Western Mass rallies against US military action in Venezuela

GREENFIELD — Within hours of the news that U.S. military forces had bombed the South American country of Venezuela and captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, local activist groups organized protests decrying actions taken by the White House.

Protests took place on Saturday just hours after the news broke, as well as on Sunday in Greenfield, Northampton, Gill, Holyoke and Springfield.

Maduro has been charged with “narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine-importation conspiracy and weapons charges,” NPR reports, according to an unsealed federal indictment from 2020. Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, and their son Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra have also been charged.

These new indictments have been added to charges filed during the first Trump administration in 2020, and are being used as justification for the capture and removal of Maduro from Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, by U.S. forces. Maduro pleaded not guilty to the new charges on Monday and denied the 2020 charges before his capture.

The capture of Maduro came after months of heightened U.S. military presence and escalating conflict, including attacks by U.S. forces since September on supposed drug smuggling vessels off the coast of Venezuela, which have killed an estimated 100 people. No evidence has been made publicly available from Trump or administration officials to prove the vessels were carrying drugs, NPR reports.

Attending the Hands Off Venezuela Rally for Peace in Holyoke on Saturday, Jennifer Scarlott, a member of River Valley for Palestine, explained the importance of participating.

 “The heinous invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping of Maduro and his wife reek of 19th-century gunboat imperialism,” Scarlott said. “Yet these actions, illegal in terms of both domestic and international law, are not the least surprising, given the militarism and imperialism on display in the U.S. partnership in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people, and the longstanding love affair of both U.S. political parties with the weapons industry and with right-wing, corporatist regimes around the world.”

Scarlott, of Northampton, added that the couple should be returned to Venezuela immediately, Venezuelan popular sovereignty must be respected and the Northampton City Council should call on U.S. Congressman James McGovern and U.S. Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren to work toward having President Donald Trump impeached and removed from office for war crimes.

Many of those who were part of the protests on Saturday and again on Sunday, where actions were staged in both Northampton and Greenfield, held signs reading “U.S. Hands Off  Venezuela,” “Peace is Cheaper” and “Disobey Unlawful Orders.”

The sentiment of having Trump be held responsible for unlawful acts was also shared by Free Speech for People, an organization co-founded by Amherst resident and attorney John Bonifaz. The organization issued a statement calling on Congress to impeach and remove Trump and other White House officials.

“To carry out this attack, Trump committed a breathtaking number of offenses against the U.S. Constitution, U.S. law, the American people and international law; and he has implicated not only himself but the United States as a whole and the U.S. military in the crime of aggression and other war crimes,” the statement reads. “Congress’ duty is clear, now more so than ever: in order to protect the United States, it must impeach and remove Trump and any senior official who participated in the unlawful attack on Venezuela.”

In Greenfield, a protest spearheaded by the Western Massachusetts Communist Party took place on Sunday afternoon on the Greenfield Common, with around 70 people attending. Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution (FCCPR) also supported the protest.

Luke Rotello of the Western Massachusetts Communist Party explained the group began organizing the protests in Greenfield and Northampton just hours after the news came out of Venezuela.

Rotello said he personally doesn’t believe the rhetoric coming from the White House about drug trafficking as the reason for the escalation in Venezuela, saying the “writing is on the wall” spelling out that the United States’ interest is in the country’s vast oil reserves.

Protesters shared a similar sentiment, including FCCPR’s Doug Selwyn. He said the prior assertions by the Trump administration that drug trafficking is the reason for U.S. involvement in Venezuela are a distraction from U.S. intentions around oil and the revelations of Trump’s involvement with the late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

“That’s all a sham. I think it’s about oil and it’s about distraction,” he said.

Selwyn said that if military action was related to stopping drug trafficking, Trump would not have pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras, over his drug trafficking charges for which he was sentenced to 45 years in prison.

