CHENNAI: CPM state secretary P Shanmugam on Monday condemned the police action against party cadre who protested outside the US Consulate against the nation's abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, in violation of international law.

In a statement, he said protests had erupted across the world in support of the Venezuelan people after the US bombed the country, allegedly to plunder its oil resources, and detained the elected President and his spouse. In Tamil Nadu, the CPM had called for demonstrations in all districts as part of this global mobilisation.

As part of the protest programme, the party had planned a peaceful and democratic demonstration on January 5, 2026, near the US Consulate in Chennai to condemn what it described as the war-mongering approach of the Trump administration. However, party members who began assembling near the consulate were forcibly detained without prior notice, he alleged.

Shanmugam said the police acted in a manner “befitting the arrest of criminal offenders”, adding that senior police officers themselves resorted to pulling leaders by their shirts and using force in a degrading manner. Such actions, he said, amounted to an unacceptable curtailment of democratic rights.

Pointing out that protests were taking place even outside the White House in the US, he said it was indefensible that the Chennai city police had unleashed repression against CPM cadre for participating in a peaceful protest. The party, he said, strongly condemned the police action, terming it undemocratic and arbitrary.