{"id":89281,"date":"2026-01-05T04:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T04:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/89281\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T04:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T04:21:10","slug":"new-yorkers-against-the-capture-of-venezuelan-president-nicolas-maduro-protest-outside-of-metropolitan-detention-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/89281\/","title":{"rendered":"New Yorkers against the capture of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro protest outside of Metropolitan Detention Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

Protesters opposed to\u00a0the U.S. military strikes against Venezuela and the capture of President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he is being held, on Sunday, calling for his release and denouncing President Trump’s actions as illegal.<\/p>\n

“What’s stopping Trump from doing this to other countries?” \u00a0<\/p>\n

Demonstrators barricaded a portion of the sidewalk across from where Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were being held on narcoterrorism charges since arriving in New York on Saturday night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“As people of the United States, we have to oppose this action because what’s stopping Trump from doing this to other countries?” said Zoe Alexandra of ANSWER Coalition, an anti-war and anti-racism protest group formed after 9\/11.<\/p>\n

\"Venezuela's<\/p>\n

A still image from video posted by the White House’s @RapidResponse47 X account shows Venezuela’s ousted President Nicolas Maduro being walked in custody at the offices of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in New York City, on Jan. 3, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

@RapidResponse47\/Handout via REUTERS<\/p>\n

The group criticized Mr. Trump and the military operation, known as Operation Absolute Resolve, saying it was motivated by Venezuela’s oil reserves and control of the country, not by the drug charges Maduro has been wanted for since 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“If it really cares about prosecuting drug traffickers, then why did they release [former Honduras President] Juan Orlando Hernandez<\/a>, who is convicted in the same court that they’re trying Maduro now?” Alexandra said.<\/p>\n

U.S. military action has its supporters in NYC<\/p>\n

Those who spoke out against Sunday’s demonstration said they believe if Maduro had not been captured, change wouldn’t have come for the Venezuelan people for a number of years.<\/p>\n

Esteban Chacin, who fled the South American nation nine years ago, and other Venezuelans said the life they left was unsustainable under Maduro’s authoritarian rule and that the strikes and his capture, although audacious, were necessary.<\/p>\n

“And not just because of the U.S. or the sanctions. The government that was there has been corrupt enough to earn their own blame or fault,” Chacin said.<\/p>\n

Zulimar Mendoza said she left her family in Venezuela in 2018 and has been working a lot to send them money.<\/p>\n

“I saw families, entire families, eating from the garbage,” Mendoza said. “It’s a sacrifice, yes, but it’s necessary in this case, because we are stuck. We don’t have solutions.”<\/p>\n

We hope to “dictate our own future”<\/p>\n

Throughout the weekend, Venezuelan flags were on display in New York City in celebration of what some say is a light at the end of the tunnel. Others took offense to that.<\/p>\n

“Celebrating a shame, celebrating a crime. How can somebody be celebrating a crime? The kidnapping of a president?” said Lucy Pagoada of Queens.<\/p>\n

With Mr. Trump announcing temporary U.S. control over Venezuela<\/a>, its natives are eagerly watching and waiting.<\/p>\n

“I just hope that if it all falls in the hands of Venezuelans, that we can dictate our own future,” Chacin said.<\/p>\n

Others say they are turning to faith. The Araujo family attended Sunday Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and prayed for their home country.<\/p>\n

Juan Araujo’s parents are set to return to Venezuela this week, but were visiting their son in New York City when they learned about the capture of Maduro.<\/p>\n

“They’re going back to, hopefully, what’s going to be a new Venezuela. [It] just gives hope,” Araujo said. “There’s a long way still to go, but this is a huge first step.”<\/p>\n

“We are really happy because we’ve been suffering a lot for the last 20 years and we wanted to get rid of this guy,” Juan Araujo Sr. said.<\/p>\n

But will things be different in post-Maduro Venezuela?<\/p>\n

“Well, the same guys are still in power, so I don’t know what’s gonna happen. We’re gonna have to wait and see what Trump and the government is gonna do. I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but something have to give,” Araujo Sr. said.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Protesters opposed to\u00a0the U.S. military strikes against Venezuela and the capture of President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro gathered outside the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[153,9,24,55,54,15862,56,7318],"class_list":{"0":"post-89281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-city-news","13":"tag-nicolas-maduro","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-venezuela"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}