[News] Attorney Stops Federal Raid Attempt on Venezuelan Embassy

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.dcmediagroup.us/2019/05/14/attorney-stops-federal-raid-attempt-embassy-venezuala/ 



  Attorney Stops Federal Raid Attempt on Venezuelan Embassy

May 14, 2019
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Washington, DC–On Monday night Secret Service, DC Police, and State 
Department agents attempted a coordinated raid on the Embassy of 
Venezuela to arrest activists that have been inside for a month. Mara 
Verheyden-Hilliard, an attorney representing the activists’ interests at 
the Embassy, intervened on their behalf as federal agents entered the 
building. She notified them that they had no legal authority to enter 
the Embassy when they did not present a signed warrant authorizing them 
to arrest the activists.

Beginning about 7pm, Metropolitan Police several times read an order to 
the activists over a loudspeaker outside the Embassy that the U.S. 
Government had recognized Juan Guaidó as the President of Venezuela and 
Carlos Vecchio as the Venezuelan Ambassador to the United States, and 
they were no longer welcome in the Embassy. Agents then ordered them to 
cease trespassing on Embassy grounds and that failure to immediately 
leave would result in their arrest. The activists did not appear at 
windows or acknowledge the order.

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The activists, who call themselves the Embassy Protection Collective, 
are there at the invitation of the Venezuelan government 
<https://www.dcmediagroup.us/2019/04/28/allies-venezuela-ready-defend-washington-embassy/>. 
On Saturday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro tweeted his support for 
them. U.S.-supported coup attempts led by Juan Guaido have failed, but 
the U.S. government persists in recognizing Guaido as the 
self-proclaimed president of Venezuela and expelled its diplomats. The 
U.N. recognizes President Maduro, who won reelection in May 2018 with 
68% of the vote.

The activists held up signs last night reading: “Criminals break in. We 
have the keys.”

Secret Service Agents cut chains on the doors which had been placed 
there by diplomats before they left the country on April 24, then 
entered the Embassy with flashlights. They asked the activists to 
voluntarily leave, but they declined unless certain conditions were met 
under international law.

It turned out the order posted and read by police was produced on 
nondescript paper purporting to be by the order of Juan Vecchio and not 
authenticated with either a signature or stamp by any federal agency or 
authority, nor any stamp of the Venezuelan government. The agents left 
the Embassy after some consultation with Verheyden-Hilliard and did not 
arrest any of the activists remaining inside.

Earlier in the day, however, in anticipation of the coming raid, The 
Grayzone Project reporter Anya Parammpil and Mintpress News journalist 
Alex Rubinstein voluntarily left the Embassy. This left only four 
activists inside the Embassy. Others had left on Sunday or before.

Police also forced the opposition to remove all signs, tents and 
equipment from outside the Embassy and move back to the opposite side of 
the street. They put up barricades and closed sidewalks around the embassy.

After agents exited the Embassy, they put zip ties around the front door 
handles and placed a barricade on the front porch. The remaining 
activists appeared at the windows as supporters cheered: “No Coup!” 
while the opposition gathered below railed against them, shouting: 
“Fuera!, Fuera!” (get out) from across the street.

The opposition has barricaded and besieged 
<https://www.dcmediagroup.us/2019/05/01/activists-block-attempted-takeover-venezuelan-embassy/> 
the activists for the past two weeks, not allowing any food or supplies 
to be delivered to the activists. Opposition grew enraged when they 
realized federal agents and other authorities outside the Embassy were 
not going to arrest or remove the activists.

Carlos Vecchio, the Venezuelan that the U.S. has installed as 
“ambassador” at the Organization for American States, had shown up at 
the Embassy with his staff for a short period in anticipation of being 
allowed to enter the building but was forced to leave without doing so. 
It was the second time he had been rebuffed in efforts to enter the 
Embassy as a result of activists refusing to leave.

Three black sedans with tinted glass and federal license plates remained 
parked in front of the Embassy, while nearly 100 police from various 
agencies remained in the street and around the Embassy, sealing it off 
from public access.

It appeared agents we’re still planning to arrest the activists but 
could not carry out enforcement without a warrant. It was not clear if a 
warrant could be produced or what jurisdiction would have authority to 
issue a warrant. According to Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, it would be in 
violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations for any 
agency or police force to either enter or remove any of the activists 
without permission of the elected Government of Venezuela. She stated 
that regardless of whether representatives the U.S. government had 
chosen to recognize alternative representatives as the government of 
Venezuela, they could not enter under the Vienna Convention, a treaty of 
which the U.S. was a signer in 1961.

We will update this story later on Tuesday as it further develops.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
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