Vineyarders who have been expressing their ire at the Trump administration for months through No Kings protests at Five Corners in Vineyard Haven have added a new call in response to the recent attack in Venezuela: “No wars.”
Antiwar music and honking horns from passing cars filled the air at the intersection last Thursday afternoon as roughly 100 protesters waved signs calling for a stop to violence — messages included “Blood on their hands” and “Fight U.S. imperialism” — and to condemn the Trump administration’s Jan. 3 strike in South America, which resulted in civilian deaths and the seizure of Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela.
But protesters didn’t just come out in opposition to the U.S. strike in Venezuela. They expressed anger at the conduct of federal officials under the Trump administration, especially over the death of 37-year-old Renée Good, who was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. While the protest was originally named “No Wars, No Kings,” Carla Cooper, one of the protest organizers, said the gathering became a wider admonishment of the administration this week.
“It’s an avalanche of criminality going on right now,” Cooper said of the Trump administration. “You plan one rally, and in the interim, something else terrible happens.”
In a culmination of escalating tension between the two countries, the U.S. struck the Venezuelan capital of Caracas shortly into the new year, and captured Maduro and Venezuelan First Lady Cilia Flores, who’ve both since been arraigned in New York on multiple charges that include narcoterrorism. President Donald Trump also posted on Truth Social on Jan. 9 that he canceled a “second wave of attacks” after Venezuela began releasing a large number of political prisoners as a sign of “seeking peace.”
Venezuelan oil also fell under U.S. control after the attack. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said at a Goldman Sachs energy conference in Miami on Jan. 7 that the U.S. will “let the oil flow,” and sell the Venezuelan oil market to U.S. refineries as well as globally. He said funds will be given back to Venezuela in this process.
But protesters on the Island were not convinced of claims of goodwill by the Trump administration. Cooper said this attack is about “money and oil and a distraction from the Epstein files.”
“This administration can’t even run this country, and they’re going to pillage Venezuela for their natural resources and pretend to care about the Venezuelan people,” she said.
There’s been a mixed reaction among Venezuelans. While some were worried about the repercussions of such a move, others celebrated the deposition of Maduro, who’s been blamed for worsening Venezuela’s economic collapse, resulting in mass migrations, hyperinflation, and shortages of food and medical supplies. Maduro’s rule over Venezuela has also been marked by oppressive tactics to silence dissent, and his re-election to the presidency in 2024 is widely considered to be illegitimate. But there’s also been dismay over a lack of turnover at the top of Venezuelan leadership outside of Maduro.
Cooper said there was “no doubt Maduro was a bad guy” as an oppressive leader, but she is still against the U.S. flying in to meddle with another country. She said a diplomatic path should have been pursued, instead of sending “taxpayer-funded bombs” and “kidnapping a foreign leader.”
“This country hasn’t had success engaging in regime change,” she told The Times. “It never leaves the native population better. It creates instability and civil war.”
Karen English, a member of Indivisible Martha’s Vineyard and the local chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice, said at Five Corners that protesters needed to be “prepared with every cell in our body … and speak our mind.”
“I have certain privileges that were given to me in my life growing up,” English said. “A lot of people don’t have those.”
For some protesters, the Thursday rally was a continuation of years of pushing against various government actions. English said she protested the Vietnam War while attending Boston University, and Barney Zeitz, a Vineyard Haven artist, said he’s long protested against the U.S. government on various issues, from the Vietnam War to nuclear weapons to the Iraq War.
“You name it, it’s everything … for myself, it’s choose your thing you want to be upset about,” Zeitz said. “I’ve been dealing with this for 55 years, my whole adult life.”
Biden offered 25 million for the capture of Maduro
I guess that was just a symbolic gesture
Did Obama murder Bin Laden? There was no trial or due process on that one
Just a few short months ago the same 5 corners crowd told us dictators were evil.
Trump actually captured a real dictator who has murdered protestors.
If president Harris had captured Maduro, the narrative would be completely different
Bin Laden orchestrated the 9/11 terrorist attack, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Americans, but sure, compare the 2. Trump was right about exactly one thing. He could murder someone on 5th Avenue and not lose a single vote. That’s what a cult does, rationalize and excuse the immoral crimes of its leader.
The Trump regime’s policies and actions have resulted in the deaths of Americans, including the violent murder of Nicole Good by ICE. Additionally, approximately 600,000 deaths have occurred as a direct result of the dismantling of USAID, according to models from Boston University epidemiologist Brooke Nichols. Two-thirds of these are estimated to be children. So don’t pretend to care about Venezuelan protesters when you don’t care that we’re deporting people back to violent countries where they likely to be killed.
Carla, you say there’s “no doubt Maduro was a bad guy,” and then you basically move on as if that’s a small detail. It isn’t. Maduro ran a regime documented by the UN and multiple human-rights groups for torture, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, sexual abuse in detention, and executions by state security forces. People were dragged from their homes, beaten, electrocuted, starved, and killed to keep an illegitimate government in power. That’s not spin. That’s record.
