Protesters gathered on Saturday, Jan. 3 in front of the Wallace Federal Building in downtown Salt Lake City following a US strike on Venezuela. As part of a nationwide call for action, speakers criticized the Trump administration’s military operation in the country and demanded for President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores to be freed from US custody.

These nationwide “emergency protests,” organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), are a response to the US government’s bombing of both civilian and military targets across Caracas early Saturday morning. President Maduro and his wife were captured by military forces and indicted in the Southern District of New York, according to a statement by US Attorney General Pamela Bondi on X.

Attendees included representatives from both the PSL and the People’s Freedom Party, a third party currently petitioning for status in Utah. Protesters carried Venezuelan flags, Soviet flags, Mexican flags and anti-Trump flags. Several war veterans also attended the protest.

Veteran perspective

Iraq War veteran Adrian Rollins spoke at the protest about his experience in similar military operations. “Today we saw our government use its colonial power to destroy the sovereignty and self-determination of the Venezuelan people,” Rollins said. “Claiming foreign soil and oil in our name is not placing America first; it’s not democracy, it’s colonialism.”

Rollins represents both the PSL and About Face, an anti-war organization for post-9/11 veterans. “We see this as a pretext to ground invasion and something that echoes very much of what I recall as a veteran,” he said in an interview with The Chronicle. He added that the Bush administration’s rhetoric in the early 2000s is similar to “the thing coming out of the Trump administration now.”

Other veterans expressed concern for the legality and motive of the strikes in Venezuela. “We have horrifically violated the laws of war,” said Amanda Hansen, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and now a practicing lawyer. “I’ve already participated in one oil war, I don’t think we should get into another one,” she said. Hansen referenced Venezuela’s large crude oil reserve, which the US now controls.

Wayne Kenny, who also served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he decided to attend the protest because he’s “rabidly anti-war.” He said he hopes Congress will act to “restrain the president.”

Student perspective

Chantal Irungaray, a Mexican-American fourth year nursing student at the University of Utah, is a member of PSL and Mecha de U of U, a student-led left-leaning political action group. “We support Venezuela’s right to determine their own destiny, to determine their own future, without any intervention from the United States,” she said at the protest.

She said the attack on Venezuela and its president was “an outrageous act of war” and that “it must be condemned by anyone who believes in sovereignty.” Later, in an interview with The Chronicle, she said students’ role is “to stand up in solidarity to say ‘this is not in our name.'”

Samantha Reagan, a Filipina-American U student and Mecha member, also attended the protest. She said the students’ role in this situation is important, “no matter your ethnic background.” She said all students “have a very legitimate say in where [their] tax dollars are going.”

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