By Chanel Crittenden and Gio Araujo

Chicago, IL – On Saturday, January 3, around 2000 people gathered downtown in Chicago’s Federal Plaza to join an emergency rally denouncing the U.S. empire’s latest series of military aggression against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

This rally was one of many emergency responses called by the Anti-War Action Network (AWAN) after the United States government conducted bomb strikes across several Venezuelan territories: the capital Caracas, Aragua, La Guaira and Miranda. U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that the invasion concluded with the kidnapping of the democratically-elected president Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.

This latest escalation was preceded by months of the U.S. military targeting and striking boats in the Caribbean waters off the coast of Venezuela, and the illegal seizure of two Venezuelan oil tankers. Organizers from an array of anti-war and anti-imperialists organizations joined forces to condemn the strikes and kidnapping as the violation of Venezuela's sovereignty. Protestors in the Saturday night rally chanted “Hands off Venezuela!”

Hands off Venezuela!

“These actions do not represent the people of the U.S. We want an end to forever wars. We absolutely demand it!” stated Jae Franklin of the Anti-War Committee Chicago. Franklin was one of the anti-war activists on a solidarity delegation to Venezuela recently.

Franklin recollected and reassured who the Venezuelan people are, stating, “The people there are strong, they are determined, and they refuse to back down from their enemies like Trump and his administration!”

The rally had speeches from Anti-War Committee Chicago (AWC), Alma de Izote, United States Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), and 25th ward alderperson Byron Sicho-Lopez. These speakers represented different areas of the people’s movement, drawing the parallels between the struggle for national liberation in Latin America, Palestine, and the liberation of the nationally oppressed in the U.S.

The rally then moved to march from Federal Plaza to Trump Tower. The crowd for the protest stretched across several city blocks. The march paused at the midpoint of a busy city shopping center when Nesreen, an organizer from the USPCN, made an impassioned call to people on the sidewalks to join the march.

The march route ended at the Trump Tower where the crowd gathered on the streets of Michigan Avenue to hear from Joe Isobaker of Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) and David Borris of Chicago Area Peace Action.

Chicago was among the 75 cities in the U.S. to rally in solidarity with Venezuela and denounce another U.S. forever-war. The protest’s turnout was one of the largest that the city has seen in recent months, many seeing this show of solidarity as a display of revolutionary optimism at a time where the U.S. erratically grows more desperate to maintain their imperial control of the developing world. Activists and organizers vow to continue their support for the Bolivarian Republic and demand the release of President Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores, who is being held captive at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the U.S. will work on a team to enforce an existing “oil quarantine” in Venezuela, and preparations for a military occupation are on the way. Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who was sworn in as acting president in Maduro’s absence, has vowed to defend the sovereignty of the country.

#ChicagoIL #IL #AntiWarMovement #Venezuela #AWAN #USPCN #AWCChicago #PYM