In less than twelve hours after the kidnapping of Venezuelan Head of State Nicolas Maduro by the Trump-led American government, over a hundred cities across the United States mobilised; on Sunday 4 January, another forty joined the protests.
I have just returned from a well-attended rally in front of the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn, where Maduro is being held. The meeting was scheduled for 11 a.m. At the beginning, there was a brief conference, more for the sake of formality and for the large press presence than anything else – there are almost no words to express the disgust at the shameful aggression against the Venezuelan people and the audacity of the lies they persist in feeding us. Shortly afterwards, a single-file picket line began to form, turning around on itself; the circle grew longer by the minute as more and more participants joined in. The signs read: “Hands off Venezuela,” “No Blood for Oil,” “US out of the Caribbean,” and we all chanted classic protest slogans such as “No boots, no bombs! Venezuela isn’t yours,“ with a few new entries such as ”USA out of everywhere“ and ”We Ask for Justice, You Say How. Free Maduro Right Now.” Many were young, but there were also elderly people and members of the Venezuelan-Caribbean community with signs supporting their imprisoned president.
The day of protest for Americans is still long. On Sunday afternoon, a mass gathering was announced, calling on citizens and workers to participate in an emergency webinar. The meeting, attended by scholars, trade unionists, and many other speakers, ended with the announcement of plans to promote a general strike because “enough is enough!” Possible dates have already been set. We look forward to hearing more.
No one seems to believe the official theory of the drug-trafficking president. Venezuela is one of the richest countries in the world: it has oil reserves that dwarf those of Saudi Arabia, gold mines, and even rare earth minerals. Why would it engage in drug trafficking? And this could be just the tip of the iceberg. To many of us, myself included, Venezuela seems to have popped out of a magician’s hat the day before yesterday; in reality, for over twenty years, the country has been in a process of emancipation and recovery of democracy—the best kind, participatory democracy—after almost a century of colonial domination faithful to the Monroe Doctrine imposed by the US. Who, without searching Google, remembers the “Caracazo” protest, which was violently suppressed in 1989 (more than 3,000 people killed) by then-President Carlos Andrés Pérez? This is the kind of government that appeals to Trump’s United States, which, in its brazenness, on the one hand expects us to believe the lie about drugs, and on the other has sent a clear message-threat to neighboring countries: “American dominance of the Western Hemisphere will never again be questioned.”
Who will be next? As a professor explains in the webinar, the warning is directed at Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil… And that’s not all. Either because you are a scholar and understand where the government’s moves are headed, or because you can no longer make ends meet (and here there is no parental pension to help you), either way, it is becoming increasingly clear to you that something very powerful is inexorably crushing you. Mr. Trump, who focused much of his election campaign on the word “peace,” is probably laughing today, between golf games, at having duped his voters. He is fomenting conflicts around the world (in just one year he has directly bombed Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, Somalia, Iran, Venezuela and indirectly Palestine and Russia); at the same time, at home, he has launched a ruthless war against migrants, workers, and the entire American people, who for some days now, along with the high cost of living, have had to face a tripling of health insurance costs caused by the government’s trillion-dollar cut to ObamaCare. This, as we already know, will cost the lives of thousands of people who will be forced to forego medical treatment. In clinics, I say this from experience, even before greeting you, the secretary asks if you have insurance, then checks the category and finally smiles at you.
Incidentally, Maduro was locked up in the same prison where Luigi Mangione is being held. Does that name ring a bell? He is the young man who killed the CEO of one of the leading medical insurance companies and now risks the death penalty. I have heard him described as a “hero” on several occasions. It is the increasingly palpable climate of anger and frustration that causes people to express themselves so badly, from the gut; on the contrary, in order to stop the drift towards the excessive power of the elites, we must respond with intelligence and civility, above all by uniting. Solidarity with the Venezuelan people and all peoples under embargo.