“We’ve got to pay attention to that, because in the same way that there’s never been any proof about the boats that [Trump’s] bombing, or the bombing in [Venezuela] now, there’s never been any proof that there is anything to do with the U.S, but Venezuela has got a lot of oil.”

Following Maduro’s capture, during a Saturday press conference with Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump revealed plans to “run” Venezuela until a transition can take place, and that U.S. oil companies will be in Venezuela to operate in the oil reserves, with military assistance if necessary.

When asked if he sees any parallels with previous military action in other nations like the invasion of Iraq in 2003, FCCPR member Ferd Wulkan said he sees the similarities and believes the U.S. is going into something unpredictable.

“I think, with Venezuela, they don’t know what they’ve gotten themselves into,” he said. “There’s going to be incredible resistance to the Americans running that country, and it’s really pretty unpredictable.”

As this situation continues, Selwyn said local congressional representatives need to be “making as much noise as possible.”

“They should be rallying their colleagues,” he said. “They should be demanding that their colleagues act. This is an act of war, and that’s Congress’ business if they were actually functioning, and so they should be yelling.”

Lawmakers respond

Lawmakers have decried the strikes on these ships, including a War Powers resolution attempt to block any action by Trump in Latin America without congressional approval that failed in the House of Representatives in December.

In light of Maduro’s capture, politicians representing Massachusetts have released statements decrying the actions of the Trump administration while acknowledging the negative impact Maduro has had on Venezuelans during his leadership.

“Nicolás Maduro is a brutal dictator with a horrific human rights record who used force to cling to power after losing an election. It is entirely possible to hate Maduro and also to strongly condemn the decision to remove him by force,” U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern said in a Monday statement. “President Trump did not seek congressional authorization for this use of force, and Congress did not grant it. Under our Constitution and the law, that makes this action illegal.”

McGovern said that military-backed regime change has “severe unintended consequences,” as evidenced by the U.S. involvement in Iraq. He noted concern for the lack of congressional planning for Trump’s plans to run Venezuela, lack of honesty with the American people about the financial and human cost, and that Trump is “insulting the Venezuelan people by thinking he knows better than them how to chart their future.”

“In all my years in Congress, this is one of the most blatant disregards of congressional war power that I have witnessed,” said U.S. Rep. Richard Neal.  “As we have seen time and again, military operations that are conducted prior to thorough debate and the establishment of long-term goals too often end in prolonged conflict and unnecessary loss of life.”

While some observers have compared the removal of Maduro to President George Bush’s decision to topple Manuel Noriega in Panama, in that case, he had made threats against U.S. citizens living in the country and the countries were already at war.

“Venezuela poses no imminent threat against the United States, yet President Trump is putting the lives of our service members on the line without any clear military objective,” Neal said. “A deeply flawed regime and corrupt leader does not justify unilateral military action when no imminent threat to the United States exists and Congress has not authorized the use of force.”

Neal pointed out that Democrats voted in favor of two War Powers resolutions to rein in executive overreach and reaffirm that decisions of war rest with the people’s representatives.

“It is time our Republican colleagues join us in doing the same. Members of Congress do not serve under presidents of the United States; we serve with them,” Neal said. “Republicans need to exercise their role as a coequal branch of government and fulfill their constitutional obligation to serve as a check on the president. If not, we risk dragging the United States into another war, one which the American people do not want.”

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey penned a letter to Trump that highlighted his concern for plans by the United States to run Venezuela, saying the statement raises “grave concerns about the legality, intent and lasting consequences of a military intervention carried out without congressional authorization.”

Markey urged Trump to cease all hostilities toward Venezuela in his letter, and asked a series of questions related to the extent of prior notice of the U.S. entering Venezuela to Congress, the influence of Venezuela’s oil sector on decision-making and plans for limiting further regional destabilization, giving a Tuesday, Jan. 20, deadline for a response.

“You are leading the United States toward the very kind of endless, oil-driven conflicts
you vowed to end and that the American people have repeatedly rejected,” Markey’s letter concludes. “I urge you to change course immediately.”