlores #AntiWarMovement #Venezuela

New York City , NY – Early on the morning of Wednesday, July 22, dozens of anti-war activists and community members gathered facing the courthouse in downtown Manhattan for the federal hearing of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.

This was the third hearing after the abduction of Maduro and Flores from their home in Caracas on January 3. The Trump administration carried out a bombing campaign that killed around 80 people in their pursuit of the president and first lady. They were brought to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, where they are awaiting a sham trial.

The protest outside was organized by several organizations, many who have been on the frontlines of the struggle to free Maduro and Flores since January 3. The forces were Brooklyn Against War, Black Alliance for Peace, Workers World Party, Bronx Anti War, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

The rally began with chants such as, “We want justice, you say how? Free Maduro, free him now!” and “Donald Trump, you’re a liar! No more wars for empire!”

“President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores were kidnapped by Trump and the U.S. government after an illegal military invasion. They have committed no crime. We are here in NYC to oppose their kidnapping, detention and trial! They should be set free!” said Tom Burke, a longtime anti-war activist and organizational secretary for the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

The chants and rallies continued, despite the small opposition forces trying to feebly out-chant the protest.

As the protest in New York was happening, there were concurrent protests all over Venezuela in support of their president and first lady.

The last speech was made by Briony Smith, a member of Brooklyn Against War and a steering committee member of the Anti-war Action Network, “It is not the will of the American people to invade foreign nations and capture their leaders, because it is not the American people who grow rich off their exploitation. Every day, more and more people in this country are realizing that we have more in common with the people of the Philippines, Palestine or Venezuela than we do with Congress, the White House, or Wall Street.”

Smith continued, “American imperialism is crumbling, while our movement is growing. President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores have done nothing wrong, and they will walk free! The sanctions on Venezuela will be lifted! The people will be victorious!”

The rally finished with a march and protesters are ready to gather for future hearings. The next seems to be set for November 17. The trial is officially set for June 2027, and activists are ready to hit the ground running to build the campaign to free Maduro and Flores.

#NewYorkCityNY #NY #NYC #AntiWarMovement #Venezuela #Maduro #CiliaFlores #Feature

Brooklyn, NY – On the early evening of April 3, a dozen people gathered outside of the Metropolitan Detention Center to observe Good Friday. The vigil was called by Black Alliance for Peace on what is also the three-month anniversary of President Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores’ kidnapping.

On January 3, the Trump administration launched an attack on Caracas, Venezuela to kidnap the two government officials. In the process, they murdered over 100 people. Some of the people murdered couldn’t even be identified because all that was left of them was a melted body.

The protesters took turns giving speeches, saying the names of the deceased, and lighting candles to honor those who had been martyred.

The speakers expertly connected the religious overtone of the day to martyrs in Venezuela and Cuba. They brought up the ongoing war for oil, the blockade in Cuba, and how U.S. imperialism is teetering on the edge of self-destruction.

The protesters are part of a loose coalition of solidarity for Venezuela who will continue to show up on the 3rd of every month until President Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores are free!

#NewYorkNY #NY #Venezuela #Maduro #CiliaFlores #Cuba #AntiWarMovement #PeoplesStruggles