‘It is a war crime’: Philadelphia protesters condemn U.S. strikes in Venezuela, Maduro’s capture

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More than 100 people marched from Philadelphia City Hall to the U.S. Armed Forces recruitment center on Spring Garden Street on Saturday, protesting U.S. military strikes in Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

“Congress needs to take back its power,” said David Gibson, co-director of Peace, Justice, Sustainability NOW! and one of the protest organizers. “They’re supposed to represent the people. We’re the ones who are supposed to decide whether or not to go to war.”

Protesters chanted “Viva, Viva, Venezuela,” while holding signs reading, “No War on Venezuela,” “End U.S. Imperialism” and “No Blood for Oil.”

One organizer, a Venezuelan American and Philadelphia resident, told the crowd that his 81-year-old great uncle in Caracas felt bombs shake his apartment building early Saturday. The person told WHYY News he didn’t wish to give his name because of the presidential memorandum NSPM-7 — a controversial Trump administration policy that the American Civil Liberties Union has criticized as an attempt to conflate speech protected by the First Amendment with political violence.

“We’re all here because we agree that Venezuela should have sovereignty,” he told the crowd in front of the U.S. Armed Forces recruitment center. “We’re here because we believe that Venezuela should be free from U.S. imperial aggression and violence.”

At a press conference Saturday, President Donald Trump said Maduro and his wife will face narco-terrorism conspiracy charges in New York. In the meantime, the U.S. government will “run Venezuela.”

Maduro’s capture, future of Venezuela’s leadership raises concerns

Several speakers spoke in support of Maduro and predecessor Hugo Chávez, claiming that Maduro was democratically elected, despite multiple analyses by media organizations and election watchdog groups that found that he was defeated by the opposition party in the 2024 elections.

The Trump administration has said the military intervention was necessary because Maduro is an illegitimate leader, and has given over power to drug cartels and terrorist groups.

Betsey Piette, a managing editor at Workers World newspaper, told the crowd that the Philadelphia rally was one of many taking place in the U.S. and around the world in protest of the administration’s actions.

“U.S. aggression against the sovereign country of Venezuela is nothing more or less than an act of piracy with not one iota of justification,” she said. “It is a war crime against the people of Venezuela, against all the people of Latin America and the Caribbean, and in the end, it is a war crime against the workers and oppressed people in the U.S.”

Olivia DiNucci, 35, an anti-war organizer with activist group Code Pink, attended the protest while visiting Philadelphia from Washington, D.C.

“I’m out here absolutely against U.S. intervention, … against the U.S. spending billions and billions of our tax dollars on endless wars all across the world and destroying the planet and destroying people, destabilizing countries,” she said. “Venezuela is already under economic sanctions, as well as Cuba, and we’re seeing the root causes of imperialism, the imperial boomerang.”

Referring to the Trump administration’s heightened focus on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests, she added: “We’re creating wars, we’re creating chaos and then simultaneously abducting our neighbors and sending them back to the very countries that we’re destabilizing.”

DiNucci said she hopes people continue to protest and that Congress moves to impeach Trump for his actions.

Eva Von Weltin, a 30-year-old South Philly resident who works in tech, said she attended the protest to fight “against this idea that U.S. intervention in Venezuela is … in the interest of Venezuelan people” or U.S. citizens.

“They want to get Exxon and other oil companies back into Venezuela to take their natural resources and … take anything from the people so that they can’t make their own destiny, or … govern themselves like they want,” she said. “They want another client state that they can just take whatever they want from.”

Katie Miernicki, who attended the protest with the Philadelphia Party for Socialism and Liberation, said she and other activists had been monitoring the “war drive against Venezuela that’s been building up,” but said the Trump administration’s actions Saturday were “incredibly shocking.”

“Regardless of whatever accusations the U.S. government makes, I think it’s criminal and disgusting that our government is spending their time and money kidnapping presidents of other countries instead of taking care of people here at home,” she said. “And we know that this is a very unpopular thing, so we wanted to show our support with the Venezuelan people.”

Miernicki said she wants to see people come out and protest, despite the cold weather.

“I hope that we can continue to build a very strong anti war movement here and across the country, because it’s very clear that this is unpopular and there’s a lot more pressing causes that the money and time that they’re spending on this should go to, especially here in Philadelphia,” she said.

Xavier Stephenson, 24, a product manager in North Philadelphia, joined the protest after walking by and hearing noise. He said he was going to look for more information about the events.

“I barely even saw the news about it,” he said. “So I’m getting my news now … I didn’t know we, like, stole their president, so that’s not good, I would say.”