WEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - Dozens of protesters came together at Florida International University’s Modesto A. Maidique Campus to protest the Trump administration’s involvement in Venezuela just as the commander in chief was getting ready to deliver a speech on campus.
The protesters, who held signs outside the campus’s library Monday, were also protesting President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration to fund the border wall.
Protester Joey Morales said, “A school named Florida International University is supposed to represent international students, and yet they’re inviting someone who’s deemed the immigrant community as a threat to this country. I’m here to protest that.”
Demonstrators were seen holding signs such as “No U.S. Coup in Venezuela” and “Hands off Venezuela.”
Linda Guillotti, the president of FIU’s National Organization for Women, said, “There’s a huge threat when the United States wants to come in and put someone like Elliott Abrams in charge. History repeats itself. There’s nothing that is going to indicate that he has turned over into a new leaf and has just become an angel, and now just wants to help,”
Across the street from the campus, police said Diego Manuel Tintorero, 63, climbed a crane and hung a banner.
According to La Poderosa, a local radio station, Tintorero wanted to urge the president to pardon a Cuban exile who’s accused of being the leader of an anti-Castro terrorist group.
He was talked down from the crane by a Special Response Team and came down from the crane safely.
However, in downtown Fort Lauderdale, protesters gathered outside the federal courthouse along the 200 block of East Broward Boulevard.
The protesters there were protesting the emergency declaration to fund the border wall.
In her Sunrise office, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., slammed the president’s decision to declare a national emergency.
“Stealing money from our troops to build an unnecessary border wall undermines our national security and damages our military readiness,” Wasserman Schultz said.
The congresswoman said Congress will use every tool at its disposal to stop the president from moving forward with the national emergency.
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