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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
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href="https://www.dcmediagroup.us/2019/05/14/attorney-stops-federal-raid-attempt-embassy-venezuala/">https://www.dcmediagroup.us/2019/05/14/attorney-stops-federal-raid-attempt-embassy-venezuala/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Attorney Stops Federal Raid Attempt on
Venezuelan Embassy</h1>
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<div class="reader-estimated-time">May 14, 2019<br>
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<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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<p>The activists, who call themselves the Embassy
Protection Collective, are there <a
href="https://www.dcmediagroup.us/2019/04/28/allies-venezuela-ready-defend-washington-embassy/">at
the invitation of the Venezuelan government</a>.
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.</p>
<p>The activists held up signs last night reading:
“Criminals break in. We have the keys.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The opposition has <a
href="https://www.dcmediagroup.us/2019/05/01/activists-block-attempted-takeover-venezuelan-embassy/">barricaded
and besieged</a> 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>We will update this story later on Tuesday as
it further develops.</p>
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<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://freedomarchives.org/">https://freedomarchives.org/</a>
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