Socialist group tied to Mamdani closely allied with Maduro, now leads protests of U.S. actions

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which counts New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as a key member, has been closely allied with Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro for years, and is now leading protests in the U.S. against the communist dictator’s arrest by the United States as Maduro sits in a NYC jail cell.

The DSA International Committee’s website touts its “Venezuelan Solidarity” and its “Solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution!” — led by former Venezuelan socialist strongman Hugo Chavez and continued by socialist leader Maduro.

The DSA is organizing a “Day of Action” this upcoming Saturday to protest the U.S. arrest and prosecution of Maduro. The upcoming anti-Trump and pro-Maduro protests are being coordinated with the Signham-linked network, which already kicked off similar protests last weekend. The DSA also issued a list of “demands” to the Trump Administration, calling on the U.S. to free Maduro and end sanctions against Venezuela.

The State Department during the first Trump administration lamented the “repressive and corrupt misrule of the dictator Nicolas Maduro and his illegitimate regime” and said that the U.S. “recognizes and supports interim President Juan Guaido and the National Assembly, which is the sole remaining legitimate and democratic institution in the country.” The second Trump administration last year also declared the Maduro regime as “illegitimate.”

The DSA has defended Maduro’s rule, however, and the party has a history of traveling to Maduro-controlled Venezuela, meeting with Maduro himself, defending Maduro’s revolutionary socialist rule over the country, dismissing criticisms of the integrity of the elections Maduro claimed to win, attacking the rightwing opponents of Maduro, congratulating Maduro on holding onto power, and praising the Maduro regime for its support of Palestine and its opposition to Israel.

The Singham network is one of the major funding channels

After this weekend’s U.S. military-led operation capturing Venezuela’s leader and sending him to the U.S. to be prosecuted by the Justice Department, street protests opposing Maduro’s arrest were quickly organized in New York City and elsewhere by the Marxist revolutionary group known as The People’s Forum, the far-left anti-war group Code Pink, the leftist Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). 

Just the News previously reported on how these and other radical activist groups have leadership links or financial ties to a funding network backed by wealthy Marxist businessman Neville Roy Singham, who himself has connections to the CCP. The DSA also coordinated with these groups last weekend, and is working with them to launch further future protests.

Just the News reported Chinese state-run propaganda outlets are also promoting the U.S. protests against the Trump administration’s arrest of Maduro. The protests appear to be organized by a Chinese Communist Party-linked financial network in the United States.

The DSA did not respond to a request for comment.

DSA's long-standing ties to anti-American entities

The DSA announced on Tuesday night that it was launching a “Day of Action” opposing the arrest of Maduro, with the protests for this upcoming Saturday planned in coordination with the Singham-linked ANSWER Coalition and PSL.

The DSA said the goal was to “fight Trump's war against Venezuela!”

“The Trump Administration has kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and started a blatantly criminal war against Venezuela. These are nakedly imperialist acts to install a U.S. puppet government that will give Venezuela’s oil resources over to US corporations and to force U.S. hegemony over Latin America—the new ‘Trump Corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine,” the DSA, ANSWER Coalition, and PSL jointly said.

The DSA also said that it “is calling on DSA chapters and all people of the United States to take action this Saturday, January 10th, to protest this illegal war and stand in solidarity with the sovereign people of Venezuela.”

The DSA’s website features a “Venezuela Solidarity” page which lists a host of actions that DSA has taken over many years to support the Maduro regime and to defend the strongman’s controversial hold on power.

“DSA stands in solidarity with Venezuela and voices our broad support for self-determination and socialism in the country, free of continued U.S. imperialist aggression. … Solidarity with the people of Venezuela! Solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution!” the site declares.

The DSA issued a May 2016 statement arguing that the socialist party “has been dismayed to see President Barack Obama and a bipartisan group of senators led by Marco Rubio (R-FL) violate US and international law to impose sanctions against the nation of Venezuela” and calling on Congress to reverse the sanctions.

The 2019 DSA national convention passed a resolution saying that the DSA’s International Committee “shall prioritize establishing relations with socialist and working-class organizations in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Canada, Brazil, the Caribbean, and Latin America broadly, especially organizations with a genuinely mass character.”

