Sydney Rallies Against Trump’s Imperial Assault on Venezuela, Despite Protest Ban

Hundreds gathered on Gadigal land before Sydney Town Hall on Sunday, 4 January 2026, to protest the Trump administration’s military assault on Venezuela and the kidnapping of president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.

The rally occurred despite an official two-week blanket ban on protest being in place across a large section of Greater Sydney, and the authorities weren’t too pleased about it.

The large-scale attack on Venezuela’s capital and the extrajudicial abduction of the president occurred at 2 am in Caracas, or 5 pm in Sydney, on 3 January. US president Donald Trump waxed lyrical about the scale of the military operation later at a press conference, and he further told reporters that Washington will be running Venezuela and taking control of its large oil reserves.

The idea that New South Wales constituents weren’t legally permitted to gather and demonstrate against the US imperialist attack and kidnapping scenario that had just taken place in Caracas was beyond the pale, considering the Trump administration had just made the tearing down of the post-World War II order official, after it began at apace in October 2023, with the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

NSW police confirmed in a statement on Sunday that it was aware an assembly was planned at Town Hall that evening, despite the ban being in place, which meant the event would not be authorised. However, while law enforcement let the demonstration proceed, NSW police purposefully hovered one of its helicopters low over the event in order to drown out the speakers for almost half an hour.

The belligerent act harassing those opposing US imperialism with such noise pollution was in keeping with the attitude of the White House attack on Caracas, which has set a disturbing trend so that rather than Israeli colonial advances of recent years being an aberration in the post-decolonisation period, the Trump administration appears to be heralding in a new era of colonialism.

“The current emperor needs no pretext”

“It is not over in Venezuela. The US has not taken over. They have kidnapped one man, and there are millions of angry people in Venezuela, and they have guns,” Dr Tim Anderson told the Sunday rally. “Millions of angry people have guns. They’re not going to let the next round of oil executives and administrators come into Venezuela and steal their social programs and assets.”

“There are many millions of poor people there, and they have guns, and they are not going to let the country be taken over so easily,” continued the Australian political economist. “Of course, the US can kill people. They can kidnap people. But they can’t destroy a system so easily. They haven’t even started to occupy the country, and they have no plans to.”

The US attacking a sovereign state and kidnapping its president has shocked the planet. This is even with Washington having amassed a huge naval presence off the Venezuelan coast commencing in August, while over 3 September until 31 December 2025, it conducted military strikes on at least 32 vessels that appear to have been fishing boats off the coast of Venezuela and Colombia, killing 115 people.

Trump has long charged Maduro with being the head of outlaw drug organisation the Cartel de los Soles. The US designated the group a terrorist organisation last November. The White House has suggested the strikes have been destroying drugboats carrying “narcoterrorists”, who are transporting illegal drugs bound for the United States.

The doubts about the fishing vessels actually being drugboats have been given further credence since Trump attacked Venezuela, as he further declared that the US will be administering the South American nation until new governance can be established, and he has flagged that the US is taking over Caracas’ oil, the largest reserves on Earth, as he threw the pretext of drugs out the window.

“Trump has threatened Cuba, Mexico and Colombia. This is a global dictatorship. There is a doctrine in the Pentagon since 2000 of full spectrum dominance,” Dr Anderson underscored.

“They want to control us economically, ideologically, media and military. In 2004, they added another doctrine called “Destroying Interconnectedness”. They won’t allow any independent regime outside of their orbit.”

Supressing the political voice of the city

The NSW police presence on Sunday evening was sizable. Discussions between organisers and officers on the ground were had prior to the protest going ahead. The understanding was the police could issue move on orders. Then the NSW police helicopter flew overhead and commenced hovering low, to the point that it was difficult to hear the amplified voices of speakers.

Midway through the demonstration an announcement was made regarding the desire of NSW police to have all protesters keep to the area beside Sydney Town Hall and not obstruct the footpath.

A couple of arrests took place, including that of a woman who was wearing a jacket with the controversial phrase “Globalise the Intifada” emblazoned across the back, but she was released once the NSW police realised that the NSW premier is yet to have officially passed laws to ban this political slogan.

