Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza wrote on Twitter Thursday that the US government must “comply with its obligations as signatories to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations” and act to protect its former embassy building in Washington, DC.
“We require the U.S. Department of State to comply with its obligations as signatories to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and to protect the building of the former Venezuelan embassy in Washington, as our government protects its facilities In Caracas,” Arreaza wrote on Twitter.
Although all diplomatic staff have departed from the facility, located in Washington, DC’s historic Georgetown district, several dozen anti-war activists have taken up residence inside the compound for the last several weeks to prevent associates of self-proclaimed Venezuelan Interim President Juan Guaido from occupying the embassy and claiming to represent Venezuelan diplomatic interests in the US. Arreaza said last week at a press conference at the United Nations that the “Embassy Protection Collective” were “guests” of the Venezuelan government and not trespassing.
On Thursday, US Secret Service police arrested Ariel Gold, national co-director of Code Pink, one of the groups that helped form the collective, as she and other activists tried to force their way into the embassy building in order to resupply them with food. However, police have largely let the opposition protesters have free run around the structure, where they’ve destroyed security cameras and defaced the side of the building, activists at the embassy say. Police did eventually allow some food to enter, but Gold remains in custody.