Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters calls for Maduro's freedom outside NYC detention center

Roger Waters, the co-founder of Pink Floyd and one of rock's most polarizing political activists, has joined demonstrators outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to demand the release of Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, adding another chapter to his long record of anti-war activism and high-profile attacks on President Donald Trump.

The protest was promoted by pro-Maduro and anti-intervention groups that have described the couple's detention in New York as politically motivated. Orinoco Tribune, which published the call to action, reported that Waters demanded that Maduro be granted immediate access to calls and visits with Flores.

In video and rally messaging circulated by Venezuela-aligned outlets, Waters said, "If I was a praying man, I'd be praying now for President Maduro," and added, "I will do anything in my power to support Venezuela, which is a sovereign country and should be left alone."

The couple was taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after Maduro's capture and transfer to the United States, as it's New York City's only federal jail for pretrial detainees. The place has a troubled history, including complaints about poor conditions and security failures.

For Waters, the Maduro cause is not a one-off appearance but part of a years-long political posture. He publicly opposed U.S. pressure on Venezuela during Trump's first term, warning Washington in 2019, "Do not invade Venezuela," and calling the country "a proud independent sovereign nation."

His criticism of Trump has only intensified. In a January interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored, Waters called Trump "demented" and "very evil." According to excerpts published by multiple outlets from the interview, Waters said, "He's demented. He's obviously very evil, but now he's demented as well as being very evil. He was always a real scumbag. Everything he's ever done is awful in every way." He also suggested that dissent in the United States had become dangerous, saying Trump "could send masked men around to shoot me in the head through my car window like he does to people who disagree with him."

That rhetoric fits a political persona Waters has cultivated for decades. Back in 2016, AP reported that during a concert in Mexico City he lashed out at Trump over the proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall, telling the audience, "We don't want a wall that separates us from our sister, our mother earth, or from each other."