Protesters ‘horrified’ by US actions to overthrow Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.
Protesters gather at the Ha'penny Bridge in Dublin following US actions which saw the deposing of the Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. Photograph: Ronan McGreevy
Sat Jan 03 2026 - 18:25•2 MIN READ
Approximately 100 protesters took part in a demonstration in Dublin against US actions to oust the Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.
The protesters gathered on the Ha’penny Bridge following overnight events in Venezuela by US Special Forces, which have taken Mr Maduro and his wife to stand trial in the United States.
The protesters unfurled a banner reading “USA out of Venezuela”.
Organiser Céile Varley said she was “horrified” by the bombing of the capital, Caracas, and capture of Mr Maduro.
“As a lawyer and a believer in international law, what the US is doing is in complete contradiction to everything I ever learned and everything the world should do,” she said.
“It flies in the face of the international community, of all the agreements that we are part of.
“We decided to have a little protest here to show our horror at the criminal actions and spread the word out. We have quite a range of broad left groups and political parties here.”
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy criticised the Irish Government statement in relation to the arrest of Mr Maduro.
The statement issued by Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee stopped short of condemning American actions.
Mr Murphy described the US as a “terrorist state” and said “we should not be facilitating its terrorist activities around the world. They (the Irish Government) just go along with what the US government wants. It’s a complete joke.”
The protesters carried Irish tricolours, Venezuelan, Cuban and Palestinian flags.
Former Siptu president Jack O’Connor said he was not a supporter of Mr Maduro, but the US actions were a violation of international law.
“We should have a position in favour of international law. On the one hand we have an administration which supports the genocide in Palestine; on the other hand we have the same administration in a flagrant intervention in an independent country,” he said.
“International law and due process have to be respected. The principles of democracy have to be respected.”
Mr O’Connor said he did not know if Mr Maduro had rigged the Venezuelan election in 2024, as many observers inside and outside the country had claimed.
“I am not in a position to say what happened there, but there is an international law that should be respected in recognising the sovereignty of every single independent country,” he said.
“This is an outrageous violation of the sovereignty of Venezuela and a return to the old activities that characterised the US’s behaviour in Latin America.”