After a standoff lasting more than a month, US police have elected to end the siege of the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, DC, by declaring the Embassy Protection Collective to be tresspassers who must leave the property, and subsequently conducting a raid of the facility.
The collective is comprised of group of anti-war protesters from organizations including Code Pink, Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition, Popular Resistance, and the Black Alliance for Peace, who said they believed the embassy falling into opposition hands would precipitate a war between the US and Venezuela and set a dangerous precedent elsewhere in the hemisphere for other diplomatic offices to be similarly disrespected.
The activists argued that their tenancy in the property is legal under international, US, and DC law, and that no US law enforcement official can remove them from the property, since its ownership is inviolable under the Vienna Convention of 1961.
Pro-Maduro protesters asked through megahorns how diplomacy could be conducted by Vecchio’s staff without a Foreign Ministry back in Caracas to facilitate their actions, such as issuing visas or passports.
Pro-Guaido opposition demonstrators played the Venezuelan national anthem over loud speakers and chanted for the collective members to get out of their embassy.