Utah News Dispatch
Maduro’s capture generates protests and a ‘bittersweet taste’ in Utah
A protester condemns the United States’ military strike on Venezuela during a demonstration at the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building in Salt Lake City on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (Annie Knox, Utah News Dispatch)
For members of Utah’s Venezuelan community who have long hoped to see the country’s socialist government brought down, Patricia Quiñonez described the United States’ capture of President Nicolás Maduro over the weekend as having a “bittersweet taste.”
“More than 25 years fighting for the return of democracy, to defeat the dictatorship, and it happens under a foreign military intervention,” Quiñonez, who runs Utahzolanos, a social media outlet and community, said Monday.
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“We are deeply grateful that the United States is supporting us in the fight for freedom and that Maduro and his wife are now imprisoned, but the weight of uncertainty overwhelms us, preventing us from celebrating as we would like,” Quiñonez told Utah News Dispatch.
Now the community is left to wonder what will happen to its members seeking asylum in the U.S., she said, and what will become of the South American nation, its government, economy, and oil reserves.
That the capture of Maduro occurred without notice or approval from Congress troubled about 50 protesters who gathered Monday in downtown Salt Lake City, chanting “No blood for oil” and echoing similar demonstrations across the nation.
“It really is shocking, and it can’t shock us into silence. It has to shock us into action,” Sarah Buck, a protest organizer with Salt Lake Indivis
ible, told the group outside the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building.
The group urged Utah Sens. Mike Lee and John Curtis to vote in favor of legislation before the U.S. Senate that would block further military intervention without congressional authorization.
Outside the senators’ offices in Salt Lake City, demonstrator Kathy Van Dame, of Murray, held a sign that said “No war for oil.”
“I’m afraid we’ll wind up with something that’s like Afghanistan and Iraq,” Van Dame said. She added that her mind was on her own relatives serving in the U.S. military.
“It upsets the international rule of law,” Van Dame said of the strike. “It goes along with Putin and Xi’s idea of the new world order, that might makes right.”
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox shared a social media post Monday from Vice President JD Vance, in which Vance defended the strike and said “The United States, thanks to President Trump’s leadership, is a great power again. Everyone should take note.”
“This is exactly right,” Cox said on the social media site X. “I’m grateful to @POTUS for taking decisive action to confront narco-terrorism and hold bad actors accountable, including in Venezuela.”
Contributing: Alixel Cabrera