But the attending officers had saved the crowd from any radicalising effect the phrase “Globalise the Intifada” might have had upon the civilians gathered.

A spokesperson for the NSW Police Force said on Sunday morning that the agency would “have a large presence throughout the Sydney metropolitan area on 4 January 2026” and that would include “at Town Hall during the afternoon and evening to monitor” the “potential assembly”.

NSW police added that NSW police commissioner Mal Lanyon had imposed a public assembly restriction declaration on 24 December 2025. The PARD, or the 14 day ban on public protests has been issued under the Terrorism (Police Powers) Act 2002 (NSW), and it covers three police districts: the NSW Police Central Metropolitan Region, the North West Region and the South West Region.

Lanyon’s PARD means that the NSW Police Force will not approve any public protests, via the Form 1 process, which involves police approving demonstrations, and this, in turn, provides participants with immunity against road obstruction offences that usually apply to pedestrians. Sunday’s police spokesperson further noted that no attempt had been made to lodge a Form 1 for the snap rally.

The PARD system was enacted by the Minns government in the days right before Christmas, as a direct response to the Bondi Beach mass murder, which saw an ISIS-inspired father and son shoot down 15 Jewish people at a Hanukkah celebration. A PARD lasts for 14 days, but it can be extended repeatedly every two weeks for up to 90 days.

NSW premier Chris Minns has suggested that the pro-Palestinian/antigenocide protests of the last 26 months had somehow contributed to the mass shooting, even though ISIS has nothing to do with the Palestinian cause.

The NSW police commissioner had to make a decision on Tuesday, 6 January 2026, on whether to extend the prohibition on public assemblies for another two weeks. By 3 pm that afternoon, no decision had been made, while the NSW Council for Civil Liberties had been calling on Lanyon not to extend the ban.

“This extremely antidemocratic police power has been in effect over the past 14 days and should not be renewed,” said NSWCCL president Timothy Roberts. “In less than two weeks we have already seen examples of how this power is impacting…. The declaration has prevented the people of NSW from seeking authorisation for protests responding to the United States’ attack on Venezuela.”

“Police powers that were enacted and used to protect one part of our community have suppressed the democratic rights of others,” the lawyer added. “It is a bad law that has created and grown division.”

Masks off, human rights over

Australians for War Powers Reform member Dr Alison Broinowski explained that the US has been making assaults against the socialist leaders of Venezuela for the past 23 years. The former Australian diplomat set out that the regime change the Trump administration is pushing for in Venezuela, is just one such regime overthrow the US has supported amongst dozens since World War II.

Dr Broinowski further told Sydney Criminal Lawyers that US president Trump and Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu “lead pariah, rogue, terror states”. “Both despise international law: they ignore the International Courts and disparage the United Nations and expel UN humanitarian agencies. Both condone ongoing genocide in Gaza and encourage it.”

Despite Australian Greens Senator David Shoebridge having publicly condemned the Trump administration’s distinctly illegal move of aggression aiming to steal another nation’s oil reserves, the Albanese government has determined to let the US “set out the facts” prior to making an assessment, which hints at accepting the US version whereby it overthrew “evil dictator Maduro”.

The Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) has called on PM Anthony Albanese to condemn the attack for the dangerous crime that it is. The peace network further points out that other nations, like Colombia and Spain, have been quick to condemn Trump. And as for the drug war pretext, IPAN points out that Venezuela is said to contribute just 1 percent of US drug supply.

A US indictment that has just been unsealed charges Maduro and his wife over alleged illegal drug activities. The president himself has been charged with one count of each of the following criminal offences: narcoterrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

“The indictment of president Maduro and his family on these unsubstantiated charges appears to be a thinly veiled pretext for seizing control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, the largest in the world’, said IPAN spokesperson Kathryn Kelly. “There is no basis under international law for the US to have invaded Venezuela and abducted its president.”

“This action sets a terrible precedent, risking a more dangerous world where powerful countries may see illegal military action as an acceptable way to get what they want,” the IPAN spokesperson concluded.