Several dozen community members rallied in Wilmington on Sunday, January 4th to protest the Trump administration’s military escalation in Venezuela. The approximately 100 protestors were joined by Delaware State Sen. Dan Cruce and State Rep. Frank Burns as they bundled up in the barely above-freezing temperatures holding signs with anti-war messaging and waving at passing vehicles to solicit supportive honks. Multiple attendees also banged pots and pans together to practice a form of protest popular in Latin America called cacerolazo. Between the vehicle horns sounding in agreement and the metallic clanks made by the kitchen utensils, the noise was constant for the entirety of the rally, which lasted just over an hour.
The “No War On Venezuela!” rally was organized by activist group Indivisible Highlands and Beyond after President Donald Trump announced that the United States “carried out a large-scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro,” in the early morning hours of January 3. Trump announced in a press conference his administration was “going to run the country,” later on the same day. On IHB’s event page, the group called the military and law enforcement action a kidnapping of a foreign leader and stated that the president was occupying another country for its oil.
Lucy Comstock-Gay, an organizer on IHB’s Rally Team, said the protest was about the group “saying no to an imperialist presidency,” and “saying no to totally ignoring international law and the U.S. Constitution.” She likened the escalation in Venezuela to the “early days” of the now-widely-unpopular military occupation of Iraq after false claims of weapons of mass destruction in 2003.
Robert Bahnsen, a current candidate for state representative, joined the protest because he found it “unacceptable” that members of the American military, including Delawareans, were going to have their lives put in danger “so that Trump can fulfill his backdoor promise to a bunch of billionaires to give them an entire foreign state and their oil.” He felt that Delaware and its elected officials, “as a solidly Blue state,” are in a position to “stand up and be more vocal about what’s going on in the world.”
State Rep. Frank Burns is an elected official who attended the protest after watching the President’s press conference the day before. He held a sign saying “No War!” and questioned the legality of the escalation and intentions of the Trump administration. “There’s no plan here other than for the U.S. to take control of Venezuelan oil,” he stated.
Ingrid Ocampo, a local woman from Venezuela, agreed with Representative Burns’ sentiment. She held a sign that said “NO DICTATORS IN THE WHITE HOUSE. CONGRESS DO YOUR JOB!!!” as her friend translated her thoughts from Spanish for her for this article. Ingrid said yesterday morning she was immediately afraid for those who lived in Venezuela. Ocampo “knows for a fact that the intervention was not to help the people of Venezuela,” and felt that people that were hopeful were “mistaken” and “ignorant” to think that the current government of the United States was interested in “doing good”. She reflected on the “stupidity” of those she had seen celebrating the intervention on the news and thanked others at the protest for organizing and showing up to support Venezuelans.
State Sen. Dan Cruce also vocally appreciated the organizing of Indivisible Highlands and Beyond as he spoke to rally attendees. He called IHB’s ability to activate the community “beautiful” and said that attending events like the rally “brings a higher sense of purpose.”
Sen. Cruce spoke about constituents and community members he met that expressed helplessness about the actions being taken at the federal level. Both Sen. Cruce and Rep. Burns spoke about the importance of the public “supporting” and “encouraging” Delaware’s federal Congressional delegation in opposing the Trump administration.
Sen. Cruce wanted to remind those who felt hopeless that steps were taken at the state level to combat fears about the Trump administration and Supreme Court’s priorities. These steps included passing legislation that limited types of formal cooperation with federal immigration enforcement and a special legislative session that “decoupled” federal tax priorities from state level taxes. Cruce also mentioned upcoming protections being worked on at the state level around moving the right to choose to have an abortion and the right to marry a same-sex partner, such as his own, into the state Constitution. Sen. Cruce also mentioned that he was the Chair of the Elections and Government Affairs Committee and there was work being done to protect upcoming elections and the public’s opportunities to vote.
Specifically about the Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela, Rep. Burns shared that he would support a resolution in the state legislature “condemning the aggression” although he was unaware if one was being written and was not currently authoring a resolution himself. He shared that he would support “standing up for the rule of law” whenever possible as a legislator and felt that should be a “key concern for everybody at every level of government.”