LONDON

Hundreds of people staged a rally Monday in London in solidarity with Venezuela, demanding the British government to condemn US military intervention that led to the capture of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife.

The demonstration, jointly organized by several solidarity and protest groups, including the Stop the War Coalition and the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign, was held outside the Prime Minister's Office with the attendance of more than 2,000 people.

Carrying Venezuelan, Cuban and Palestinian flags, the crowd called for "No War on Venezuela" and "No to illegal regime change."

They chanted slogans protesting the US military intervention, including "Hands off Venezuela," while some protesters held signs saying "Down with imperialism," "The UK is not innocent" and "No blood for oil."

Speaking at the rally, Lindsey German, a founding member and convener of the Stop the War Coalition, defined the US military operation as a "complete breach of any international law."

"The people of Latin America have the right to independence. They have the right to solidarity. They have the right not to be oppressed by their northern neighbors," she noted.

Eddie Dempsey, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers' Union, also criticized the US military action, saying it put respect for independence and sovereignty at stake.

Also addressing the crowd, John Finucane, a Sinn Fein lawmaker representing Belfast North in the House of Commons, said the track record of the US interference in Latin America "on attempts to force regime change has been a catastrophic development" for this region.

"This attack has serious and far-reaching repercussions for the primacy of the global rules-based order and the authority of the United Nations Charter," he added.

Earlier on Monday, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not condemn the US strikes, saying it is up to the US to justify its actions in Venezuela after capturing Maduro, while describing the situation as "not straightforward."

The protest came after Maduro and his wife Celia Flores were captured in an early-morning operation Saturday by US forces and subsequently flown out of the country to New York, where they faced an initial court hearing over drug and weapons charges.