Protests erupted across the United States on Saturday following President Donald Trump’s military attacks on Venezuela late Friday.
Demonstrations were held throughout the Monterey Bay region, including in Santa Cruz, Salinas and Monterey. Organized by Indivisible Pajaro Valley, protesters waved signs reading “No Blood for Oil,” “No New Wars,” and “Enough Is Enough.”
The two-hour protest drew cheers and honking horns from passing motorists.
Following airstrikes on civilian and government sites in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, U.S. troops detained President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and transported them to the United States to face criminal charges, according to international news reports. The action has sent shockwaves around the world.
The Trump administration said Maduro was captured to face U.S. drug-trafficking charges and to dismantle what it described as a criminal regime.
“It was an assault like people have not seen since World War II,” Trump told reporters during a Saturday press conference. “It was a force against a heavily fortified military fortress in the heart of Caracas to bring outlaw dictator Nicolás Maduro to justice. This was one of the most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American military might and competence in American history.”
Trump has framed the operation as part of a broader strategy to combat narcotics trafficking, weaken Maduro’s grip on power and reassert U.S. influence in the region, including over Venezuela’s oil resources.
The move drew sharp criticism from local, state and federal lawmakers.
“‘E pluribus unum: out of many, one’ guides our democracy and reminds us that our strength comes from shared responsibility and respect for the rule of law,” said Assemblymember Dawn Addis.
“While Venezuela’s leaders have caused immense harm to their own people, President Trump bypassing Congress and the American people in a direct takeover does not make us safer. We are a nation of laws, and the president must operate within, not outside of, them. American democracy is a flame that has never been blown out, and we cannot allow one man’s autocratic ideation to extinguish it now.”
Addis said she plans to introduce legislation next week aimed at protecting democratic governance.
*Todd Guild contributed to this story.
