Saint Lucians rally to denounce US actions in Venezuela

A small placard-bearing group chanted “Viva Venezuela, Viva Cuba, Viva Santa Lucia” at a pro-Venezuela rally in Bideau Park, Castries, on Tuesday afternoon.

The demonstration, organised by the interim Saint Lucia/Venezuela Association, sought to express solidarity with Venezuela and “to protect the Caribbean’s status as a zone of peace”. 

The venue itself carried symbolic weight: busts of Venezuelan liberator Simón José Bolívar – who led Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela to independence from Spain – and Saint Lucian-born sea captain Jean Baptiste Bideau, after whom the park is named. Bideau (1770–1817) was said to have dedicated his life to freedom and once heroically saved Bolívar from drowning.

Venezuelan ambassador Leiff Escalona thanked participants for their presence.

“I really appreciate the presence of my colleague, my good friend, the ambassador of Cuba in Saint Lucia, the head of the medical brigade, and many friends from Saint Lucia,” she said. “This is an expression of solidarity by the people and the solidarity movement in Saint Lucia, supporting Venezuela.

“From the first day we received the very bad news that the United States decided to bomb four different cities of Venezuela, I received a lot of calls from Saint Lucians expressing solidarity. For this reason, this kind of event is very important, and I want to say thank you very much.”

Trevor Heath, head of the interim Saint Lucia/Venezuela Association, described US actions as “barbaric”.

“We simply say that if this is allowed to happen and goes unopposed, it could happen to any country,” he warned.

Reading from a prepared statement, Heath said the association “protests and deplores the barbaric behaviour of the present US administration under President Donald J. Trump in the move to oust President Nicolas Maduro and effect regime change in Venezuela.

“We strongly condemn the tremendous buildup of American military might in the waters of the Caribbean – designated a zone of peace – the attempt at regime change in Venezuela by removing the democratically elected president Nicolas Maduro, and the blatant effort to strip Venezuela’s oil resource from the people and hand it to the chosen few.”

The association called for the return of the  president and his wife, the withdrawal of all military forces and equipment from the region, and a return to negotiations “as civilised people in the 21st century should be doing.”

Cuban ambassador Yenielys Linares also stressed the importance of solidarity.

“What happened was unbelievable. We demand peace, we demand solidarity, we demand that the Caribbean and all Latin America remain a zone of peace,” she said. Linares described the January 3 incident as “illegal and irrational”, demanding the return of Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores, whom she said were kidnapped. 

She recounted meeting a Saint Lucian student in Cuba who feared returning to study in light of recent events. “Who gives the right to Trump, or anyone, to do what they did in Venezuela, and to say that Cuba or Mexico or Nicaragua will be next?” she asked.

Veteran journalist Earl Bousquet placed the incident in historical context.

“That it happened to them means it can happen to us,” he cautioned. “It happened in Grenada in 1983, in Panama in 1989, in Haiti in 2004, and in 2026, it happened in Venezuela.” 

Between 1947 and 1983, Bousquet said, the United States carried out, supported, or participated in military invasions in Latin America and the Caribbean 70 times. “The reason we have to be afraid is that it could happen to us. It’s not just psychological propaganda. This particular US president makes threats – and follows them up.”

He added that just before the invasion, the Trump administration revised the 200-year-old Monroe Doctrine, renaming it the “Donroe Doctrine”.

“The objective was simply to tell the world, not just Latin America and the Caribbean, that the United States intends to dominate the world, its resources, and its people,” Bousquet  said. 

He emphasised that solidarity must be matched by sacrifice: “Solidarity comes at a price. That price is the individual sacrifice each of us must be willing to make to ensure we not only understand what is happening in our region and the world, but that we do and say the things we can in our own ways.”

Bousquet said the world would not forget or forgive the humiliation inflicted on Venezuela’s president. “No person with a free mind will support that type of behaviour. The United States is prepared to sacrifice blood for oil. This is also about refinancing its own internal financial problems, given the weakening dollar and the fact that 68% of Venezuela’s oil goes to China, while only 23% goes to the United States.”

Wearing black, Bousquet said he was mourning the 32 Cubans killed in Saturday’s incident. According to the Venezuelan ambassador, at least 80 Venezuelans also lost their lives.

The president of the Cuba/Saint Lucia Friendship Association likewise denounced the US actions as “criminal, illegal and intolerable”.

Others spoke out, including Phillip from Choiseul, who said he was saddened by the events. “There is no way the living, and even those who have passed, would accept what happened, what the US did to Venezuela on Saturday, January 3,” he said.

In 1979, Saint Lucia established diplomatic relations with Venezuela, which has maintained an embassy in Castries ever since.