Dozens of Birmingham protestors gathered Sunday afternoon in Five Points South to voice their disagreement with President Donald Trump’s weekend order for a military raid into Venezuela and capture of that country’s president.
About 100 groups across the United States have announced protests against the move, with at least three of those spanning the state in Huntsville, Birmingham and Dothan.
Sunday evening’s protest was a group effort led by the Birmingham Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Alabama 50501, Food Not Bombs Birmingham, the Birmingham branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), and other local solidarity organizations, according to a news release from DSA.
“[On] January 3rd, the Trump administration bombed locations across the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and abducted Venezuelan President Maduro in a naked attempt at regime change,” the release reads.
“These attacks continue Trump’s illegal war on Venezuela, which began with bombings and seizures of Venezuelan vessels in the Caribbean for months.”
“Trump’s war on Venezuela aims to control Venezuela’s oil resources through illegal military force and with the help of U.S. energy corporations,” it continues.
Trump and other Republican lawmakers have said this weekend that the attack was part of an effort to secure U.S. borders and protect citizens against drug trafficking and narco-terrorism.
But several opponents, including former Trump ally and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., question the president’s true motivation.
“The Trump administration claims these military actions, as well as extrajudicial and illegal bombings and seizures of boats in the Caribbean, are to fight ‘narco-terrorism’ and stop drugs entering the U.S.,” reads DSA’s news release.
“But Trump and his regime officials have repeatedly emphasized that U.S. control of Venezuelan oil, as well as U.S. domination of Latin America as a whole, are their primary motivation.”
Members of the participating groups led protestors in multiple chants against the current administration on Sunday before starting their march around Five Points South.
“Fascism will not stand in this country,” one went.
“Enough is enough. No to war. Yes to peace.”
“Not U.S. land, not U.S. soil, hands of Venezuelan oil,” said another.
The United States, in predawn hours on Saturday bombed Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, and captured the sitting Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
Trump told AP News Saturday that the U.S. would now run Venezuela, at least temporarily, and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations.
While Republicans in Congress largely support the decision, Democrats have spoken out against the move, specifically taking issue with a lack of briefing from the administration before the strike began, according to ABC News.
This weekend Andrew Sneed, one of the Democratic candidates running for Alabama’s 5th congressional district seat, called out Rep. Dale Strong, who currently occupies the seat, for his support of the move.
“Regardless of the fact that...Nicolas Maduro was an illegitimate and corrupt leader - whose actions harmed both our country’s people and his own, Representative Dale Strong either does not understand, or continues to ignore, his responsibility,” Sneed wrote.
“As a member of Congress - a co-equal branch of Government - his responsibility is to serve as a check, not a cheerleader, for the Executive. For the future Representative of the 5th, Constitutional fidelity must always trump political expediency.”