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Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro appeared to make a call for peace in October 2025, repeating a slogan that has since gone viral.
He addressed Donald Trump directly during a nationally televised address after U.S.-led missile attacks on small boats in international waters near Venezuela killed at least 87 people.
“No war, no war, no war,” Maduro said at the time. “Yes peace, yes peace, yes peace, forever, forever, forever. Peace forever. No crazy war.”
A viral remix is taking off
Later that month, Dominican YouTuber Hey Santana decided to edit out this Maduro audio snippet that was already circulating on social media and remix it into a Dembow track. The song quickly conquered the internet. And according to some political sources, he may have played a role in the US operation that led to Maduro’s arrest and detention on January 3.
Hey Santana created the remix by setting Maduro’s speech to a driving beat and combining the song with clips of fun dance moves. The video is titled “Not War Yes Peace” and has now reached several hundred thousand views. An extended version stretches the track from one and a half minutes to three minutes.
Maduro dances – and the meaning changes
In November, the “No War, Yes Peace” remix finally reached Maduro himself, who danced to the song while greeting Venezuelan students at the Miraflores Palace. “I was like that,” Santana says in the Zoom conversation with ROLLING STONE and lets her jaw drop. “I didn’t know how to react!”
At first, Santana thought someone had manipulated a video to make it look like Maduro was dancing to the song. But then he saw a CNN headline about the politician actually grooving to it. A few weeks later, the dictator danced to it again, this time at a political rally, to the cheers of the crowd. Maduro played the song at so many events that Chavistas – Maduro supporters – began claiming it as pro-Maduro, even though Santana created it as a parody of the president.
Absurdity instead of propaganda
“At some point I thought: Shit. The people on the Chavistas side turned the song from a meme into a political moment in favor of Chavismo. It lost its humor. I would never support a dictator like that,” said Santana, who wore a T-shirt with the image of Maduro’s arrest during the Zoom interview. “The song is totally absurd if you really listen.”
The track – and Maduro’s dance to it – is said to have struck a nerve with Trump. At a meeting with Republican congressmen on Tuesday, Trump appeared to allude to Maduro’s dance moves. According to The Guardian, he said: “He stands up there and tries to imitate my dancing a bit.” Trump has repeatedly gone viral for dancing with short arm movements to the beat of Village People’s “YMCA.”
Political consequences of a meme
“Mr. Maduro’s regular public dances and other demonstrative displays of nonchalance in recent weeks convinced some on the Trump team that the Venezuelan president was mocking them,” the New York Times reported, citing two anonymous sources within the administration. According to this report, the White House then decided to implement the military action, which took place on January 3rd.
Trump announced this morning that US forces had captured Maduro after a military operation in Caracas. In the afternoon, Trump said from Mar-a-Lago that the U.S. would manage the country through a “safe, orderly and prudent transition.”
The news shocked Santana, whose song racked up 10,000 Shazams on the day of Maduro’s arrest. “People thank me online,” he says. “People joke that I’m something of a libertador.”
Maduro pleaded guilty at a court hearing on Monday to all four charges, including conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism and possession and conspiracy to possess machine guns. He faces a lengthy legal process that could result in a jury trial that could last well over a year.