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Johanna Kichton, press@peoplesaction.org
People's Action released the following statement by Director of Federal Affairs Megan Essaheb amid
People's Action released the following statement by Director of Federal Affairs Megan Essaheb amid news reports that a Senate vote on President Biden's Build Back Better Act would be pushed to 2022, in part due to Sen. Manchin's opposition to the inclusion of the Child Tax Credit:
"Today is the last day families will get Child Tax Credit checks unless Congress passes the Build Back Better Act to extend the life-changing program. This legislation will only reduce costs for families and help them thrive-it's a no-brainer that Manchin needs to get behind.
"The Child Tax Credit cut child poverty in the U.S. in half. We have to renew it and continue supporting the millions of hurting families in West Virginia, and across the country. Sen. Manchin should listen to his constituents, not corporate interests, and deliver on the promises Democrats made when they were elected the majority.
"The Senate should pass both the Build Back Better Act and critical voting rights legislation as fast as possible."
Background: Over 346,000 children in West Virginia have received American Rescue Plan's $300 monthly payment, including 170,000 kids who were previously left out of the previous version of the credit. If Congress does not extend the current child tax credit by the end of the year, families will not receive payments in January.
People's Action builds the power of poor and working people, in rural, suburban, and urban areas to win change through issue campaigns and elections.
"I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I remain the president of my country."
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro called himself a "prisoner of war" while pleading not guilty to narco-terrorism charges in a US court in New York City on Monday, after the Trump administration abducted him and his wife in an overnight raid that killed dozens of people.
"I am the president of Venezuela, and I consider myself a prisoner of war. They captured me in my house in Caracas," Maduro said in Spanish at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan US Courthouse. "I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I remain the president of my country."
After being seized by US forces before dawn on Saturday, Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were moved to a Brooklyn jail, over the objections of New York City's recently inaugurated mayor, Zohran Mamdani, who called President Donald Trump after the military operation.
The Associated Press reported on the couple's transfer to the Manhattan courthouse early Monday:
A motorcade carrying Maduro left jail around 7:15 am and made its way to a nearby athletic field, where Maduro slowly made his way to a waiting helicopter. The chopper flew across New York Harbor and landed at a Manhattan heliport, where Maduro, limping, was loaded into an armored vehicle.
A few minutes later, the law enforcement caravan was inside a garage at the courthouse complex, just around the corner from the one where Donald Trump was convicted in 2024 of falsifying business records. Across the street from the courthouse, the police separated a small but growing group of protesters from about a dozen pro-intervention demonstrators, including one man who pulled a Venezuelan flag away from those protesting the US action.
The 25-page US indictment released Saturday claims that Maduro, who previously served in Venezuela's National Assembly and as the South American country's minister of foreign affairs, "has partnered with his co-conspirators to use his illegally obtained authority and the institutions he corroded to transport thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States."
Maduro "now sits atop a corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking," the document continues. "That drug trafficking has enriched and entrenched Venezuela's political and military elite."
Like her husband, Flores pleaded "not guilty, completely innocent," during the Monday arraignment. According to CNN, reporters observed bandages on Flores' head and her attorney, Mark Donnelly, told the presiding judge that she sustained "significant injuries during her abduction," including possibly bruised or fractured ribs.
The presiding judge is Alvin Hellerstein, a 92-year-old appointed to the Southern District of New York by former President Bill Clinton. Al Jazeera noted that he "has overseen numerous high-profile cases in his career, including relating to the 9/11 attacks and the Sudanese genocide."
"It's my job to assure this is a fair trial," said Hellerstein, who scheduled the next hearing for March 17.
The weekend abduction has sparked global protests, comparisons to the US invasion of Iraq, demands for Trump's impeachment, concerns about the involvement of American oil companies, and fears of the White House's threats of more military action elsewhere.
What Trump administration officials called a "law enforcement operation" should, in fact, "be called a massacre," said one critic.
Cuba's government said Sunday that 32 Cubans, including military and police officers, were killed by US forces during President Donald Trump's illegal invasion of Venezuela and abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife last weekend.
“As a result of the criminal attack perpetrated by the United States government against the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela... 32 Cubans lost their lives in combative actions, who carried out missions representing the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, at the request of counterparts in the South American country,” the office of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said in a statement.
"Faithful to their responsibilities to security and defense, our compatriots fulfilled their duty with dignity and heroically and fell, after fierce resistance, in direct combat against the attackers or as a result of the bombing of the facilities," the Cuban leader added.
Díaz-Canel also hailed the slain security forces on X, posting, "Honor and glory to the brave Cuban combatants who fell confronting terrorists in imperial uniform, who kidnapped and illegally took out of their country the president of Venezuela and his wife, whose lives our own helped to protect at the request of that sister nation."
Trump also acknowledged the deaths, telling reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One that "a lot of Cubans were killed yesterday" during what members of his administration called a "law enforcement operation."
“There was a lot of death on the other side," Trump added. "No death on our side."
Cuba's socialist government has sent thousands of teachers, doctors, technicians, and members of its security forces to support the Bolivarian Revolution launched under then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in 1999. There are believed to be between 10,000 and 20,000 Cubans living in Venezuela, according to official estimates from Havana.
Venezuela said Sunday that the preliminary death toll from the US invasion stood at 80, including at least one civilian, 80-year-old Rosa González, who was reportedly killed during a strike on a residential building near Caracas' airport.
