BREA, California: A man drove his car through marchers Thursday at an immigrant rights rally, with one demonstrator jumping on the hood as the car lurched forward and then stopped. Police quickly surrounded it and arrested the man.
Brea Police Chief Jack Conklin said none of the demonstrators sought first aid but the SEIU United Service Workers West union later released a statement saying six people were taken to a hospital for evaluation.
The union helped organize the protest and President David Huerta said the four union members and two staff were “victims of what appears to be a deliberate and hateful crime.”
Police disputed that.
“I think he was trying to get through the crowd,” Lt. Adam Hawley said. “We don’t have any indication he was trying to harm somebody.”
The demonstrators were marching about 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles. They were urging Republican US Rep. Ed Royce to support an existing temporary immigration program for citizens of several Central American countries, said Andrew Cohen, a spokesman for Unite Here Local 11, a union representing hotel, food service and airport workers.
A video released by Cohen showed the car pushing through a line of demonstrators marching in a crosswalk. Several protesters pounded on the hood and one was pushed as the car inched ahead.
Another demonstrator jumped on the hood as the car pulled ahead perhaps 50 feet, then stopped in the middle of the intersection as police rushed in and ordered the marchers to get away from it.
Wenzek was arrested for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon, Hawley said. He was later released pending results of the investigation.
Cohen said Wenzek did not say anything as he drove through the protesters.
A woman who answered a phone number linked to Wenzek refused to allow an Associated Press reporter to talk to him and hung up.
Records show Wenzek was convicted in 2006 of committing lewd acts against a child under 14.
Six people injured as man drives car into US immigration rally
Six people injured as man drives car into US immigration rally
Cuba launches mass demonstration to decry US attack on Venezuela and demand Maduro’s release
- “The entire Nation rises up!” wrote Cuba’s Foreign Ministry on X
- “It is a resounding response to those who dare to threaten the peace and sovereignty for which we have fought so hard”
HAVANA: Tens of thousands of Cubans crowded Friday into an open-air plaza known as the “Anti-Imperialist Tribune” across from the US Embassy in Havana to decry the killing of 32 Cuban officers in Venezuela and demand that the US government release former president Nicolás Maduro.
The crowd clutched Cuban and Venezuelan flags as part of a demonstration organized by the government as tensions between Cuba and the US remain heightened after the US struck Caracas on Jan. 3 and arrested Maduro.
“The entire Nation rises up!” wrote Cuba’s Foreign Ministry on X. “It is a resounding response to those who dare to threaten the peace and sovereignty for which we have fought so hard.”
The 32 Cuban officers were part of Maduro’s security detail killed during the Jan. 3 raid on his residence to seize the former leader and bring him to the US to face drug trafficking charges.
Cuba’s national hymn rang out at Friday’s demonstration as large Cuban flags waved in the chilly wind and big waves broke nearby along Havana’s famed pier. President Miguel Díaz-Canel shook hands with the crowd clad in jackets and scarves.
The demonstration was a show of popular strength after US President Donald Trump recently demanded that Cuba make a deal with him before it is “too late.” He did not explain what kind of deal.
Trump also has said that Cuba will no longer live off Venezuela’s oil and money. Experts say the move could have catastrophic consequences since Cuba is already struggling with severe blackouts.
Friday’s demonstration was expected to become a parade that Cubans call a “combatant march,” a custom that originated during the time of the late leader Fidel Castro.
Washington has maintained a policy of sanctions against Cuba since the 1960s, but during Trump’s presidency, the sanctions were further tightened, suffocating the island’s economy, an objective explicitly acknowledged by the White House.
On Thursday, tens of thousands of Cubans gathered at the headquarters of the Ministry of the Armed Forces to pay their respects to the 32 officers killed.
Their remains arrived home on Thursday morning, and they are scheduled to be laid to rest on Friday afternoon in various cemeteries following memorial ceremonies in all of Cuba’s provincial capitals.
