By Nick Barrickman
17 May 2019
On Thursday at noon, United
States law enforcement officials, some of them helmeted and wearing flak
jackets and carrying battering rams, forced their way into the Venezuelan
embassy in Washington, D.C., detaining four anti-war activists who had been residing
there.
The activists, Kevin Zeese,
Margaret Flowers, Adrienne Pine and David Paul, part of a group calling
themselves the Embassy Protection Collective (EPC), had been invited to stay
inside the Venezuelan embassy over a month ago by the elected and internationally
recognized government of President Nicolas Maduro.
The raid against the embassy
was carried out in flagrant violation of international laws governing
diplomatic relations between states and is of a piece with the reckless and
illegal actions taken by the Trump administration in an effort to force a
regime change in Venezuela, home to the largest proven oil reserves on the
planet.
According to the Washington
Post, “Federal law enforcement officers, including several in fatigues wearing
tactical gear, entered the building through a back door and conducted a sweep
with police dogs. After more than an hour, police brought the activists into a
driveway hidden from the view of protesters and the news media…”
Hundreds of armed security
forces were involved in the operation, including elements of the US Secret
Service, the Metropolitan Police and the State Department’s Diplomatic Security
Service.
The Post noted that
ambulances and personnel with stretchers had been assembled at the embassy in
the lead-up to the raid. As of this writing it is unclear if any of the
detained activists were injured. The four are due to face charges in U.S.
federal court Friday relating to their occupation, including the supposed
interference with the diplomatic mission of officials representing U.S. puppet
and self-appointed “interim president” Juan Guaidó. Trespassing charges have
not been brought, apparently because the lease for the building is in the name
of the Maduro government.
As of Friday, representatives
of the US puppet Guaidó are due to take possession of the embassy. In a
statement dripping with cynicism, Guaidó-appointed ambassador Carlos Vecchio, a
U.S. State Department asset, declared “The usurpation has ended… It has taken
time and effort, but we have complied with the Venezuelan people. Infinite
thanks to the Venezuelan diaspora for their sacrifice. Next liberation:
Venezuela.”
Speaking to the press, the
Collective’s legal counsel, constitutional lawyer Mara Verheyden-Hilliard,
stated of the raid and arrests: “This is an extraordinary step by the Trump
administration and frankly, one that has been supported by every politician
that has remained silent. They don’t have to take a position on the government
of Venezuela, they do have to take a position in defense of diplomacy, of the
Vienna Convention, of international law. That is what is at issue with this
seizure and this entrance today.”
The lawyer stated that the
embassy raid had been “a State Department operation” that had been “carried out
by State Department personnel.” Verheyden-Hilliard declared: “This is sending a
message to embassies and diplomatic missions all over the world that any host
country can make the decision that if it disagrees or does not like the
leadership of another country it can simply appoint someone else, say that they
are recognizing another person as the leader, and then seize and enter an
embassy.”
Pseudo-left representatives of
U.S. imperialism, such as Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and
House Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, declined to issue so much as a tweet
in opposition to the seizure of the embassy by U.S. security forces. This is in
line with their defense of the Trump administration’s drive for regime change
in Venezuela. In February, Sanders solidarized himself
with the phony “opposition” of Guaidó and his supporters, who have sought to
promote a military coup against the bourgeois nationalist government of Nicolás
Maduro.
For her part, Congresswoman
Ocasio-Cortez pledged in an interview two weeks ago with the National
Review to toe the line of the Democratic Party, declaring “I defer to
caucus leadership on how we navigate this.” In February, Democratic Speaker of
the House Nancy Pelosi announced she had decided “to recognize Juan Guaidó,
president of the National Assembly, as the interim president until full, fair
and free elections can be held” and that “Nicolás Maduro’s regime of repression
… must be condemned swiftly by the full international community.”
Prior to the raid, EPC
activists had faced a police-backed siege of
the property, with right-wing Guaidó supporters blocking, physically attacking
and harassing activists delivering supplies. Last week, in a move demonstrating
the U.S. government’s disregard for international law, electrical power to the
embassy was cut along with the building’s water supply.
On Tuesday, an eviction notice
was delivered to EPC members which bore no markings indicating its
authenticity. According to Consortium News, the document “appeared to have
been written by the Guaidó faction but was posted and read by D.C. police as if
it were a document from the U.S. government.” On Wednesday, the U.S. government
issued warrants for the detainment of the EPC members, presaging Thursday’s
events.
The treatment of the
collective by the Trump administration has been denounced internationally. On
Sunday, the National Lawyers Guild issued a letter to U.S. Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo, the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, the United
Nations and others, which states, “the United States government, through
various law enforcement agencies, has condoned and protected violent opponents
in support of an attempted siege of the Embassy. In so doing, the U.S.
government is creating a dangerous precedent for diplomatic relations with all
nations.”
Verheyden-Hilliard, the legal
counsel for the activists, spoke on the Trump administration’s fears of the
potential for a broader movement of the population: “This is a direct response
to a growing view in the United States that more and more people were standing
in support of diplomacy, more and more people were standing in support of
peace. People don’t want to see another war; they don’t need to see the United
States government waging another illegal war.”
The lawyer noted this to be
the case “despite a lot of the press coverage [of the embassy occupation,
which] has not been forthright. Much of it has been extremely biased and... not
accurate. The people who have been here inside of the embassy have been
peaceful. The people who have supported them inside of the embassy have been
peaceful.
The assaults that we have
[seen], the violence … the noise from the sirens, the flashing lights and the
use of strobes ... these are all nonlethal weapons that were being authorized
for use … No action was taken by American law enforcement to stop the illegal
actions.”
Vecchio has no standing as a
Venezuelan diplomat and represents a government that exists only in the
regime-change propaganda of US imperialism. Rather, he a leader of Guaidó’s
far-right Voluntad Popular (Popular Will) wanted in Venezuela for inciting
violence.
He is scheduled to meet early
next week with officers of the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which overseas US
military operations in Latin America. Earlier this week, he said that he would
discuss with the US military brass plans “to advance in strategic and
operational planning with the priority goal of stopping our people's suffering
and restoring democracy.”
This direct turn to the US
military follows Guaidó’s abortive April 30 coup attempt, which failed to
produce any significant fissures in Venezuela’s armed forces or elicit any
significant popular support. Since then, backing for the self-proclaimed and US-backed
“interim president” has visibly waned, with barely a few hundred people turning
out for a demonstration he called last Saturday.
Absent popular support or
backing from any major faction of the Venezuelan military, Guaidó appears to be
banking on a direct US military intervention. The assault on the Venezuela’s
embassy in Washington may well be a warning that a violent assault is being
prepared on the country itself.
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