Dispatch from January 3 Demo for Venezuela
- Carl Hintz
- 15 hours ago
- 5 min read
On January 3, around 100 demonstrators gathered in Raleigh’s Moore Square to protest the aggressive acts against Venezuela by the Trump administration. The action was organized by several groups including the Triangle chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), which has held frequent protests at Moore Square against the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza.
The Events Leading up to the Attack
Emily-Rose Gaeta with Code Pink gave the first speech, which covered the militaristic and aggressive actions of the Trump administration that led up to the January 3 attack. Amid widespread bombing of Caracas, a huge raid managed to abduct President Nicholas Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.
“The US has seized two tankers containing over 1.8 million barrels of Venezuelan oil. Trump claims it is ours, but it is theirs,” said Gaeta.
US strikes on small boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific have killed at least 115 people since September 2025.
A Call for Unity
The second speech was given by Paola Dávila Uzcátegui, a PSL member. She spoke with emotion, shaken by the recent attacks on her family's country.
“Unity is what’s going to keep us going. We don’t want more people dead. When have bombs, when have US invasions ever in history ever been freedom, when has it been peace?” asked Uzcátegui.
“Never!” the crowd replied.
Paola had a message for Venezuelans living in the US. She said, "How is [Trump] treating Venezuelans here in the United States? Why did I have to spend New Year’s with family stuck because ICE was down the street? Why? Because of Trump. What do we have to do? Do we really want to go behind the person that is making us feel like that here? Is that what we want? How will that translate to a country?"
Why Did the US Attack Venezuela?
The third speech was given by Tristan Bavol-Marques, a member of Triangle Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). He said that Triangle DSA sees three reasons behind the US war in Venezuela.
● “The first is oil … the largest proven oil reserves in the world are in Venezuela.”
● “The second most important reason is this so-called Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. The US Empire realizes its failing and its fading, and it has decided to retreat and retrench. It does not want to do things so much in the Indo-Pacific or the Middle East. They want to focus on the Americas, because they view the Americas as being their backyard.”
● “The third reason … is because the United States cannot abide a positive example of a different path of development.”
Bavol-Marques also said Triangle DSA’s position is that the results of the recent US aggression should be reversed - that Maduro and Flores should be returned to Venezuela. He asked rallygoers to contact members of Congress to press that course of action. Many corporate-backed Democrats have shown approval for the results of Trump’s raid, while professing disapproval or unease about the methods.
What Does Venezuelan and Palestinian Solidarity Have in Common?
Omar with Palestinian Youth Movement described similarities between imperial attacks on Venezuela and Palestine:
“Venezuela sits on the largest oil reserves on earth. Palestine sits on land that has always been strategically valuable, politically symbolic, and inconvenient to domination. And in both cases, the people standing in the way are treated as obstacles, not as human beings. First come the sanctions, sanctions that don’t punish governments but punish civilians. Sanctions that quietly strangle economies while politicians pretend they are a humane alternative to war. In Venezuela, sanctions cut off the ability to sell most of the country's oil. Not because the oil disappeared but because the global system was weaponized to block it. In Palestine, an entire population is blockaded, surveilled, and deprived under the language of defense. Differing methods, same result. Economic suffocations, humanitarian collapse, and then blaming the victims for the conditions imposed on them.”
March Through Downtown Raleigh
Protesters marched through downtown Raleigh after the speeches concluded. Marshals guided the crowd safely along its route while volunteer medics stood by.
Attendees waved signs that read, “US Out of the Caribbean”, “ICE Out of NC”, “Stop Bombing Venezuela”, “No War on Venezuela”, “No More Oil War”, and “Hands Off Venezuela.”
CBS17 and the News and Observer covered Saturday’s rally [1, 2]. A news helicopter and drones buzzed above the marchers. The action was organized the same day of the attack. PSL organized the Venezuela events so fast and in so many cities that the yellow press accused the crowds of being astroturfed. The truth is simple - there have been so many US wars recently that peace activists have become more efficient in organizing rallies on short notice.
The grey, rainy weather matched the somber, determined mood of the anti-war action. Returning to Moore Square, marchers chanted to the beat of drums - “money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation!” The cost of two Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets is approximately the same as the annual budget of Durham Public Schools.
Organized labor attended the protest, including members of NDWA, UE Local 150, and IBEW.
Join an Organization
Victor Urquiza with PSL emceed the January 3 event. He exhorted attendees to join a political group, recommending the organizations that sponsored the protests – PSL, Code Pink, DSA, and Palestinian Youth Movement.
Historical Context
The US has maintained an imperial system over the Caribbean states since the late nineteenth century, and the rest of Latin America since the early twentieth century.
Capturing Latin American heads of state is a semi-regular feature of US hegemony in the region. Similar events in recent decades include the abduction of Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega in 1989 and the kidnapping of Haitian leader Jean Bertrand Aristide in 2004. Aristide was Haiti's first democratically-elected president. His Lavalas movement swept to power due to the organizing efforts of peasants and slum-dwellers.
The US has a century-long record of supporting dictators in Venezuela. Juan Vicente Gómez, nicknamed "The Catfish", seized power in 1908 with the help of the US Navy. During his 27-year reign, the dictator allowed American firms like Standard Oil and British-Dutch interests like Shell to exploit Venezuela's oil resources. The second US-backed dictator of Venezuela was Marcos Pérez Jiménez, who ran a military regime from 1948 to 1958. He received substantial political, economic, and security backing from the US to safeguard its oil interests. The secret police carried out widespread torture, assassinations, and disappearances during the Jimenez period.
Carl Hintz is Triangle Free Press contributing editor and Triangle DSA Solar Bond Campaign Committee co-chair.
Work Cited