Spokane protesters call on government to shut down ‘endless wars,’ ‘Trump’s lies’ amid Venezuelan strikes

About 75 people stood on the Maple Street Bridge overpass in Kendall Yards Saturday holding signs and yelling chants condemning the United States’ military strikes on Venezuelan’s capital city and the capture of the South American country’s leader.

Zach McGuckin, organizer for the Party for Socialism and Liberation in Spokane, led chants asking to “shut down” “imperialism,” “endless wars” and “Trump’s lies.”

Some of the chants included: “Not another nickel, not another dime, bombing Venezuelans is a crime;” “We know what we’re fighting for, no more money for endless wars;” and “Biggest threat in the world today, Donald Trump and the U.S.A.”

Melo Maiolie held a sign provided by the PSL that said, “NO U.S. WAR ON VENEZUELA.”

“I’m sick and tired of U.S.’s naked imperialism,” Maiolie said. “We nave no reason to be attacking Venezuela. It’s an illegal attack for that matter.”

He said the strikes and capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, weakens international law and American law.

“What we’re seeing is just an authoritarian, fascist takeover of the United States, laid out plainly, and I want to do what I can to say, ‘No, the American people don’t support that,’” said Maiolie, who called on Congress to impeach President Donald Trump.

Maiolie said he’s worried the overnight military operation is the first step toward war.

“Do we want to get embroiled in another 20-year military quagmire,” said Maiolie, referring to the war in Iraq.

“There’s no benefit for us, no justification for us to be attacking another country like this,” he continued.

Ari Dean, another PSL organizer, called the weekend U.S. intervention in Venezuela disgusting and unprovoked.

“I was absolutely disgusted, horrified,” she said. “I mean, this is just such a blatant disregard for the sovereignty of another nation. This is an illegal act, this is a kidnapping, you know, taking the leader of a sovereign nation, and his wife, who is not even a political figure, she’s just a person.”

As soon as she learned of the news, she said she knew PSL needed to act, and started organizing the protest Saturday morning. The protest was one of many anti-war demonstrations in major cities across the country Saturday.

Many opposed to the action claim the U.S. attacks were aimed to control Venezuela’s enormous oil reserves rather than stop drug trafficking into the U.S.

Trump said Saturday the U.S. will invest in the country’s oil infrastructure and “get the oil flowing.”

“It’s pretty obvious what the real reason is, and it’s about oil, and it’s about enriching oil executives, and that’s it,” Dean said.

Like Maiolie, Dean also worried about the operation turning into a full-fledged war of Americans and Venezuelans killing each other when federal funding should be directed to housing, education and healthcare.

“This is just detrimental and deadly for working class people, just again to line the pockets of billionaires,” Dean said.

A few speakers addressed the small crowd on the Centennial Trail, which overlooks a flow of cars on Maple Street Bridge. Some of the drivers honked in support when seeing the protesters and their signs above them on the overpass.

David Brookbank, a PSL member, called the overnight attack cowardly, illegal and the bombing of a country that has not attacked its neighbors.

“This situation with Venezuela is about one thing, it is about U.S. imperialism,” Brookbank said. “U.S. imperialism is a insatiable beast which kills children.”