DSA members in January 2020 joined the People’s Forum alongside the ANSWER Coalition in a panel discussion titled “There’s More Revolution to Come: Reflecting on the Anniversary of the Coup Attempt in Venezuela” which attacked Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó and defended Maduro. The panel description stated that “due to its history of revolutionary solidarity with international movements, Venezuela is also proving to be a meeting place for the most dynamic and revolutionary currents of today.”

The DSA national convention in 2021 passed a follow-on resolution stating that the DSA’s International Committee “will also continue efforts to establish relationships with mass Parties of the Latin American left.”

By that time, Mamdani’s party had become closely allied with the Maduro regime.

DSA met with Maduro in Venezuela

The DSA made a summer 2021 visit to Venezuela, with the socialist party saying that “we utilized this time to meet with many international left organizations and political movements during the Bicentennial Congress of the People’s of the World.” The DSA also said that they met with “various leaders in Latin America including Nicolás Maduro.”

Maduro himself in July 2021 tweeted about his “Meeting with Democratic Socialists of the United States.” Maduro also shared a video clip showing footage of his meeting with the DSA leaders.

Telesur, which has long been assessed to be funded by the Venezuelan government in order to advance the interests of the far-left rulers of the country, wrote about the DSA meeting with Maduro.

“The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Moros, held a meeting with representatives of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the largest left-leaning political organization in the United States,” the Venezuelan outlet wrote. “In this sense, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela strengthens ties of cooperation, brotherhood and solidarity with activists and the people of the United States who fight for democracy and values such as peace and sovereignty of the peoples of the world, to strengthen the fight against the blockade and the coercive and unilateral measures imposed by the government of the United States.”

Maduro retweeted the Telesur post, and the DSA also shared the Telesur write-up of their meeting with Maduro.

DSA leaders Jenn McKinney and Luisa Herrera did a July 2021 interview with the Chavista Chronicles about the trip to Venezuela. Both praised the Maduro regime’s handling of the coronavirus. McKinney said the interactions with the Maduro regime were “generally positive.” Herrera praised the Maduro regime’s education leaders for “developing socialist revolutionary consciousness.”

The DSA’s National Political Committee and International Committee had launched a GoFundMe page in 2021 to pay for the Venezuela trip, calling it an “exciting development on the front of international solidarity for the Democratic Socialists of America.” The socialist party described the Congreso Bicentenario de los Pueblos as “a massive international gathering of socialist organizations across the planet” and declared that “our delegation will spend two weeks participating in conferences and educational events meant to build solidarity, connections between organizations, and to illustrate Venezuela's struggle against COVID and U.S. sanctions.”

New Lines Magazine reported in early 2022 that Vijay Prashad, the director of the Singham-linked Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, and Manolo De Los Santos, the director of the Singham-linked People’s Forum, had also been in Caracas for the summer 2021 event at the same time as DSA.

Politico also reported in 2022 on the 2021 DSA trip to Venezuela, with the outlet stating that the DSA delegation “toured public-works projects and met with the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs” and “visited the mausoleum for former President Hugo Chávez, the autocratic socialist who Maduro succeeded, and posed with their fists up.”

The outlet added that “while the DSA delegation spent most of its anti-imperialist tourist adventure tweeting about the wonders of Venezuelan socialism, its members stayed in the private five-star luxury hotel Gran Meliá, where one night costs about 100 times the average Venezuelan monthly salary.”

Then-RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel tweeted in July 2021 that “Maduro is a brutal dictator who has profited off the starvation of his own people. Yet DSA met with him.”

DSA sends "election observers" to 2021 Venezuelan elections

The DSA also began a years-long effort to interact with and later defend the election processes in Venezuela.

The socialist party wrote that “our second delegation to Venezuela was to attend as official election observers for the November 2021 mega-elections.” The group said that “DSA obtained official observer credentials for the first time in DSA’s modern history and our delegation witnessed the democratic process play out in the barrios of Caracas that we were assigned to.”

The DSA’s International Committee would later sign a July 2024 open letter titled “Beware of Attempts to Discredit Venezuela’s Election” which was posted and signed by the Signham-linked People’s Forum and also signed by the ANSWER Coalition, Code Pink, and PSL.

The People’s Forum posted a May 2022 video declaring that the “DSA International Committee and Code Pink are teaming up to host three Venezuelan feminist activists … to the United States to discuss the impact of illegal U.S. sanctions against their country and how they disproportionately hurt women and children.” The forum said the Venezuelans “will travel across the country to speak about life under illegal U.S. sanctions and the Venezuelan resistance to hybrid war” and that an event would be held at the Manhattan offices of the forum as well.

