By Brenda Ryan
February 2, 2026
New York City
Protesters rallied at Times Square in New York City on Jan. 31 to demand an end to the U.S. war and sanctions on Venezuela and the release of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Revolutionary Combatant and former President of the Venezuelan National Assembly Cilia Flores, who are being illegally held in the Manhattan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
New York City, Jan. 31, 2026. Photo: Brenda Ryan
In the frigid cold, speakers denounced the imperialist plans of the U.S. government to take over Venezuela’s oil and other resources and linked the struggle for Venezuela to the mass uprising against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis, along with U.S. attacks on Cuba, Iran, Palestine, and other countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa.
Workers World Party First Secretary Larry Holmes noted that the calls for a general strike coming from Minneapolis show an awakening of the working class. “The fascists want to see this as a white supremacist civil war, but it’s really a class war against the billionaires,” he said.
The protesters marched to the statue of Simón Bolívar, the Venezuelan revolutionary leader who led the independence struggle of several South American countries from Spanish colonialism. Along the way, marchers stopped in front of ExxonMobil’s office building.
The oil conglomerate forced its way into Venezuela during the 1970s and left in 2007 after refusing to follow Venezuela’s laws for nationalization of oil projects. Company Chair and CEO Darren Woods told analysts on Jan. 30 that he believes the Trump administration is committed to making changes needed to secure the oil industry’s investment in Venezuela. In a meeting with Trump earlier in the month, he had said the country was “uninvestable.” (Reuters)
Participating organizations on Jan. 31 included Arm The Dollz, Black Alliance for Peace, Bronx Anti-War, Brooklyn Against War, CodePink, CUNY for Palestine, Diaspora Pa’lante Collective, Labor for Palestine, MASS Mutual Aid, NYC Jericho Movement, Palaver Collective, Peoples Power Assembly, Resistance & Solidarity Movement, Sudanese Resistance Front, United National Antiwar Coalition, Venezuela Solidarity, Veterans For Peace and Workers World Party.
