POCATELLO — The public is invited to protests set for Saturday and Sunday at Pocatello’s Caldwell Park over the killing of a woman by an ICE agent in Minneapolis and U.S. military action in Venezuela.

Saturday’s protest will start at noon, while Sunday’s will begin at 2 p.m.

Local activist Elmer Martinez is inviting area residents to join him for the demonstration at Caldwell Park at noon Saturday over the recent killing of a woman, Renee Nicole Good, by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.

“I’m going to bring up the (Vice President) J.D. Vance interview that he gave on Thursday,” Martinez said. “He kept calling her ‘that woman’ or he referred to her as a domestic terrorist over and over. That’s the only way he referred to her. He never mentioned her name. He never mentioned that she had three young kids. I think that was so telling that he is trying to portray anybody that protests as a domestic terrorist. He didn’t give her the decency to refer to her by name. He didn’t give her the decency to say she was a mother trying to raise these kids. I think anybody that watched the video of what happened understands what really happened there.”

Martinez said he believes President Trump is creating a personal, private army through ICE.

“I don’t think they’re doing it just to deal with their perceptions of immigration issues. They’re creating that army to deal with anybody that wants to protest,” Martinez said.

A disabled combat veteran who served tours in Iraq is organizing Sunday’s protest to voice displeasure with the recent U.S. strike in Venezuela and growing threats of authoritarianism across the country.

Pocatello resident Joseph Funk, a disabled Idaho Army National Guardsman and member of About Face: Veterans Against the War, aims to spread his group’s message while providing local residents the opportunity to air their frustration with recent actions of the Trump administration in Venezuela.

“We’re a group of post-9/11 veterans that are very concerned with the way the country is going, the way our veterans are being treated,” Funk said. “About Face came into this area and started organizing because we believe that there is a strong and fairly silent veteran community and they shouldn’t be silent.”

Formed in 2004, About Face is an advocacy group of formerly active duty U.S. military personnel, Iraq War and Afghanistan War veterans and other veterans who opposed the U.S. military invasion and occupation in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. The group also provides health care and mental health support services for veterans.

“What has happened in Iraq, in Afghanistan cannot happen again,” Funk said. “We cannot once again trade blood for oil.”

Funk is inviting the community to join him and other organizers at the Caldwell Park pavilion beginning at 2 p.m. Sunday, where speakers will discuss the recent U.S. military action in Venezuela and growing threats of authoritarianism evidenced by recent incidents involving ICE agents.

Attendees will then march to U.S. Sen. James Risch’s office at 275 S. Fifth Ave. and demand his support for the War Powers Resolution bill that now is headed for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives. If enacted, the resolution would block the president’s use of the U.S. armed forces to engage in hostilities within or against Venezuela unless Congress authorizes it.

“There is this desperate need to be overly masculine and bring the military into things that they shouldn’t be brought into,” Funk said. “For example, the militarization of our police. Just look at ICE at the moment. They run around in masks and appear as if they are Special Forces commandos. They don’t have near the training, but they badly want it. It’s the same authoritarian need to control and dominate that is really the core issue here. Venezuela is just the most recent large action they’ve taken.”

An additional protest organized by Funk and grassroots organization 50501 against U.S. involvement in Venezuela and authoritarianism will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 17 in Idaho Falls, with additional details forthcoming.

“I think people are waking up to the understanding that (J.D. Vance) is talking about them,” Martinez said. “That he wants to create the right to do what they did to Renee Good to anybody that protests.”