DSA's continuing efforts to organize, lobby for Maduro

Luisa Martinez, a member of the DSA’s National Political Committee, led a Tuesday night webinar for DSA members — also attended by Just the News on an open Zoom channel — which aimed to rally the socialist troops to hit the streets in protest of the U.S. arrest of Maduro.

Martinez said that the DSA “stands in solidarity with President Maduro” who is “currently being held hostage” in New York City. She said that “we have a ton of solidarity events that we will be announcing” including a “National Day of Protest” this upcoming Saturday. Martinez said that “we’re working with PSL” — part of the Singham-linked network — which has “co-endorsed” this Saturday as the big protest day.

“At the end of the day, we need people out on the streets … talking to normies,” Martinez said.

DSA complains about a "narrative"

“A Western media narrative is already being spun to present the election as inevitably fraudulent — and pave the way for a new regime change operation if the right-wing opposition does not prevail at the ballot box,” the letter signed by DSA said. “According to this narrative, support for the opposition is overwhelming and the only possible way supporters of the government could win is through fraud. That way, if the vote does not go according to Washington’s wishes, yet another effort to remove Maduro from power by force can be initiated on the basis of the supposed illegitimacy of the results.”

The letter signed by the DSA added: “We reject this cynical, self-serving logic. Since the process of change called the Bolivarian Revolution began under President Hugo Chávez, Venezuela has held over 30 elections that have been conducted professionally and impartially.”

The DSA again defended Maduro’s hold on power during 2024 Venezuelan elections, with the DSA saying that, in August 2024, “the DSA International Committee sent two officially credentialed electoral observers who shared their experiences observing the election and an analysis of what the current situation is.” The socialist party dismissed “the international response to accusations of fraud” as coming from “fascist candidates Edmundo Gonzalez and Maria Corina Machado.”

Election results indicate that Gonzales clearly defeated Maduro in the election, but Maduro held on to power anyway.

Multiple screenshots indicate that DSA’s International Committee “congratulates President Maduro on his reelection” in 2024, before the DSA deleted the post, according to Breitbart.

“Not only has Maduro reinforced his leadership, he has done so with the firm backing of the burgeoning commune movement in Venezuela whose support has proven crucial for his re-election amidst a brutal U.S.-backed sanctions regime,” the DSA said in its since-deleted post.

“Once again we congratulate the Venezuelan people in providing a model of what it is to struggle against the U.S. empire while also building viable forms of socialism at home that are adapted to their own unique material conditions,” the DSA said in the now-deleted post.

Rep. Richie Torres, D-N.Y., tweeted in August 2024 that “the fact that the DSA is congratulating Nicolás Maduro on his electoral theft (calling it a re-election is a misnomer) tells you everything you need to know about the Orwellian nature of the so-called ‘Democratic’ Socialists of America.” He argued that “DSA is not just Anti-American and Anti-Israel. It is anti-democracy.”

The DSA has elsewhere made it clear that part of its affection for Maduro stems from the Maduro regime’s pro-Palestine and anti-Israel orientation. “Since the revolution under President Chávez, Venezuela has expressed strong material & declaratory solidarity w/ Palestine,” the DSA posted in October 2024. “Learn more about this with experts Diego Sequera and Alexander Aviña. They discussed organizing for Palestine in Venezuela and Israel’s ties to the right wing in Latin America and beyond.”

DSA membership and platform brings new problems to Mamdani

Mamdani, a member of DSA and now the mayor, himself has a lengthy history of pro-Marxist and pro-Communist commentary, as Just the News previously reported.

The mayor is currently under fire for his selection of DSA member Cea Weaver to be the director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, following the resurfacing of her since-deleted tweets showing her claiming that "private property including and kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building’ public policy” and leading calls to "elect more communists."

Yesterday, Weaver may have imploded when it was learned that while she openly targets white property owners — as the DSA platform treats them — she burst into tears when confronted by reporters with the fact that, according to The New York Post, her mother owns a Nashville house worth $1.6 million and is a professor at the prestigious Vanderbilt University.

It remains to be seen how effective the DSA’s activity will be in pushing their DSA colleagues in City Hall to take further action, and what problems the DSA platform may bring to Mamdani, and to New Yorkers.