Responding to the US killing of the 32 Cubans, Institute for Policy Studies fellow Sanho Tree said on Bluesky that the operation "should be called a massacre as well as an act of aggression."
People's Forum founder Manolo De Los Santos, who is based in Cuba, lauded the 32 Cubans who "gave their lives defending Venezuela's sovereignty against Trump's murderous attack."
"They fought to defend President Maduro from being illegally kidnapped," he added. "This is the US [government's] true face: Bombing, kidnapping, and slaughter."
Saturday wasn't the first time that Cubans died defending a socialist ally against US invasion and regime change. At least 24 Cubans—including soldiers, technicians, and construction workers—were killed along with dozens of Grenadian civilians and security forces during a 1983 US invasion ordered by then-President Ronald Reagan under a set of false pretenses to overthrow the leftist New Jewel Movement government of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop. Nineteen US invaders were killed during the operation.
In addition to Venezuela, Trump—who has called himself "the most anti-war president in history" despite ordering the bombing of more countries than any of his predecessors—and members of his administration have threatened to attack or acquire land from nations and territories including Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Denmark, Greenland, Iran—which he already attacked—Mexico, Palestine, and Panama.
"Today, it is not only Venezuela's sovereignty that is at stake, but the credibility of international law."
Governments throughout Latin America and beyond on Monday blasted the US military's invasion of Venezuela and its abduction of President Nicolás Maduro during an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
Samuel Moncada, the permanent representative of Venezuela to the United Nations, demanded that the Security Council call for Maduro's immediate release and condemn the US invasion of his country.
Moncada also warned that President Donald Trump's actions would lead to a dangerous unraveling of international law and return to a system in which militarily strong countries feel free to invade weaker ones with impunity.
"Allowing such acts to go without an effective answer would amount to normalizing the replacement of law by might, while eroding the very foundations of the collective security system," he said. "Today, it is not only Venezuela's sovereignty that is at stake, but the credibility of international law, the authority of this organization, and the validity of the principle that no state can set itself up as a judge, party, and executor of the world order."
Venezuela Ambassador to the @UN Samuel Moncada: "No state can set itself up as a judge, party and executor of the world order...Venezuela is the victim of these attack because of its natural resources." pic.twitter.com/j17sHZk5kA
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 5, 2026
Representatives from several other nations joined Moncada's condemnation of the US invasion.
Sérgio França Danese, permanent representative of Brazil to the United Nations, said that the US military's actions "cross an unacceptable line," and set "an extremely dangerous precedent for the entire international community."
"The acceptance of actions of this nature would inexorably lead to a scenario marked by violence, disorder, and the erosion of multilateralism, to the detriment of international law and institutions," said Danese. "As Brazil has reiterated on numerous occasions, the norms that govern coexistence among states mandatory and universal."
At the UN security council the representative of Brazil condemns the actions of the United States as a flagrant violation of international law and goes on to mention the genocide in Gaza as an example of how international governance mechanisms are being weakened. pic.twitter.com/36tEUoJtAv
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) January 5, 2026
Héctor Enrique Vasconcelos y Cruz, permanent representative of Mexico to the United Nations, said that the US military's actions in Venezuela "must not be allowed," as they "constitute a severe blow to the charter and to multilateralism."
Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, permanent representative of Cuba to the United Nations, accused the US of targeting Venezuela purely for reasons of imperial aggression.
"The US military attack against Venezuela has no justification whatsoever," Guzmán said. "It does not respond to any provocation, nor does it possess legitimacy. It is based on the... doctrine of peace through force, and undermines the stability and peace that had characterized our Latin American and Caribbean region for years."
Guzmán added that the "ultimate objective" of the US operation is "not the false narrative of combating drug trafficking, but control over Venezuela’s natural resources, as has been shamelessly declared by President Trump."
Cuban Representative: Its ultimate objective is not the false narrative of combating drug trafficking, but control over Venezuela’s natural resources as has been shamelessly declared by President Trump and his Secretary of State. pic.twitter.com/FDCJoFcduX
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 5, 2026
Jonathan Passmoor, acting deputy permanent representative of South Africa to the UN, accused the US of dangerously degrading the UN charter with its unprovoked attack on Venezuela.
"We all benefit from a rules-based international order based on international law," said Passmoor. "When we break these norms, we invite anarchy and an environment where might make right, ignoring the complexity of interrelations and interdependence in our modern world."
The South African ambassador also warned of the US setting dangerous precedents that could herald more global conflict.
"The belief that might is right, is reinforced and diplomacy is undermined," he said. "History has repeatedly demonstrated that military invasions against sovereign States yield only instability and deepen crisis."
[ Watch] Statement by the Republic of SouthAfrica to the United Nations Security Council Meeting on the situation in Venezuela delivered by Mr Jonathan Passmoor Acting Deputy Permanent Representative https://t.co/DPPXBKIAxO pic.twitter.com/KuQZdJqBVa
— Chrispin Phiri 🇿🇦 (@Chrispin_JPhiri) January 5, 2026
Trump over the weekend said that the US would be "running" Venezuela for the foreseeable future, although it is not clear how he plans to administer control over the nation given that the rest of Maduro's government, led by Acting President Delcy Rodriguez, remains in control of the state.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that Rodriguez would follow US orders or a fate "worse than" Maduro's awaits here.