BALTIMORE — Under President Donald Trump's direct orders, US armed forces conducted what he called "an extraordinary military operation" in Venezuela's capital, resulting in the capture of President Nicholas Maduro and his wife. The military action sparked immediate protests in Baltimore, where about 150 demonstrators marched through downtown Saturday to oppose the administration's foreign intervention.
"At my direction, the United States armed forces conducted an extraordinary military operation in the capital of Venezuela," Trump said Saturday during a press conference.
The president also announced plans for US oil companies to lead Venezuela's infrastructure rebuilding efforts.
"We're going to rebuild the oil infrastructure which will cost billions of dollars. It will be paid for directly by the oil companies...but they will be reimbursed," Trump said.
Baltimore organizers from the Party for Socialism and Liberation and other local organizations quickly mobilized in response to the military action, gathering supporters for a downtown march.
"What we don't want to be doing is having war on other countries when we really need to be helping to develop and take care of each other here at home, to build lives of dignity," said Rachel Viqueira, an organizer with Baltimore's Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Viqueira criticized what she sees as a pattern of US foreign policy driven by corporate interests.
"The United States has always had war making as part of it's foreign policy in order to secure resources for the millionaires that control things here," Viqueira said.
The protesters called for Maduro's return to Venezuela and an end to US military involvement in the country. They demanded elected officials focus on domestic issues instead of foreign conflicts.
"In general we want the United States out of other countries. No more money for war. We want money to feed the poor," one protester said.
Ellen Barfield, co-founder and director of Baltimore Veterans for Peace, drew on her military experience to criticize the use of US forces abroad.
"Veterans have a particular notice in public and we have to use it to say, 'We were misused. We were sent out for corporate profit not for national defense,'" Barfield said.
Barfield emphasized the frequency of US military involvement throughout the nation's history.
"There are only about 20 years of the nearly 250 year US history that the US has not been at war with some-damn body and often with many countries all at once. It has to stop," Barfield said.
The Baltimore demonstration reflects broader concerns about the administration's foreign policy approach and the use of military force to secure international resources.
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