No Kings: Las protestas que sacuden a Estados Unidos

Mira, y hay que hablar de ICE también.

Look, and we have to talk about ICE too.

Las operaciones de ICE, la agencia que controla la inmigración, causaron mucho miedo en las comunidades latinoamericanas en Estados Unidos.

The operations of ICE, the agency that controls immigration, caused a lot of fear in Latin American communities in the United States.

Muchas familias vivieron momentos muy difíciles porque alguien de su familia fue detenido o deportado.

Many families lived through very difficult moments because someone in their family was detained or deported.

The ICE issue is, I think, the one that's most viscerally felt at the community level.

The Iran war is abstract for most Americans.

ICE operations are not abstract.

They happen in schools, in churches, in workplaces.

You can feel them in a neighborhood.

Es que sí.

Exactly.

Cuando viví en Londres, conocí a muchas personas de América Latina que vivían en Estados Unidos antes.

When I lived in London, I met many people from Latin America who had lived in the United States before.

Me contaron historias de familias separadas, de niños que perdieron a sus padres.

They told me stories of separated families, of children who lost their parents.

Eso no es política abstracta.

That's not abstract politics.

Eso es la vida real de personas reales.

That's the real life of real people.

Here's what gets me, though.

This is the third protest.

The movement has a name, it has recurring dates, it has multiple grievances bundled together.

Historically, that's when protest movements either consolidate into something durable or fracture from their own contradictions.

Which way do you see this going?

La verdad es que es difícil saberlo.

The truth is it's hard to know.

Pero mira, los movimientos más importantes de la historia americana duraron porque tenían una idea central muy clara.

But look, the most important movements in American history lasted because they had one very clear central idea.

El movimiento por los derechos civiles tenía una idea: la igualdad.

The Civil Rights movement had one idea: equality.

Cuando un movimiento tiene muchas ideas diferentes, a veces pierde fuerza.

When a movement has many different ideas, sometimes it loses strength.

The Vietnam anti-war movement is the instructive case here.

It started broad, it stayed broad, and it outlasted a president.

But it also had one unifying demand: end the war.

The No Kings movement is threading multiple grievances, which is harder to sustain, but also potentially harder to dismiss.

Sí, pero 'No Kings' es también un mensaje muy simple y muy claro.

Yes, but 'No Kings' is also a very simple and very clear message.

Es como decir: 'Aquí nadie manda tanto.' Eso conecta con todas las otras ideas, la guerra, la inmigración, las personas que murieron.

It's like saying: 'Nobody is in charge here that much.' That connects to all the other ideas, the war, immigration, the people who died.

Todas esas cosas hablan del mismo problema: el poder.

All those things speak to the same problem: power.

That's a sharp observation.

The phrase is doing double duty.

It's a specific critique of Trump's governing style, the concentration of executive authority, the contempt for institutional checks.

But it's also a universal statement about what America is supposed to be.

That's a very effective combination.

Bueno, y desde Europa miramos esto con mucha atención.

Well, and from Europe we watch this with a lot of attention.

En España tenemos nuestra propia historia con el poder concentrado en una persona.

In Spain we have our own history with power concentrated in one person.

Franco gobernó durante casi cuarenta años.

Franco governed for almost forty years.

Mis abuelos vivieron toda su vida adulta bajo una dictadura.

My grandparents lived their entire adult lives under a dictatorship.

Entonces cuando veo protestas en América con esa frase, lo entiendo muy bien.

So when I see protests in America with that phrase, I understand it very well.

The Franco comparison is one that makes some Americans uncomfortable, because Americans tend to think their institutions are immune to that kind of thing.

I used to believe that more than I do now.

I've watched too many countries where people thought the same thing.

A ver, yo no digo que Estados Unidos es como la España de Franco.

Look, I'm not saying the United States is like Franco's Spain.

Eso sería exagerado.

That would be exaggerated.

Pero la historia enseña que ningún país está completamente protegido.

But history teaches that no country is completely protected.

Las instituciones son fuertes cuando las personas las defienden.

Institutions are strong when people defend them.

Cuando nadie las defiende, se debilitan.

When nobody defends them, they weaken.

Eso pasó en muchos lugares.

That happened in many places.

And that's precisely what protest movements do, at their best.

They're not just opposition to a policy.

They're a public assertion that the norms still exist, that the guardrails are still visible.

Even when the government doesn't acknowledge them.

Exacto.

Exactly.

Mira, en la transición española después de Franco, las protestas y las huelgas fueron muy importantes.

Look, in the Spanish transition after Franco, protests and strikes were very important.

La gente en la calle dijo: 'Nosotros también existimos.

People in the street said: 'We exist too.

Nuestras ideas también existen.' Eso fue una parte necesaria del cambio político.

Our ideas exist too.' That was a necessary part of the political change.

I covered the Arab Spring, parts of it.

And one thing I learned, the hard way sometimes, is that protests are necessary but not sufficient.

They create pressure.

They signal something about public sentiment.

But they need a political vehicle, an institution or a party or an election, to convert that pressure into change.

La verdad es que sí.

The truth is yes.

En Egipto, la gente protestó con mucha fuerza, ganaron, Mubarak salió.

In Egypt, people protested with great force, they won, Mubarak left.

Pero después no había una estructura política lista para gobernar.

But then there was no political structure ready to govern.

Y entonces el ejército tomó el control otra vez.

And so the army took control again.

Las protestas sin organización política pueden perder todo lo que ganaron.

Protests without political organization can lose everything they gained.

Which brings me to the midterm elections.

2026 midterms are not far away.

And these protests are happening in that shadow.

The question is whether the energy in the streets can be translated into votes.

That's always the question.

Bueno, en 2018, después de los primeros dos años de Trump, los demócratas ganaron la Cámara de Representantes.

