{"id":120258,"date":"2026-01-05T01:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T01:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/120258\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T01:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T01:13:09","slug":"bay-area-rallies-protest-u-s-incursion-in-venezuela-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/120258\/","title":{"rendered":"Bay Area rallies protest U.S. incursion in Venezuela \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2014 Protesters braved a rainy Sunday afternoon to show out against President Donald Trump\u2019s military action against Venezuela<\/a> that resulted in the capture of the country\u2019s president.<\/p>\n

More than 100 people braved the rain, with umbrellas and hoods pulled low, to push back against Trump\u2019s attack on Venezuela and the \u201ckidnapping\u201d of its president early Saturday morning. Many held Venezuelan flags and signs reading \u201cStop attacking Venezuela\u201d and \u201cHands off Venezuela.\u201d Advocates led chants of \u201cNo boots on the ground, no bombs in the air, US out of everywhere. \u201d<\/p>\n

Organized by several South Bay advocacy organizations including San Jose Against War and 50501 San Jose, the rally at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose meant \u00a0to show the Trump administration that its \u201cillegal attempt at regime change is not acceptable,\u201d according to a news release. Rallies were also held in San Francisco and Oakland on Saturday and Sunday in opposition to the military moves.<\/p>\n

Sharat Lin, with Human Agenda and the San Jose Peace and Justice Center, condemned the attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here today to say to the Trump administration that we, the American people, will not tolerate another military adventure,\u201d Lin said. \u201cWe will not tolerate another US intervention in another sovereign country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration carried out a military operation early Saturday capturing Venezuelan president Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores<\/a>, who were then transported to the United States where they are facing charges of narco-terrorism. Maduro, who was sworn to a third presidential term in January 2025<\/a> after opposition parties who independently tallied the election\u2019s votes maintained that his opponent, Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez Urrutia,\u00a0won the election, was not accepted as the election\u2019s winner by many world leaders.<\/p>\n

The military strikes included at least seven explosions that rocked Caracas<\/a>, Venezuela\u2019s capital, and killed multiple people. On Saturday, President Donald Trump, who has been targeting Maduro and Venezuelan boats for several months over alleged contributions to the U.S. drug crisis, said he planned to take control of the country\u2019s oil production<\/a>. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday said that the U.S. government would not run the country, as Trump previously suggested<\/a>, but instead enforce an existing \u201coil quarantine\u201d to push for changes in the country\u2019s governance.<\/a><\/p>\n

Uriel Magdaleno, an organizer with Community Service Organization San Jose, condemned repeated attacks on Venezuelans at home and abroad \u2014 immigration sweeps in Chicago, the end of temporary protected status and now the \u201cbombing of Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStop the exploitation of undocumented workers, stop the separation of families and stop the violence against the undocumented, which is why we stand here today in solidarity with the Venezuelan people,\u201d he said at the rally.<\/p>\n

Richard Hobbs, a founder of Human Agenda, called the move \u201cnaked imperialism\u201d and compared it to previous American interventions.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome call Venezuela an underdeveloped country, but in fact, it is over-exploited, over-sanctioned and now over- and overtly-bombed, killing 40 innocent people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After gathering around 3 p.m., many of the San Jose protestors embarked on a march toward the intersection of King and Story roads. Many drivers honked in support of the protest.<\/p>\n

Lin, of the Peace and Justice Center, said that he worked as an international election observer for the election in Venezuela 18 months ago. He said that the Trump administration\u2019s claims that Maduro is illegitimate \u201cflies in the face of the fact that there is an electoral system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to make that clear \u2014 that the US government is demonizing Venezuela by saying that it is not a democracy, whereas the people of Venezuela have a say in the future and the governance of their country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Locally and internationally, many citizens and lawmakers decried the attack as a violation of international law<\/a>. Others \u2014 especially Venezuelan expatriates living in Florida and other communities \u2014 expressed support for the ouster of Maduro<\/a> after years of human-rights violations and economic despair in their home country.<\/p>\n

The military action, which was not briefed ahead of time to congressional leaders and not given congressional approval<\/a>, drew the support of some Republicans but questions regarding authority from others. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic former House speaker and a top party leader from San Francisco, criticized Trump\u2019s use of force.<\/p>\n

\u201cVenezuela is ruled by an illegitimate regime, but the Trump Administration has not made the case that an urgent threat to America\u2019s national security existed to justify the use of U.S. military force,\u201d Pelosi said.<\/p>\n

First-term Rep. Lateefah Simon of Oakland questioned the president\u2019s military actions without congressional approval.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President launched a war last night without the consent of Congress. That is unconstitutional and illegal,\u201d Simon said. \u201cThe administration claims this is about drugs \u2026\u00a0His words: \u2018They took our oil rights. We want it back.\u2019 This is a war being sold to the American people under false pretenses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna said that American families would pay the price for Trump\u2019s actions, and that \u201cMaduro is a brutal, illegitimate dictator does not change the fact that this action was both unlawful and unwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 9,200 people of Venezuelan origin live in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont area, with roughly 2,850 in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area, according to U.S. Census estimates.<\/p>\n

International security expert Maria Ortuoste, a Cal State East Bay professor, said the U.S. operation undermines the country\u2019s credibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cDomestically,\u201d she said, \u201cvoters should be concerned about how power is concentrated in the hands of a few, making reckless decisions that affect the whole world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2014 Protesters braved a rainy Sunday afternoon to show out against President Donald Trump\u2019s military action…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[181,63422,2581,100,7361,88,90,89,1695,1880],"class_list":{"0":"post-120258","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-nation-world","10":"tag-national-news","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-protests","13":"tag-san-jose","14":"tag-san-jose-headlines","15":"tag-san-jose-news","16":"tag-trump-administration","17":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}