The remaining four members of the Embassy Protection Collective who held down the embassy until they were evicted and arrested by the US Secret Service. Photo: Peoples Dispatch.
Since this Monday, February 6, the US Department of State took possession of the Venezuelan Embassy headquarters, the ambassador’s residence in Washington DC, and the Venezuelan Consulate in New York, according to a Bloomberg report citing “people familiar with the matter.” This was done in response to the disbanding of the fake Venezuelan diplomatic mission led by Carlos Vecchio, after the removal of Juan Guaidó as “interim president,” a decision taken by the same far-right groups that maintained that fictional position following US orders.
According to anonymous sources, custody of the properties is due to the fact that, in the opinion of the US diplomacy and their failed understanding of international rules, there is no executive branch that represents the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. This disregards the fact that Washington has been sending high level delegations in recent months to directly negotiate with the government of Nicolás Maduro.
The US has taken possession of the embassy, a diplomatic residence, “and at least two other buildings in Washington, as well as at least one building in New York,” the report says. Therefore, the United States would judge the Venezuelan presidency as a political and diplomatic vacuum, a paradox that leaves no doubt that the “Guaidó project” has definitively failed.
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Bloomberg comments that “the incident adds to the confusion about who will represent the opposition abroad,” since for Washington, Guaidó is no longer the “legitimate ruler” of Venezuela, but his “interim team” still maintains possession of Venezuelan assets abroad, such as the CITGO Petroleum Corp, money in international bank accounts, and the gold seized by the Bank of England.
Although the illegitimate National Assembly—elected in 2015 for only five years (AN 2015—removed Leopoldo López’s protégé as “interim president” and, therefore, Carlos Vecchio ceased to be the “Venezuelan ambassador to the United States,” they appointed Fernando Blasi as his successor; but the Biden administration did not recognize him, because the decision does not emanate from an executive branch.
Thus, the AN 2015 workers who lived in the diplomatic spaces in Washington DC and New York (usurping functions) were denied entry to the premises after the US decision. “In January,” reports the New York outlet, “they were given a period of 30 days to resolve their immigration status, the source said.”
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Are the doors open for Washington to recognize the presidency of Nicolás Maduro as legitimate, after months of negotiation within the framework of the Mexico Talks, as well as US diplomatic trips to the Miraflores Palace? It is uncertain, taking into account the official statements of the White House; Joe Biden’s government said it would continue to recognize the AN 2015 as “legitimate” and President Nicolás Maduro as “illegitimate.”
Embassy protectors
Kevin Zeese, Margaret Flowers, Adrienne Pine and David Paul, as part of the Embassy Protection Collective, had begun living at the Venezuelan embassy in order to protect it from occupation by the Juan Guaidó-backed Venezuelan opposition forces. Supported by the US, Guaidó had been orchestrating a coup d’état against democratically elected Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
In April 2019, when the Guaidó project began, the Venezuelan diplomatic and consular mission to the United States was forced to leave the country, so anti-imperialist solidarity groups assumed the responsibility of creating the Embassy Protection Collective to avoid far-right and fake Venezuelan diplomats to take these facilities.
The collective began occupying and protecting the embassy with authorization from the Venezuelan government, in full concordance with the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic Relations.
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In May 2019, 37 days after the protectors began living in the embassy, police illegally broke in and arrested the four remaining members of the Embassy Protection Collective, after the other members, out of almost 30, voluntarily abandoned the building to avoid legal harassment. The late Kevin Zeese, Margaret Flowers, Adrienne Pine, and David Paul, the four remaining members of Embassy Protection Collective, were subjected to a long and expensive legal battle for several months after a mistrial was announced on February 2020.
According to the Vienna Convention, the premises of a foreign mission are “inviolable,” and “the agents of the receiving state may not enter them, except with the consent of the head of the mission.” Even if the diplomatic relations between two countries are broken, article 45 of the Convention stipulates that “the receiving state must, even in case of armed conflict, respect and protect the premises of the mission, together with its property and archives.” It must also be noted that the United Nations recognizes only one legitimate government in Venezuela: the one led by President Nicolás Maduro.
(Misión Verdad) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/AU