Well, in 2018, after Trump's first two years, the Democrats won the House of Representatives.

Muchas personas dijeron que las protestas de 2017, como la Marcha de las Mujeres, ayudaron a crear esa energía política.

Many people said the 2017 protests, like the Women's March, helped create that political energy.

Quizás el mismo proceso pasó ahora.

Maybe the same process is happening now.

The Women's March in 2017 is a fascinating comparison.

That was also massive, also nationwide, also with a single unifying phrase, in a sense.

But it was one day.

It didn't repeat.

The No Kings movement has now had three iterations.

That's organizationally significant.

Es que sí, la repetición es muy importante.

Exactly, repetition is very important.

Cuando una protesta pasa una vez, el gobierno puede ignorarla.

When a protest happens once, the government can ignore it.

Cuando pasa tres veces, es más difícil ignorarla.

When it happens three times, it's harder to ignore.

Y cada vez que pasa, la organización aprende, crece, y se hace más fuerte.

And each time it happens, the organization learns, grows, and gets stronger.

Eso es lo que pasó con muchos movimientos históricos.

That's what happened with many historical movements.

There were arrests yesterday.

Around 18 people, mostly in Tel Aviv and Haifa, according to...

wait, no.

I'm mixing up my news feeds.

Those arrests were in Israel, at the anti-Iran war protests there.

The American protests, I should check, but the point about arrests stands generally.

Jaja, sí, no confundas las noticias, Fletcher.

Ha, yes, don't mix up your news, Fletcher.

Pero es interesante eso.

But that's interesting.

Porque en Israel también hubo protestas contra la guerra de Irán ayer.

Because in Israel there were also protests against the Iran war yesterday.

Eso me parece muy significativo.

That seems very significant to me.

Cuando los ciudadanos de un país protestan contra la guerra de su propio gobierno, eso es un mensaje muy serio.

When the citizens of a country protest against their own government's war, that's a very serious message.

That's actually worth pausing on.

Anti-war protests inside Israel, anti-war protests inside the United States, and they're happening on the same day.

There's a kind of transnational dissent forming here that doesn't get enough attention.

The No Kings protest isn't just American.

Mira, eso es verdad.

Look, that's true.

En Europa también hay muchas personas que miran esta guerra con preocupación.

In Europe too there are many people watching this war with concern.

La guerra de Irán afecta los precios del petróleo, afecta la seguridad regional, afecta todo el mundo.

The Iran war affects oil prices, affects regional security, affects the whole world.

Entonces las protestas en Estados Unidos hablan de algo global, no solo americano.

So the protests in the United States are speaking to something global, not just American.

And that's what the phrase 'No Kings' does across borders, too.

It's translatable.

It's universal in a way that specific American policy debates are not.

Any country with a history of authoritarianism, which is most countries, understands that phrase in its bones.

La verdad es que en España tenemos una monarquía, pero es una monarquía constitucional.

The truth is that in Spain we have a monarchy, but it's a constitutional monarchy.

El rey no tiene poder real.

The king has no real power.

Y creo que muchos españoles entienden la diferencia entre un rey que sirve a la constitución y un líder que actúa como si fuera un rey absoluto.

And I think many Spaniards understand the difference between a king who serves the constitution and a leader who acts like an absolute king.

Eso es lo que critica el movimiento.

That's what the movement is criticizing.

The distinction between constitutional monarchy and absolute power is, I think, exactly what the protesters are reaching for.

It's not literally about whether there's a crown on someone's head.

It's about whether power is bounded.

Whether someone can be held accountable.

That's the American anxiety right now.

A ver, y aquí hay algo que me parece importante recordar.

Right, and here's something I think is important to remember.

Después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, muchos países, incluyendo Alemania, Italia y Japón, crearon constituciones nuevas con limitaciones muy claras del poder.

After the Second World War, many countries, including Germany, Italy, and Japan, created new constitutions with very clear limits on power.

Aprendieron de sus errores históricos.

They learned from their historical mistakes.

La pregunta ahora es: ¿aprendió América?

The question now is: has America learned?

That's the question, isn't it.

And here's the thing about American exceptionalism, the belief that it can't happen here.

The protesters in the streets are, in a sense, betting against that complacency.

They're saying: it can happen here, and we are the reason it won't.

Bueno, y eso es lo que hace el movimiento interesante históricamente.

Well, and that's what makes the movement historically interesting.

No es solo una protesta contra Trump.

It's not just a protest against Trump.

Es una afirmación de lo que América quiere ser.

It's an affirmation of what America wants to be.

Y esa conversación, sobre la identidad de un país, es la conversación política más importante que puede tener una nación.

And that conversation, about the identity of a country, is the most important political conversation a nation can have.

I mean, I've been in countries where that conversation was shut down.

Where the public square was literally unsafe for dissent.

And so watching Americans argue loudly in the streets, I don't take that for granted.

It's not nothing.

The right to say 'no kings' is itself a kind of answer to the question.

Sí, y para terminar, creo que lo más importante de ayer es que estas protestas pasaron en ciudades pequeñas y grandes.

Yes, and to close, I think the most important thing about yesterday is that these protests happened in small cities and large ones.

No fue solo Nueva York o Los Ángeles.

It wasn't just New York or Los Angeles.

Cuando la gente protesta en ciudades pequeñas, eso significa que el movimiento es más profundo y más serio.

When people protest in small cities, that means the movement is deeper and more serious.

That's exactly right.

The geography of protest matters.

When it reaches into the smaller cities, into the towns that don't usually make the news, that's when you know you're not looking at a coastal elite phenomenon.

You're looking at something broader.

Whether it lasts, whether it converts into political power, that's the story to watch.