Sim Kern stood stoically behind a banner emblazoned with the words, “No War on Venezuela.” The Houston advocate, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, said she hoped Sunday’s demonstration would prompt the “reckless” Trump Administration to take notice that an overwhelming majority of Americans don’t like the way he’s running the country.
“We’re protesting the killing of civilians in Venezuela and the kidnapping of the leader of another country,” Kern said. “We’ve seen [Trump] violate the law repeatedly.”
But 20 miles away in Katy, residents draped themselves in Venezuelan flags and cheered that the reign of President Nicolás Maduro, hailed as an evil dictator, seemingly came to an end when Trump ordered air strikes on the Latin American country in the early-morning hours of January 3.
It was clear from Sunday’s gatherings that many Houstonians believe the Venezuelan president was a bad guy involved in narco-terrorism but they don’t support U.S. President Donald Trump’s methods of making sweeping decisions without Congressional approval.
The strike on Venezuela resulted in at least 80 deaths of civilians and military personnel, and Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were taken from their home and flown to New York, where they will face charges of drug trafficking and terrorism. Trump has promised that the United States will “run” Venezuela and seize the country’s oil assets.
It’s another bold move by a president who critics say has neglected the needs of his own constituents while focusing money and resources on other parts of the world.
About 200 people gathered at the corner of Post Oak and Westheimer on Sunday afternoon to express their displeasure with Trump. The Houston Progressive Caucus released a statement saying it denounces Trump’s “illegal military intervention and regime change operation in Venezuela.”
“Working class people in Houston are drowning under the cost of healthcare, rent and food while Trump and Texas Republicans endlessly fund invasions, weapons and violence,” the statement reads. “When Houston families ask for healthcare, we are told there is no money to stop premiums from increasing. When corporations and war planners want bloodshed, the money appears instantly.”
Kern said politicians no longer work for the American people; they work for Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Chevron and Exxon.
“A recent poll showed 70 percent of the U.S. populace opposed any kind of military action in Venezuela, but our government doesn’t care about public opinion anymore. They only care about these super-elite, wealthy shareholders,” Kern said. “They get richer every time they drop a bomb. They want to exploit Venezuela’s massive oil reserves.”
Venezuelans began fleeing the country en masse about 10 years ago after the death of former President Hugo Chávez, who suppressed the press, manipulated electoral laws and arrested and exiled his critics. Under his reign, the murder rate grew and reports of continued corruption within the police force and the government increased.
Many of those who fled came to the Houston suburb of Katy. U.S. Census data shows that Katy’s Venezuelan population tripled from 2012 to 2022, and more than 15,000 now call the area home.
Brenham resident Leigh Page, who lived in Maracaibo for two years, said Venezuela once boasted an affluent, booming economy where Colombians sought asylum and Houston oil magnates visited for business.
“Then their society collapsed when Chavez and then Maduro stole power, destroyed their society and bled every dollar from the ordinary populace,” Page wrote on social media. “Most of the people who actually live in Venezuela can now have hope that their country can be an amazing place again. So before you criticize what has happened, maybe talk to someone who lives there, or had to escape and cannot go home, or just someone who was lucky enough to live there for a while.”
Houston’s Democratic politicians reacted cautiously. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, who is Colombian, said in a statement Saturday morning that actions to “help people topple an illegitimate and ruinous dictator can be a good thing, and many are rightly celebrating the removal of the top leader of a truly terrible autocratic regime.”
“Not only could this morning’s actions help improve the lives of Venezuelans, but on a numbers-and-cents basis, they could lead to better outcomes for our residents, our energy industry, and the nation,” she said. “That said, Harris County residents and our industry only stand to gain from this morning’s actions if they lead to stability in Venezuela. That is not only obvious, but it is what I am hearing from community and industry leaders.”
U.S. Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher, who represents portions of Harris and Fort Bend counties, said Trump’s action violates the United States Constitution and sets a dangerous precedent for national sovereignty.
“President Maduro’s authoritarian government was illegitimate and oppressive,” Fletcher said in a press release. “But President Trump’s statements made clear that he believes he has the unilateral authority to depose foreign leaders and take over foreign countries. He does not.”
“The Constitution gives the Congress — the representatives of the American people — the sole authority and the solemn responsibility to declare war,” Fletcher added. “The Trump administration did not seek Congress’ authority to launch the strikes on Venezuela and Congress did not authorize it. The multiple rationales the administration put forward to justify its actions raised more questions than they answered.”
In a public address from Mar-a-Lago on Saturday morning, Trump mentioned the 2024 killing of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in Houston as one of the reasons for invading Venezuela. Nungaray was sexually assaulted, strangled and thrown into a north Houston bayou. Two Venezuelan nationals, Franklin Peña and Johan Martinez-Rangel, are charged with the crime and are awaiting trial for capital murder in the Harris County Jail.
What that has to do with Maduro is unclear. Trump said in his address that Nungaray’s murder was carried out by members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, “sent by Maduro to terrorize our people.” Harris County prosecutors have not acknowledged any affiliation between the accused killers and the gang.
Kern said there appears to be division among Venezuelans who remain in Latin America and those who have gotten out over whether Trump’s takeover is a good idea.
“Obviously the Venezuelans who are living in Venezuela are not cheering and celebrating the death toll,” she said.
Kirke Campbell, another member of Jewish Voice for Peace, said he grew up protesting the War on Terror and it’s been ingrained in him that organized opposition makes a difference. As a crowd shouted in the background, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go,” Campbell offered an optimistic message.
“I still have hope that things will change,” he said. “That hope is an action. It’s something that you have to go out and do all the time. That’s why we’re here.”
Fellow protester Kern added, “Even if we were the only people out here, it’s important to register opposition. It’s the right thing to do and it’s important to disrupt and communicate to people that we are not aligned with this. We do not agree with this.”
Members of Jewish Voice for Peace has attended many protests over the past couple of years and has seen increased public awareness and “a massive shift in public opinion,” Kern said.
“Genocide is ongoing in Gaza despite what they call a cease-fire, but things really have materially changed, obviously not as quickly as we would have wanted them to,” she said.
Although protesters on Sunday said showing up to such events matters, they were concerned about a heavy police presence and the fact that people with signs and megaphones were confined to a “penned” area surrounded by metal guardrails and creating what they deemed a public safety hazard.
“If there were a shooter or someone rammed us, there’s no mobility,” said Neil Aquino, founder of the Houston Democracy Project. “They’re really focused on preventing people from taking over an intersection, but the priorities of what merits police presence are confusing. We’re willing to turn over our roads to bullies and red-light runners but we need 40 cops for this and we need to pen people in.”
Aquino further added that the action in Venezuela appears to be a stepping stone to a “whole takeover” that will lead to Cuba and Greenland.
“They will cheat those people,” he said.
Hidalgo said a transition to democracy is the only hope for stability and for a true benefit to the American economy.
“A reconstitution of the Venezuelan oil industry is impossible without a reconstitution of the political system,” she said in a statement. “And it is impossible for American forces to be that political system. As we have learned from intervening in other regions, only the legitimately elected Venezuelan leadership can engender a stable government and oil industry.”
She suggested that Trump and Congress have the “opportunity and responsibility to leverage this moment to negotiate the exit of the entire Maduro regime and usher in a prompt transition to democracy.
“The logical answer is the installation of the internationally-recognized President-elect, Edmundo González Urrutia, along with the coalition around him, which is essentially led by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Corina Machado,” she said.
This article appears in Private: Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2026.