Venezuelan embassy holds Baghdad vigil for Maduro a month after US capture

BAGHDAD — The Venezuelan Embassy in Iraq held a solidarity vigil at its Baghdad headquarters Thursday, a month after U.S. forces captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a military operation that resulted in both being flown to New York to face criminal charges including narco-terrorism and cocaine trafficking.

The gathering called for Maduro’s release and the formation of an Iraqi solidarity movement with Venezuela. Intellectuals and journalists attended from Iraq and the wider Arab world attended.

Venezuelan Ambassador Arturo Anibal Gallegos thanked participants, including members of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate and the Iraqi Federation of Labor Unions, and said his country would continue to demand the release of Maduro and Flores.

Hashim al-Mousawi, deputy head of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, announced the formation of a group to advocate for their release. He said its voice would be raised “to expose the American expansionist policy in the world,” calling the operation “an attack on the global and human conscience.”

Media figure Ghada al-Bayati told 964media that Iraqis stand in solidarity with the Venezuelan people, accusing Trump of being “a gang leader, not a head of state.”

Mustafa Kamel, an Egyptian journalist, said Arab media professionals came to the embassy to establish the Iraqi Association for Solidarity with the Venezuelan People and to call for holding Trump accountable for “all the criminal acts he committed.”

Maduro ruled Venezuela for more than a decade, presiding over an economic collapse that drove roughly 8 million people to flee the country. The United States and dozens of other nations refused to recognize his 2018 reelection, calling it fraudulent, and rejected his claim to victory in the 2024 vote after electoral authorities declined to release detailed results.