Standing at Five Corners and reducing all of this to “imperialism” or “taxpayer-funded bombs” wipes away what Venezuelans actually lived through for years. Millions fled their country because it collapsed under corruption, violence, and fear — not because of U.S. slogans or Island protest signs. Turning that suffering into a chant may feel righteous, but it isn’t serious.
Yes, the U.S. has failed badly at regime change before. Iraq is the obvious example. But saying it “never” leaves people better off isn’t analysis, it’s a talking point.
You can oppose war. You can distrust Washington. But when you erase the documented crimes of a dictator to make your point, you’re no longer arguing for peace — you’re laundering brutality.
Hi Murray- I find your line of reasoning very thoughtful and balanced. Thank you.
Again, no one is trying to erase Maduro’s crimes. You’re assuming something that’s not true.
Ms. Cooper, what’s your estimate of the number of Americans dead from Venezuelan fentanyl? Or cocaine? Let’s say during the last decade. As long as we are engaging in data, if going to war after the Towers fell was justified, why isn’t an extraction from Venezuela of the kingpin of an international drug cartel as justified. I would like to try and understand your reasoning.
Mr. Budris, would you share with us your estimate of the number of Americans dead or adversely impacted by Trump-pardoned Honduran drug trafficking ex-president Juan Orlando Hernández?
do you think that the appetite for drugs/fentanyl in the US goes away just because Maduro goes away ?
Examining the causes of drug addiction and addressing the lack of care for those with mental illness and substance abuse would be far more effective.
As long as the demand is there, the fentanyl will find it’s way here.
John– My estimate of people who have died from overdoses of Fentanyl that came from Venezuela is near zero, or possibly zero. It does seem however, that quite a few Americans died as a result of OD’s from the 400 tons of cocaine that came from Honduras at the behest of their leader that trump just pardoned . So you and other’s ask why it is not good for the U.S to be the world’s policeman. We know there are many regimes around the world who do all the bad things you describe. Our current leader sends people to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison without due process. Some of them wrongfully arrested American citizens. The difference is that Venezuela sits on the worlds largest oil reserves, and trump can steal it under the guise of getting rid of a dictator. Maybe he will even give American citizens some of the profit— Like the $5000 DOGE “refund” or the $2000 check from all the tariffs.
We seem trapped in a perpetual cycle of myths. There’s the myth that you can create an airtight seal around the country to keep drugs from getting in. There’s the other that you can socially engineer a zero-level appetite for narcotics. A genuine mess all around.
Don, this argument collapses under its own certainty.
Saying fentanyl deaths tied to Venezuela are “near zero” isn’t a fact — it’s a claim. While most fentanyl entering the U.S. moves through China and Mexico, U.S. Treasury and Justice Department actions have repeatedly identified Venezuelan officials and networks linked to international narcotrafficking, money laundering, and cartel facilitation. Venezuela doesn’t need to be the main source for the issue to be real or consequential. Downplaying that connection doesn’t make it disappear, it just narrows the frame.
Pivoting to Honduras and a Trump pardon doesn’t answer John’s question; it dodges it. Pointing to wrongdoing elsewhere doesn’t negate criminal conduct here. If anything, it highlights how selectively the U.S. has applied its principles when strategic interests were at stake, under multiple administrations.
The “world’s policeman” framing also muddies the issue. Targeted law-enforcement action aimed at specific actors is not the same as launching a war, and treating them as interchangeable avoids the substance of the debate.
Finally, asserting oil theft as the sole motive may reflect your view, but presenting it as settled fact overreaches. Arguments earn authority through evidence, proportion, and consistency — not confidence alone.
Ms. Cooper. Renee Good was not murdered. She was killed and there is a difference. Yes it was tragic but if you saw the evidence and the film you should see that she caused this to happen. Nothing will convince you because you don’t want it to be true. As for 600000 lost lives due to aid cuts you simply cannot prove the causality as I can’t on fossil fuels lifting millions out of poverty. There is a number in there somewhere.
These protesters are a special kind of stupid. They protest in favor of “No Kings” and when the US deposes a self appointed King that has wreaked havoc in his own country as well as in the the entire Western Hemisphere they are outraged. They protest for Democracy and when law enforcement enforces the laws of said democracy they again are outraged. They are against violence except when the violence is perpetrated by a home grown terrorist attacking a government law enforcement officer. They claim they are antiwar yet hate a President who has ended more wars than any other President in our history. These folks are just full of hate and recent events have made them look in the mirror and realize the hate does not surround them, it is within them. And they are not happy about that!
Please name the wars trump has actually stopped. Not the ones he claims to have stopped.
I did not vote for Donald Trump, and nothing here endorses him. What I do endorse is reality.
This rally replaces facts with slogans. Nicolás Maduro was not a cartoon villain or a misunderstood leader. His regime has been documented by the UN and independent human-rights groups for extrajudicial killings, torture, sexual abuse of detainees, enforced disappearances, and executions by state security forces. People were dragged from their homes, beaten, electrocuted, suffocated, starved, and killed to preserve an illegitimate grip on power. That is not propaganda; it is record.
Erasing those crimes while chanting about justice is not moral clarity. It is grotesque hypocrisy. You do not get to posture about human rights while forgiving torture because the dictator happens to oppose the United States.
