Cape Town, Jan 16 (AHN) A protest was held on Friday in Cape Town, South Africa's legislative capital, against US military action in Venezuela, with demonstrators calling for the immediate release of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

The United States launched a military strike on Venezuela on January 3, forcibly taking the South American country's president and his wife and placing them in custody in New York, an action that has drawn worldwide condemnation and concern.

Around midday on Friday, protesters gathered on Adderley Street in Cape Town's city centre, holding placards reading "Wipe out US imperialism" and "US out of Venezuela."

They chanted slogans such as "Free Venezuela!" and "Free Maduro!" and called on passersby to support a planned February 6 International Day of Action against US Imperialism, in solidarity with the Palestinian and Venezuelan people.

As the organiser, the South African BDS Coalition, a network of Palestine solidarity groups, called for "a broad alliance to demand the immediate release of Maduro and Flores, and to stand firm against the onslaught of unmasked US imperial aggression, which is dragging the world toward all-out war, widespread socio-economic collapse, and complete planetary demise," Xinhua news agency reported.

Michael Titus, a 75-year-old retired pharmacist who joined the rally, told Xinhua that the US action against Venezuela is "illegal," calling it "only a symptom of what America is doing in the rest of the world."

"They promote imperialism, and America is an imperialist bully of the world. It goes anywhere and has the impunity to do what it wants to," he said.

"We must keep up the pressure to prevent America from bullying the rest of the world. The people of the world are not free because of America. We will keep on demonstrating and protesting to get America out of people's backyards," Titus added.

Faariq Theba, a university student and a member of the organising group, said the US action against Venezuela was "outside the confines of international law."

"We don't know who is next, but I think it is good for us to know that anyone can be next, even South Africa," Theba said.

"I think Venezuela is just the beginning. I don't know when it will end, but I do hope that we will see more solidarity from countries, especially in the Global South," Theba added.