US protester arrested after TV interview says she was targeted due to Venezuela trip

Jessica Plichta was arrested on 3 January after a live interview with a local news station about a Grand Rapids, Michigan, protest against the Trump administration’s seizure of Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s president, in an attack with a reported death toll of 100. The clip went immediately viral, racking up millions of views across social media. While the headlines focused on Plichta’s age (22) and that she’s a preschool teacher, Plichta believes the reason for her arrest – seemingly the only one among roughly 200 protesters – went beyond the day’s events.

Plichta, who recently co-founded local group Grand Rapids Opponents of War, which helped organize Saturday’s protest, had visited the Venezuelan capital of Caracas just last month, amid the Trump administration’s blockade. She was a part of a delegation to the International People’s Assembly for Sovereignty and Peace of Our Americas. Activists from dozens of groups planned to attend. But after Trump ordered that Venezuelan airspace be “closed in its entirety” on 29 November, many canceled their trips.

Plichta still attended, visiting communes and meeting with activists there, and claims she even spoke with Maduro.

“I came back to the US, and I’ve done report-backs. I had spoken at that rally. I gave an interview, and immediately, during the interview, I get shut down and arrested out of 200 people. So what else can you say about that?” Plichta said.

Plichta is now facing misdemeanor charges of “obstructing a roadway and failure to obey a lawful command from a police officer”, according to local outlet 13 On Your Side. Emerson Wolf, co-director of Grand Rapids’ Institute for Global Education and chair of Palestine Solidarity Grand Rapids, said this is an established tactic of Grand Rapids police to suppress local protests and protesters.

Last March, Wolf spoke at a local International Women’s Day event; the next month, as they were preparing to lead the local Hands Off! protest, they were arrested with the same charge as Plichta over the previous action.

“If it’s truly about the safety of people executing their sacred free speech rights in the streets of Grand Rapids, then why doesn’t [the Grand Rapids police department] arrest protesters right away, or do more to help encourage the safety of protesters downtown? Instead, they issue citations months later in order to criminalize dissent,” said Wolf.

Amid yesterday’s ICE killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, thousands have taken to the streets in cities across the US to demonstrate. “First, they arrest us on camera, and then they shoot us in the streets,” Wolf said of protesters. “This is unacceptable. We’re living in a nightmare right now, and it’s time for us to be escalating against this sort of brutality.”

Wolf said they had been following the anti-war movement since they were a teenager during the Iraq war; Plichta has been organizing for about two years. Both feel strongly that the Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela were a five-alarm fire for international politics writ large.

“We do not want war. We do not want the US to escalate its attacks on Venezuela. We don’t want our friends and family to have to fight a rich man’s war for oil,” Plichta said.

Despite attempts at protest suppression across the US under the Trump administration, Plichta is undeterred. “I’ve seen a comment [that] ‘there’s now going to be 1,000 Jessicas with this’. It’s not about me or my name,” Plichta said. “So many people are going to be coming out more and more. When you try to suppress the movement, all it does is radicalize those who stand against needless war.”

Said Wolf: “If they don’t want us marching in the streets, how else do they expect us to voice our opinions?”