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<font size="1"><a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/mistrial-declared-kafkaesque-trial-venezuela-embassy-protection-collective/265004/">https://www.mintpressnews.com/mistrial-declared-kafkaesque-trial-venezuela-embassy-protection-collective/265004/</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Mistrial Declared in Kafkaesque D.C. Trial of Venezuela Embassy Protectors</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">by
Alan Macleod - February 14, 2020<br></div></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-line-height4 gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><p><span><span>T</span>he
word “Kafkaesque” is thrown around liberally in the modern era, often
without warrant. “The Trial,” a 1925 novel written by Bohemian writer
Franz Kafka, tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and prosecuted
in a nightmarish kangaroo court while unable to properly defend himself.
But nearly 100 years later, another real trial took place in our modern
American dystopia, one which easily qualifies for the moniker. Starting
February 11, four anti-war activists, Adrienne Pine, Kevin Zeese,
Margaret Flowers and David Paul, were facing a year in prison and a
$100,000 fine each for interfering with the protective function of the
State Department. Today, despite a hostile judge and a host of
constraints against the defense, prosecutors were unable to convince a
jury that any crime had been committed and the events ended in a
mistrial.</span></p>
<p><span>The four are members of the Washington D.C. Venezuelan Embassy
Protection Collective, a group that last year, at the behest of the
government of Nicolas Maduro, entered and occupied the Venezuelan
embassy for over a month. In 2019, the Trump administration sponsored a
series of coups against the democratically elected Maduro, bizarrely
announcing the virtually unknown politician Juan Guaidó as the
legitimate president of the country. Each coup was less successful than
the last, and Maduro remains in complete control of the country, while
Guaidó has become an overwhelmingly</span><a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/article238040219.html" target="_blank"> <span>unpopular</span></a><span> figure,</span><a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/media-paints-anger-against-juan-guaido-as-hometown-heros-welcome/264875/"> <span>jeered</span></a><span> and assaulted wherever he goes.</span></p>
<p><span>On the news of the mistrial verdict, Howie Hawkins, 2020 Green Party presidential nominee, </span><a href="https://howiehawkins.us/howie-hawkins-applauds-mistrial-result-in-trump-court-case-against-venezuelan-embassy-protectors/?fbclid=IwAR2GNIgWmXcpV_L9PvzfOP-3oeSd5jp-2-FhQDenStGI2PmgUlbS8IfgDTo" target="_blank"><span>said</span></a><span>
“I am grateful for the resolve of the jurors who held out and caused
today’s hung jury…It shows that the overreach in foreign policy of the
Trump Administration is not popular among the American public.” Flowers
and Zeese are members of the Maryland Green Party. “We stand with Greens
and other progressives everywhere, who are proud of the actions that
Flowers, Zeese and the others, in favor of peace and the
self-determination of autonomous nations,” stated Hawkins. “This shows
that Greens are willing to do whatever is necessary to stand up for
justice.”</span></p>
<p><span>What made the trial particularly Kafkaesque is that the four
were not allowed to defend themselves by arguing Maduro is indeed the
legitimate leader of the country, Judge Beryl Howell having asserted
that President Trump’s word on Venezuela is </span><i><span>literally</span></i><span>
law. The United States instructed Venezuelan diplomats to leave the
country last April, prompting the government’s request for activists to
occupy the building. Howell also decreed that it was illegal for the
defendants to tell the jury that Trump violated international law by
raiding the embassy or to question Guaidó’s legitimacy at all. Under the
circumstances, the four decided to present no defense whatsoever.
Despite the drawbacks, prosecutors could not force through a guilty
verdict and the trial ended in a hung jury. </span></p>
<p><i><span>MintPress News</span></i><span> spoke with the four
activists. Dr. Pine, an anthropologist at the American University in
Washington, D.C., explained why she decided to prevent the U.S. from
violating Venezuelan sovereignty:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span>We entered the embassy at different moments, but
all of us shared the goal of protecting it from a U.S.-led coup, and
helping to ensure with our presence that a peaceful resolution could be
achieved through the negotiation of a Protecting Powers agreement –
negotiations that were underway during our residence in the embassy
between the democratically elected government of Venezuela and the Trump
administration. That is why we were all very clear that our role there
was temporary.”</span></p></blockquote>
<p><span>At the height of the tensions in April, there were more than 70
people defending the embassy from Juan Guaidó’s American associates.
