News / protest
Dozens attend protest in Bristol against US military action in Venezuela
Five police officers and police community support officers watched as a group of a few dozen protesters held a demonstration against the recent US military operation in Venezuela.
Some protesters on Monday evening waved Venezuelan flags and others held banners reading ‘Hands off Venezuela’ and ‘Stop Trump’s attacks; oppose US imperialism’.
At the same time as the protest was taking place in Bristol, Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores appeared in court in New York where they pleaded not guilty to charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices.
Among the speakers was Green Party councillor for Eastville, Lorraine Francis, who said “people are being brainwashed”.
“People are walking past us, ignoring us. We’re just a group of idiots stood out in the cold and we should be not here.
“The police are over to my left because they are here to monitor what we are doing, when all we want is justice.
“How can, in the 21st century, Trump just march into a country and bomb it? How is that humane and humanly possible?
“I think it is one of the most barbaric acts.”
Five police officers and police community support officers watched the protest take place at the Cascade Steps on Monday – photo: Rob Browne
Oscar Berglund, senior lecturer in international public & social policy at the University of Bristol, called Keir Starmer and other European leaders “utterly spineless” for “legitimising this invasion”.
Berglund, who is half-Peruvian, said that “the crimes of US imperialism on our continent runs in our blood”.
He added: “This imperialist violent intervention is a desperate attempt to reassert US dominance in the region but it won’t of course achieve the kind of dominance that it once had…
“These are dark times for the whole continent and certainly this coup makes worse…
“International solidarity in this anti-imperialist struggle is more important than ever so from Palestine to Venezuela, in the words of Che Guevara, ¡Hasta la victoria siempre!”
Some protesters held Venezuelan flags – photo: Rob Browne
Main photo: Rob Browne; video: Martin Booth
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