Mobilize to Free Maduro Now!

The U.S. rang in the New Year by bombing Venezuela and abducting its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores. Since then, they have been held in isolation at Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. The imperialists have charged Maduro with “narco-terrorism,” and he is facing a kangaroo court trial. To add insult to injury, the U.S. government has denied Maduro access to Venezuelan funds to pay for his legal defense.

Maduro’s next court hearing is on March 26. It is urgent that the workers movement mobilize outside the court in Lower Manhattan in his defense and to demand his freedom. It is an outrage that he has been incarcerated in NYC for months by the U.S. imperialist overlords.

What is the NYC “socialist” mayor’s response to Maduro being locked up in his city? Nothing. Mamdani initially voiced opposition to Trump’s “violation of federal and international law” but has since gone quiet, while chumming it up with Trump to make a real estate deal for NYC. Since abducting Maduro, Trump has been starving Cuba and carpet bombing Iran.

Make no mistake: The more the White House is able to get away with these crimes, the greater its offensive becomes against everyone in its path, as we saw in Minneapolis. The U.S. rulers’ attacks on other countries are directly tied to their attacks on the living and working conditions of the masses in the U.S. And these conditions are about to get a lot worse.

We call for united-front protest of all left groups and unions under the demand: Free Maduro now! In its January 3 statement, the DSA demanded the return of Maduro and Flores to Venezuela. There is sentiment among the NYC-DSA ranks to organize a “day of action” to free Maduro. But the chapter leadership won’t make this happen because they are afraid of threatening Mamdani’s Democratic Party respectability.

We say: All the left, including DSAers and trade unionists, must come out on March 26 to show our opposition to the U.S. butchers riding roughshod over all of us! Fighting to free Maduro is part of the fight against the world’s biggest terrorist, U.S. imperialism.

Check our social media for updates on the exact time and place to protest.