Protectors were subject to sound cannons and mobs of angry, pro-coup
Venezuelans. Eventually, the government also shut off their power and
water.</span></p>
<p><span>Kevin Zeese, a lawyer and co-director of</span><a href="https://popularresistance.org/" target="_blank"> <i><span>Popular Resistance</span></i></a><span>, an alternative news outlet,</span><a href="https://therealnews.com/stories/us-govt-attempts-railroad-venezuelan-embassy-protectors" target="_blank"> <span>explained</span></a><span> why he refused to leave and had to be removed in handcuffs:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span>The trespass notice that resulted in our arrest was
issued because Carlos Vecchio, a fake ambassador working with Juan
Guaidó, ordered us to be evicted. When we got that notice, it was
unsigned; there was no state or government agency; nothing official on
it. But Carlos Vecchio’s name was on it saying we were trespassing. We
knew he did not have any position in government and was not really an
ambassador. And we knew we were not trespassing because we had the
permission to be in the embassy given to us by the foreign minister and
the Maduro government. So we did not see that as a valid order and we
stayed there.”</span></p></blockquote>
<p><span>Pine told us that she and her co-defendants always rejected the
validity of the trial and court altogether. “We did nothing whatsoever
to interfere. Their case was riddled with flat-out lies,” she said. Both
Zeese and Pine have contributed to </span><i><span>MintPress News</span></i><span> in the past. </span><a href="https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi" target="_blank"><span>Alex Rubenstein</span></a><span>, a journalist who covered the case in close detail for </span><i><span>MintPress </span></i><span>last
year, spending time inside the embassy told us that, in his opinion,
the U.S. had violated the Vienna Treaty, one of the foundations of
international diplomacy, saying:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span>The United States demonstrated total disregard for
the rule of law, all in an effort to further its phony coup against yet
another country that has nationalized major sectors of its economy for
the benefit of its people instead of big multinational corporations.”</span></p></blockquote>
<p><span>Covering the trial from inside the courtroom, </span><i><span>The GrayZone</span></i><span>’s </span><a href="https://twitter.com/maxblumenthal/" target="_blank"><span>Max Blumenthal</span></a><span>
expressed his dismay at Judge Howell who “appeared unable or unwilling
to appreciate the distinction between the U.S.-recognized doofus,” Juan
Guaidó, “who controls zero government functions, and the U.N.-recognized
Venezuelan government that governs the country both in practice and in
law.” He also reported that during jury selection, one potential juror
falsely claimed that Venezuela had run two separate elections – one
supervised by Russia and one by the U.S. He said he learned that by
reading the </span><i><span>Washington Post</span></i><span>. Therefore, Blumenthal worried, it would not just be the judge that was substandard. </span></p>
<p><span>When the jury originally told the judge that they were unable
to reach a verdict she directed them to continue deliberating instead of
immediately calling a mistrial. Howell has called for a retrial, </span><a href="https://sputniknews.com/us/202002141078318677-mistrial-declared-in-trial-of-embassy-protection-collective-4/" target="_blank"><span>according</span></a><span> to </span><i><span>Sputnik News</span></i><span>, but it is not clear if or when it will occur. </span></p>
<p><span>Blumenthal himself is not a neutral actor but also spent time inside the embassy, and was arrested in a</span><a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/arrest-journalist-max-blumenthal-alternative-media/262637/"> <span>SWAT-style raid</span></a><span>
in October by armed police who had been warned he was potentially armed
and dangerous. He sees the incident as an attempt to silence and
intimidate critical media.</span></p>
<h2>Coverage worthy of Orwell</h2>
<p><span>If the trial itself was Kafkaesque, the media coverage (or
complete lack thereof) is far more Orwellian. In the book
“Nineteen-Eighty-Four,” George Orwell describes a world of groupthink,
where the entire political class can change its collective opinion on a
dime, consigning unwelcome facts down the memory hole. Trump’s Ministry
of Truth has decreed Guaidó to be president, and that is final.</span></p>
