Marchers in Plaza Bolívar, Caracas, Venezuela, hold a banner demanding freedom for President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores from US imprisonment. Photo: Telesur.
Simultaneous marches were held in Caracas and New York on Thursday, March 26, demanding the release of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady and National Assembly Deputy Cilia Flores, who are being illegally held captive in the United States. In New York City and Plaza Bolívar in Caracas, hundreds of banners flew with a single slogan, “Free the Venezuelan presidential couple.”
On Thursday, during the presidential couple’s second hearing, people from different nationalities gathered near the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. There, with banners in hand, protesters chanted slogans demanding the release of Maduro and Flores, who were kidnapped from Caracas in the early hours of January 3 by US soldiers.
In Caracas, from very early Thursday, people gathered in Plaza Bolívar, the capital city’s main square. In that emblematic place, near the statue of Liberator Simón Bolívar, a large screen displayed details about the illegal trial against the presidential couple. At every moment, in unison, the crowd chanted: “May the drums sound, release Maduro and Cilia Flores,” and “Nicolás and Cilia are our family.”
Aggression and judicial abuse
Oscar Benítez, one of the marchers, told Diario VEA, “I am a social organizer, a member of the Agrourbano Movement, and we are here to uphold our dignity, our Venezuelan, revolutionary, and peasant identity.”
Benítez and his comrades were in Plaza Bolívar to demand the release of the presidential couple. “We also demand that their rights be respected. He is the constitutionally elected president of all Venezuelans. Those two were forcibly taken from our territory, violating our sovereignty,” he said.
“Since January 3, Nicolás and Cilia have been victims of persecution, aggression, and judicial abuse by the United States under the instructions of Donald Trump,” Benítez added.
“Free them”
“We just want them to release our President Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores,” said Luis Dávila, marching in Plaza Bolívar. “Here in Venezuela, and in many cities around the world, today, people are demanding their release. They are victims of a kidnapping by the US military and then by a court that keeps them detained despite having no evidence or reasons for them to be in those conditions.”
He added that Venezuela has clearly demonstrated that it is a nation that loves peace and respects international law. “Based on these two premises, we demand the release of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores,” Dávila said. “There is no justification for keeping them behind bars. Both the court and the judge handling the case know that they have no solid arguments to keep them detained, and yet, the injustice against Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores continues.”
Illegal trial
Orlando Vegas emphasized that he was in Plaza Bolívar “to repudiate the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores. More than two months have passed since they were forcibly kidnapped in violation of all international law. I express my condemnation of Donald Trump and his regime.”
“That vile act committed by the Trump Cartel and his war partner Netanyahu—because Zionism cannot be separated from imperialism—was an action against the Venezuelan people to seize our resources,” Vegas highlighted. “On January 3, they attacked us militarily in the most cowardly way. They killed over 100 people, including 32 Cuban internationalists who were safeguarding President Maduro.”
“They also bombed Aragua, La Guaira, Caracas, and Miranda—killing Venezuelans,” he added. “They killed both civilians and military personnel equally. For all those reasons, we are here to demand justice and the release of Maduro and Cilia Flores.”
Regarding the trial against Nicolás Maduro, Vegas said it is completely illegal. “Our president was kidnapped. We cannot overlook that. The head of state of a constitutionally elected government in full exercise was kidnapped,” he stressed. “Therefore, all the actions that have taken place from January 3 to date, from a legal standpoint, are illegal.”
“We demand their freedom”
Nancy Mogollón, a participant in the march in Caracas, said that she would speak on behalf of all Venezuelan women. “Here, we all are supporting the swift release of President Maduro and Cilia Flores,” she said.
She added that no person who was born in Venezuela or has been living in the country for a while “can forget what was done to us on January 3, when we were invaded by US troops, who kidnapped President Maduro along with Cilia.”
“We will remain in the streets and in every community to demand their release,” Mogollón emphasized. “The US justice system itself has invented ‘evidence’ and accusations because they have nothing solid with which to charge them. The judge has dismissed so-called evidence against the two of them because, deep down, they know they have not committed any crime.”
Solidarity from Brazil
Carlos Rogelio Núñez, who lives in Brazil, attended the act of solidarity and support for the release of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.
Núñez is a member of the board of the Workers' Central of Brazil. "We are here in the Liberator Simón Bolívar Square to express the solidarity of the people, the workers, and unions of Brazil against the United States' injustice against President Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores."
"The workers of Brazil condemn the various forms of violence that the United States has been committing against the people of Venezuela. As unions, we want Maduro and Cilia to return to their homeland once again," he emphasized.
Protesters in the US demand freedom for Venezuelan presidential couple
Social movements and organizations around the world, including in Egypt, Brazil, Colombia, Belarus, and the United States, have launched the international campaign #BringThemBack. The campaign condemns the imprisonment of President Maduro and Cilia Flores as arbitrary and demands the presidential couple’s return.
In New York, activists carried out mobilizations aimed at bringing visibility to the case within the United States, expanding the conflict into the realm of global public opinion.
These expressions indicate the internationalization of the conflict, where social and political actors dispute the narrative about the legitimacy of the ongoing judicial process.
From the early hours of Thursday, protesters camped outside the New York court where President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were to appear.
According to the protesters, the kidnapping of Maduro and Flores represents a precedent in international relations, as it involves the unlawful capture of a sitting head of state through a foreign military invasion.
Thursday, March 26, marked almost three months since the kidnapping, and the presidential couple’s second hearing was held in a climate of deep legal controversy. A declassified secret memorandum, dated days before the invasion, revealed that the US Department of Justice used the narrative of the non-existent Cartel de los Soles to justify the military aggression. However, these claims have lost strength as they were dropped from the formal charges. The omission of these charges suggests that the legal framework of the US case contains significant cracks, making this trial one of the most atypical and questionable judicial processes in modern history.
(Diario VEA) by Carlos Batatin, with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
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