Yes, U.S. foreign policy deserves skepticism. Yes, regime change has failed disastrously before. But reflexively calling everything “imperialism,” “oil theft,” or an Epstein distraction is not analysis; it is conspiracy cosplay that cheapens real suffering.
Collapsing Venezuela, ICE, Epstein, and every grievance into one breathless accusation of “criminality” may feel righteous, but it is intellectually lazy and morally unserious.
Protest matters. Truth matters more. When outrage replaces facts, the argument collapses—and deserves to.
In the sixties they called Vietnam veterans baby killers
ICE and Border Patrol are doing a job a legally elected president is legally asking them to do
Their goal is to protect OUR country’s citizens, not people who illegally walked in
You know the same people that were dispatched as quickly as possible when desantis flew them here
I agree with Murray and add that the protesters rhetoric is putting ICE agents in danger and is the same as calling veterans baby killers
In the 60’s soon to be Vietnam Veterans did kill babies.
“Yes, horrific crimes involving the murder of infants, children, women, and elderly men by U.S. soldiers occurred during the Vietnam War, most notably at the My Lai massacre.”
We all know Maduro is a bad man but removing him was just a guise to get in the country to go after the oil
I appreciate Murray’s candor. Billions of assets were seized in Venezuela from an array of multinational firms when industries were taken over in the alleged interests of nationalizing the economy. Please help me understand why the living conditions of the actual constituents are ignored. Not a pretty picture at all.
George, I agree with you. That’s exactly the part that gets lost. Long before any U.S. action, Maduro’s regime gutted the economy by seizing industries, driving out investment, and hollowing out production. The people who paid for that weren’t corporations or politicians — it was ordinary Venezuelans whose living conditions collapsed.
My frustration with the protest rhetoric is that it treats Venezuela as an abstract symbol instead of a country full of people who were already suffering under a violent, corrupt government. Ignoring that reality doesn’t help them, and it doesn’t make the argument stronger.
I am in Santiago Chile this day Jan 12 and the city is full of Venezuelans who left and all of the ones I spoke with are very happy Maduro is gone. I also lived in Venezuela 1984-87 as a CEO of a multinational and it was dark then but nothing like under Chavez and Maduro. Everything has been nationalized and everything is in disrepair. More work to be done to get the military onside, but I am hopeful.
Safe travels, Andrew, and thank you for the report from South America.
I only get one reply a day :
John M —Here is the list of all the “wars” trump claims to have ended. I personally don’t think that if the U.S initiates a 12 day bombing campaign with one of its allies against a sovereign country and then decides to stop that counts. https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2026/jan/02/fact-focus-trump-says-hes-ended-eight-wars-his/
Biden raised the reward on Maduro to 25 million from trump’s “symbolic gesture” of $15 million during trumps first term. Dictators are not good, Maduro is a perfect example. We don’t have one in the U.S and would rather keep one from rising rather than wait for our economy to collapse and have China or Russia get him out. It takes a certain kind of stupid to look at the videos of Renee Good being murdered by henchmen at the behest of a wanna be dictator while protesting and claim she was a terrorist.
John B –My estimate of Fentanyl deaths from Venezuela — less than 100 , much closer to Zero, If not zero.— Deaths from 400 tons of coke that we know actually got into the country via the hands of Juan Orlando Hernández , —who trump pardoned — way more than 100 , likely thousands.
I can understand objective points being made here, however, those in defense of the people of venezuela and the current administration’s actions, conveniently ignore the fact they have rolled back US protections for those same people. Obama and Biden may have had the same views on Maduro but their actions were based in diplomacy, legality and humanitarian help for the Venezuelan people. So clearly this administration does not have those same people’s best interest at heart when roll backs of aid and protection happened first, then an illegal kidnapping (no congressional approval or even letting them know). There’s no disputing Maduro is a drug lord dictator who had to go, the dispute is in legality and true intent of our actions. Military action for oil under the guise of US security seems to be a theme we have used numerous times in the past, with devastating results.
Zeke, your framing assumes conclusions that aren’t actually established.
It’s often claimed that prior administrations acted purely through diplomacy and humanitarian concern, but U.S. policy toward Venezuela has long mixed sanctions, pressure, limited aid, and strategic self-interest. Conditional relief and humanitarian carve-outs existed, but they were inconsistent and frequently reversed when political objectives weren’t met. That history is more complicated than a clean contrast between “humanitarian” then and “predatory” now.
The legality question is also not as settled as you suggest. While critics argue congressional authorization was required, others point to long-standing executive authority for targeted actions against transnational criminal leaders designated under U.S. law. Disagreement among legal scholars does not make an action inherently “illegal,” even if one opposes it.
Nor is “military action for oil” an established fact. It’s an interpretation. Venezuela’s oil reserves are relevant geopolitically, but asserting resource theft as the primary motive without evidence repeats a familiar narrative rather than proving intent.
Maduro’s removal raises serious questions — but framing this as a clear moral and legal regression oversimplifies decades of U.S. policy that has rarely been as principled or humanitarian as suggested.
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