SAN JOSE — Protesters braved a rainy Sunday afternoon to show out against President Donald Trump’s military action against Venezuela that resulted in the capture of the country’s president.
More than 100 people braved the rain, with umbrellas and hoods pulled low, to push back against Trump’s attack on Venezuela and the “kidnapping” of its president early Saturday morning. Many held Venezuelan flags and signs reading “Stop attacking Venezuela” and “Hands off Venezuela.” Advocates led chants of “No boots on the ground, no bombs in the air, US out of everywhere. ”
Organized by several South Bay advocacy organizations including San Jose Against War and 50501 San Jose, the rally at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose meant to show the Trump administration that its “illegal attempt at regime change is not acceptable,” according to a news release. Rallies were also held in San Francisco and Oakland on Saturday and Sunday in opposition to the military moves.
Sharat Lin, with Human Agenda and the San Jose Peace and Justice Center, condemned the attack.
“We are here today to say to the Trump administration that we, the American people, will not tolerate another military adventure,” Lin said. “We will not tolerate another US intervention in another sovereign country.”
The Trump administration carried out a military operation early Saturday capturing Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, who were then transported to the United States where they are facing charges of narco-terrorism. Maduro, who was sworn to a third presidential term in January 2025 after opposition parties who independently tallied the election’s votes maintained that his opponent, Edmundo González Urrutia, won the election, was not accepted as the election’s winner by many world leaders.
The military strikes included at least seven explosions that rocked Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, and killed multiple people. On Saturday, President Donald Trump, who has been targeting Maduro and Venezuelan boats for several months over alleged contributions to the U.S. drug crisis, said he planned to take control of the country’s oil production. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday said that the U.S. government would not run the country, as Trump previously suggested, but instead enforce an existing “oil quarantine” to push for changes in the country’s governance.
Uriel Magdaleno, an organizer with Community Service Organization San Jose, condemned repeated attacks on Venezuelans at home and abroad — immigration sweeps in Chicago, the end of temporary protected status and now the “bombing of Venezuela.”
“Stop the exploitation of undocumented workers, stop the separation of families and stop the violence against the undocumented, which is why we stand here today in solidarity with the Venezuelan people,” he said at the rally.
Richard Hobbs, a founder of Human Agenda, called the move “naked imperialism” and compared it to previous American interventions.
“Some call Venezuela an underdeveloped country, but in fact, it is over-exploited, over-sanctioned and now over- and overtly-bombed, killing 40 innocent people,” he said.
After gathering around 3 p.m., many of the San Jose protestors embarked on a march toward the intersection of King and Story roads. Many drivers honked in support of the protest.
Lin, of the Peace and Justice Center, said that he worked as an international election observer for the election in Venezuela 18 months ago. He said that the Trump administration’s claims that Maduro is illegitimate “flies in the face of the fact that there is an electoral system.”
“I just want to make that clear — that the US government is demonizing Venezuela by saying that it is not a democracy, whereas the people of Venezuela have a say in the future and the governance of their country,” he said.
Locally and internationally, many citizens and lawmakers decried the attack as a violation of international law. Others — especially Venezuelan expatriates living in Florida and other communities — expressed support for the ouster of Maduro after years of human-rights violations and economic despair in their home country.
The military action, which was not briefed ahead of time to congressional leaders and not given congressional approval, drew the support of some Republicans but questions regarding authority from others. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic former House speaker and a top party leader from San Francisco, criticized Trump’s use of force.
“Venezuela is ruled by an illegitimate regime, but the Trump Administration has not made the case that an urgent threat to America’s national security existed to justify the use of U.S. military force,” Pelosi said.
First-term Rep. Lateefah Simon of Oakland questioned the president’s military actions without congressional approval.
“The President launched a war last night without the consent of Congress. That is unconstitutional and illegal,” Simon said. “The administration claims this is about drugs … His words: ‘They took our oil rights. We want it back.’ This is a war being sold to the American people under false pretenses.”
Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna said that American families would pay the price for Trump’s actions, and that “Maduro is a brutal, illegitimate dictator does not change the fact that this action was both unlawful and unwise.”
About 9,200 people of Venezuelan origin live in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont area, with roughly 2,850 in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area, according to U.S. Census estimates.
International security expert Maria Ortuoste, a Cal State East Bay professor, said the U.S. operation undermines the country’s credibility.
“Domestically,” she said, “voters should be concerned about how power is concentrated in the hands of a few, making reckless decisions that affect the whole world.”
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