Dozens rallied in Tacoma Saturday to protest U.S. invasion of Venezuela
Less than 24 hours after the United States attacked Venezuela and captured its president, over 70 people took to the rainy steps of Tacoma U.S. District courthouse Saturday afternoon to protest the invasion.
The emergency rally organized by Tacoma’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America was one of many across America taking action against the Trump administration’s intervention in Venezuela.
On Jan. 3 the United States conducted a “large-scale strike” on Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The pair were flown to New York where they face criminal charges.
The United States will “run” Venezuela and stay in the country until a “proper transition can take place,” Trump announced at a news conference.
While some celebrate the ousting of the controversial authoritarian leader, many are condemning the United States' actions as violations of international law.
Sean Arent, the DSA’s outreach coordinator, said their organization’s values of anti-imperialism and climate action motivated them to organize the impromptu rally and show support for the Venezuelan working class.
“Today was the final escalation for us,” Arent said. “We knew that we needed to reach out to our community and do something to show public opposition.”
Passing cars honked as protestors waved their handmade signs along Pacific Avenue, shouting chants like “1,2,3,4, we won’t fight your imperial war.”
Leading the chants was DSA member Whiskers Everest, who first heard of the attacks in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Even though the invasion took place in a different country, Tacoma residents have stakes in a war with Venezuela and should care about what happens, Everest said.
“We’re going to be sending our boys and girls over there, if things go as they’re probably being planned,” Everest said. “We have a massive Latin American diaspora community in Washington and all across the West Coast, and this is just bad for everybody.”
Alex Scheel is a campaign coordinator for the Tacoma DSA and a member of anti-war veteran group About Face. He previously served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Citing his post-traumatic stress disorder and friends lost to combat, suicide and drug addiction, Scheel said he knows all too well how war impacts people.
“Not only are the soldiers affected directly by the violence that they do and the violence that happens to them, they bring back that disordered thinking to our country,” Scheel said.
Scheel called Washington “a huge hub for American imperialism,” referencing the large stockpile of nuclear weapons at Naval Base Kitsap and the Hanford Site’s role in building the atomic bombs dropped on Japan.
The city’s proximity to these locations is significant and should not be ignored, he said.
“It’s up to us to stop this war machine, to say the government doesn’t represent us and to tell the people down the street at JBLM or living in our community that they don’t have to go fight this war,” he said.
Karyna Boykin, the chair of the Tacoma DSA Immigrant Justice Committee, said a war on Venezuela would be catastrophic.
“[The people of Venezuela] know that Madero was kidnapped and they are a little happy about that,” Boykin said. “But at the same time, what does that mean? It means us stealing oil and resources from them and destabilizing their economy and ability to move forward.”
