New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani belongs to an organization demanding the release of a narco-terrorist dictator held five miles from City Hall. The Democratic Socialists of America is coordinating nationwide protests to free Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who sits in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center facing federal charges in Manhattan. The DSA is working with a China-linked activist network to oppose the prosecution.
Operation Absolute Resolve captured Maduro on January 3 following Trump administration military strikes on Venezuela. More than 150 aircraft launched from 20 bases across the Western Hemisphere. Elite forces seized Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores at their Caracas compound. Federal prosecutors arraigned the pair January 5 in the Southern District of New York on narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation, and weapons charges.
The March 2020 indictment accused Maduro of leading the “Cártel de Los Soles” and partnering with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia for 20 years to flood the United States with cocaine. Prosecutors allege Maduro “expressly intended to flood the United States with cocaine in order to undermine the health and wellbeing of our nation” and “very deliberately deployed cocaine as a weapon.”
Hours after Maduro’s capture, the DSA issued a statement: “The Trump Administration has started an illegal war against Venezuela.” The organization demands Maduro’s return to Venezuela, withdrawal of all U.S. military forces from the Caribbean, and an end to sanctions. The DSA is organizing a January 11 “Day of Action” coordinated with groups linked to Chinese Communist Party-connected millionaire Neville Roy Singham.
Mamdani took office January 1 as the city’s first Muslim mayor. A DSA member since 2017, he served as keynote speaker at the 2023 DSA convention, emphasizing being “special because of our organization.” He called President Trump following the Venezuela operation to “register my opposition,” describing the military action as “an act of war and a violation of federal and international law.” The NYC-DSA chapter provided his campaign’s early endorsement and volunteer infrastructure.
The DSA International Committee website declares: “Solidarity with the people of Venezuela! Solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution!” A summer 2021 delegation traveled to Venezuela for the “Bicentennial Congress of the People’s of the World” and met directly with Maduro. Maduro publicized the July meeting on Twitter. Politico reported the delegation toured government projects, met with the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and visited the Hugo Chávez mausoleum, posing with fists raised. Members stayed at the five-star Gran Meliá hotel, where a single night costs 100 times the average Venezuelan monthly salary.
The DSA sent election observers to November 2021 Venezuelan elections, obtaining official credentials “for the first time in DSA’s modern history.” Two more observers attended the August 2024 elections despite international fraud allegations from the European Union, Organization of American States, and Latin American governments. The DSA dismissed fraud accusations as coming from “fascist candidates Edmundo Gonzalez and Maria Corina Machado.” Exit polls and unofficial tallies showed Gonzalez winning with approximately 70 percent of the vote.
DSA National Political Committee member Luisa Martinez led a Tuesday webinar declaring the organization “stands in solidarity with President Maduro” who is “currently being held hostage.” Martinez said the DSA is working with the Party for Socialism and Liberation to organize Saturday protests: “At the end of the day, we need people out on the streets…talking to normies.” A joint statement with the ANSWER Coalition and PSL claimed Trump “kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro” to “give Venezuela’s oil resources over to US corporations.”
Groups with leadership and financial ties to Neville Roy Singham organized protests opposing Maduro’s arrest within hours. The American tech millionaire sold Thoughtworks for $785 million in 2017 and now resides in Shanghai. A 2023 New York Times investigation found Singham “works closely with the Chinese government media machine and is financing its propaganda worldwide.” The Times tracked $275 million to organizations “mix[ing] progressive advocacy with Chinese government talking points.”
Singham married Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans in 2017. His network includes The People’s Forum, led by Manolo De Los Santos, along with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Code Pink, and the ANSWER Coalition. The DSA coordinates January 11 protests with PSL and ANSWER.
Chinese state media outlets—Xinhua, China Daily, CGTN, and Global Times—promoted the pro-Maduro protests. All four outlets operate under Chinese Communist Party control. The House Oversight Committee voted January 7 to subpoena Singham for information about his “sprawling activist network.” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna described him as a “U.S. billionaire with reported ties to the CCP” funding “extremist organizations, fueling division and civil unrest.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while still a senator in 2023, told the Biden Justice Department that “it appears that organizations tied to Neville Roy Singham, a U.S. citizen, have been receiving direction from the CCP.” Singham denied working for any government. Heritage Foundation senior fellow Mike Gonzalez told the House committee that Singham’s wife Evans should also face a subpoena. The network previously organized anti-Israel campus protests and anti-ICE demonstrations. The same infrastructure now mobilizes against prosecuting an indicted narco-terrorist.
Rep. Richie Torres, a New York Democrat, condemned the DSA in August 2024: “The fact that the DSA is congratulating Nicolás Maduro on his electoral theft tells you everything you need to know about the Orwellian nature of the so-called ‘Democratic’ Socialists of America. DSA is not just Anti-American and Anti-Israel. It is anti-democracy.”
Torres’s statement exposes a rift within the Democratic coalition. Progressive DSA members including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, both DSA-endorsed, have never criticized the Maduro regime. The Council on Foreign Relations noted in July 2021 that neither “has ever uttered a single word of criticism of the Maduro regime.” Then-RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel highlighted the issue the same month: “Maduro is a brutal dictator who has profited off the starvation of his own people. Yet DSA met with him.”
Approximately 200 Venezuelans gathered outside the Manhattan federal courthouse January 5 to cheer Maduro’s prosecution. Millions fled Venezuela following regime persecution or economic collapse. Venezuelan investigative reporter Carola Briceño, who fled three years ago after reporting on Maduro family money laundering, said: “This is poetic for me, because the man who persecuted me, who destroyed my life, is in prison today.” Venezuelans in Doral, Florida—”Doralzuela”—celebrated with flags, music, and chants of “freedom.”
A small counter-protest group, separated by police barricades, opposed Maduro’s capture. Brooklyn Against War member Daniel Koh called the operation “an illegal act of war.” The People’s Forum, PSL, and Code Pink organized the counter-protest—the same groups coordinating Saturday’s nationwide demonstrations demanding Maduro’s release.
The House Oversight Committee investigation into the Singham network raises questions about foreign influence funding protests opposing a federal law enforcement action. Chinese state media amplification suggests coordination extending beyond activism into foreign propaganda operations. The DSA’s decade of Maduro alliance—luxury accommodations in poverty-stricken Venezuela, election observer legitimacy for fraudulent votes, public meetings with an indicted dictator—creates an accountability problem for a mayor who personally called Trump to oppose the operation.
The Democratic Socialists of America coordinates Saturday protests demanding release of a man federal prosecutors accuse of weaponizing cocaine against Americans. The demonstrations will proceed while Maduro awaits trial five miles from City Hall.
Support Independent Local Journalism — High Country Advocate was created as a real alternative to regional media that too often silences dissenting voices while taking sides in the political struggle. Producing in-depth, unflinching reporting like this series and others is expensive: servers, editing, research time, and legal review all add up quickly. If these articles have informed you or given you new perspective, please consider supporting HCA with a paid subscription — every subscriber helps keep this reporting strong and independent. 