Madrid (AFP) – Around a thousand people gathered outside the US embassy in Madrid on Sunday to blast “imperialist aggression” after US special forces seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a military operation. The demonstrators held up numerous banners, including one showing US President Donald Trump greedily swallowing a can of oil in the colours of the Venezuelan flag. Another proclaimed “Trump aggressor”, while one banner read “No to imperialist aggression against Venezuela”.
Several protesters carried flags of the far-left Podemos party or Spain’s communists, while others held aloft Venezuelan colours. Following his dramatic abduction, Maduro now finds himself in a New York jail awaiting a court appearance on drug-trafficking and weapons charges. Trump has meanwhile vowed that the United States will “run” Venezuela for a transitional period and tap its vast oil resources.
Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, whose country gave shelter to Venezuela’s opposition candidate in the 2024 presidential election, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, on Saturday slammed what he termed “an intervention which violates international law” which could threaten regional stability. Sanchez called for a transitional period which would be “just and with dialogue”. The Venezuelan opposition maintains that Urrutia defeated Maduro in the 2024 poll.
Sanchez, whose government relies on the backing of far-left coalition partner Sumar, on Sunday doubled down on his criticism of the US operation in a letter to Socialist Party members, where he criticised “the recent violation of international law in Venezuela, an act that we condemn in the strongest terms”.
Several hundred people also demonstrated in Amsterdam outside the US consulate on Sunday, holding up placards with slogans such as “Yankee go home”, “Stop killing for oil” or “Stop Trump’s Fossil Army”, according to the ANP news agency.
© 2024 AFP
