This story has been updated with quotes from people who attended the event.
Protests erupted across the United States on Saturday following President Donald Trump’s military attack on Venezuela late Friday.
Demonstrations were held throughout the Monterey Bay region, including in Santa Cruz, Watsonville, Salinas and Monterey.
In Watsonville at the protest organized by Indivisible Pajaro Valley, protesters waved signs, 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.
“We processed this in about an hour based on emails and social media,” said Olivia Millard, founder of Indivisible Pajaro Valley. “Everybody in this group instantly understood the role that they had to play, and by 10:30 we were on. It’s a pretty good turnout with no advance warning. For instances like this I think it is really important that people recognize that they are not alone in their anger and how they are being taken advantage of.”
Pajaro Valley Unified School District Trustee Gabe Medina showed up with a homemade sign that read, “Peace through war is an oxymoron.”
“I’m out here today to protest what our government is doing in Venezuela,” he said. “With immigration going on right now, with us getting so many refugees coming to the United States because of interference that we have done in these South American countries, Central American and even Mexico — it sets a really bad precedent. I’m just really worried that if we allow this to happen in Venezuela, when’s it going to stop. Is it going to Colombia, Cuba, Panama? That is going to increase the amount of refugees that are coming into the United States and then we’re going to criminalize those people. It’s this endless cycle.”
Medina said he has several friends that live in the country’s capital city of Caracas who informed him of the bombings. “This is horrible that this is going on.”
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.
“Following airstrikes on civilian and government sites in Venezuela’s capital.”
Is this true? I believe not. At least not the civilian strikes. Amazingly, the sheep are so dumb that they take this misleading information as truth and look like idiots holding up signs. They should consider talking to Venezuelan’s. Likely Venezuelan’s will laugh in their face.
These protestors turned their backs on their country. Does this happen as you get older? Very scary.
It’s all about the skin Sergio: if theirs is brown it makes them frown. If theirs is pink it makes them think
Bros, please stop wasting your time writing on this forum… We all know that the RP and Todd Guild are lefties. I gave up!
Who would ever support a Dictator (Maduro)? Who on would be upset that a dictator was removed from power? Lefties do!
Mr. Amargado, you have my solemn promise that, when there is a Trump rally, or an event that supports the president’s actions, we will give it the same respect and treatment as this story.