Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Police Photo-Bombed Maduro-Supporting Activist’s News Hit By Arresting Her As Cameras Rolled 

[Screenshot/WZZM 13]

Authorities arrested Grand Rapids Opponents of War organizer Jessica Plichta on Sunday for allegedly violating the law as she protested the U.S.’ capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, footage caught by west Michigan-based WZZM 13 showed.

Plichta was talking to WZZM in Grand Rapids, Michigan, when two police officers suddenly pulled up and arrested her for obstructing a roadway and disobeying a lawful command by an officer. Little to her knowledge, the officers waited in their vehicles several feet behind her and waited for her to finish talking.

“We have to apply pressure at all points that we can. This is not just a foreign issue, it’s our tax dollars that are being used to also commit these war crimes. It is also the duty of us, the people, to stand against the Trump regime, the Trump administration that are committing crimes both here in the U.S. and against people in Venezuela,” Plichta said right before her arrest.

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Plichta marched with several demonstrators calling for Maduro to be freed and for peace in Venezuela. Many demonstrators held up signs that read, “Free Maduro Now” and “No U.S. War with Venezuela,” according to Grand Rapids-based Wood TV 8. In December, Plichta returned from a “solidarity trip” to Venezuela in response to the U.S. military’s strikes on ships believed to be operated by narco-terrorists and carrying illegal drugs to the U.S.

The U.S. Army’s elite special forces unit, Delta Force, captured Maduro on Saturday and brought him to the U.S. to face four criminal charges, including a narco-terrorism charge. Trump announced at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday that the U.S. will run Venezuela until a “judicious” transition takes place.

Democrats, including Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego and New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim, accused Trump of lacking the legal authority to conduct the operation without congressional approval. Meanwhile, many Venezuelans in South Florida celebrated Maduro’s capture and thanked Trump.