<p><span>As of Friday afternoon, there has been complete silence across
the corporate media spectrum with regards to the trial, with nothing in </span><i><span>CNN</span></i><span>, the </span><i><span>New York Times</span></i><span>, </span><i><span>Fox News</span></i><span> or </span><i><span>MSNBC</span></i><span>,
who collectively employ hundreds of reporters in the D.C. area. A
search in Google News’ database finds a few scattered articles in small,
alternative outlets like </span><i><span>AntiWar.com</span></i><span>, </span><i><span>Sputnik</span></i><span>, and </span><i><span>Venezuelanalysis</span></i><span>
– not coincidentally all sites that have been labeled as spreaders of
fake news by the same establishment that has collectively decided to
ignore the trial. The sinister thing about censorship in democracies,
Orwell</span><a href="https://chomsky.info/20101010_2/" target="_blank"> <span>wrote</span></a><span>, is that it is largely voluntary, so people don’t realize they are under it.</span></p>
<h2>Stemming a socialist wave</h2>
<p><span>Why were the four charged with entering the embassy at the
request of the Maduro administration? For Rubenstein, the goal was
obvious:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span>It was to send a clear message to any American
citizen who may take up the noble cause of upholding international law
or who may be inclined to take a stand against the United States’ long
and ugly history of fomenting coup d’états in service of oil or other
natural resource interests.”</span></p></blockquote>
<p><span>Nicolas Maduro won reelection in May 2018 in a process</span><a href="http://journalcontent.mediatheoryjournal.org/index.php/mt/article/view/65" target="_blank"> <span>declared</span></a><span> free and fair by hundreds of international observers, but a</span><a href="https://fair.org/home/media-delegitimize-venezuelan-elections-amid-complete-unanimity-of-outlook/" target="_blank"> <span>sham</span></a><span>
by the U.S. government and Western media. Some sectors of the
Venezuelan opposition refused to accept the result, and in January 2019,
Guaidó, a theretofore little-known politician,</span><a href="https://fair.org/home/resistance-media-side-with-trump-to-promote-coup-in-venezuela/" target="_blank"> <span>declared</span></a><span>
himself president, despite never having stood for the position.
Throughout 2019, he called on the military to rebel and overthrow
Maduro. Despite being supported financially and politically by the U.S.
government, each coup attempt failed, and left him in a weaker position
than before. His last coup attempt in November went</span><a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/juan-guidos-latest-coup-attempt-venezuela-ends-was-a-massive-flop/262870/"> <span>so poorly</span></a><span>
that few inside the country even noticed. Nevertheless, the Trump
administration has continued to hold him up as the legitimate president
of the country, even as his approval ratings dip below</span><a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/article238040219.html" target="_blank"> <span>10 percent</span></a><span>.
While the United States and dozens of its allies recognize him, the
United Nations and three-quarters of the world’s countries continue to
acknowledge Maduro’s legitimacy. Guaidó’s mentor Leopoldo Lopez</span><a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/media-paints-anger-against-juan-guaido-as-hometown-heros-welcome/264875/"> <span>told</span></a><span> journalists that if they successfully capture power, they will call on the United States to formally govern the country.</span></p>
<p><span>The principal motive behind the U.S. government’s opposition to
Venezuela is that it has consistently voted for socialist candidates
since the days of Hugo Chavez (in office 1999-2013). Chavez</span><a href="http://dlib.scu.ac.ir/bitstream/Hannan/561267/1/9781138489233.pdf" target="_blank"> <span>revolutionized</span></a><span>
the country, reducing poverty by half and extreme poverty by
three-quarters, creating a nationalized healthcare system, ridding the
country of illiteracy and drastically improving economic inequality and
the standard of living. Since 2015 the United States has been in an
official national emergency over the supposed imminent threat Venezuela
represents, imposing rounds of increasingly tough sanctions that have
helped wreck the once-booming economy. The sanctions,</span><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/venezuela-us-sanctions-united-nations-oil-pdvsa-a8748201.html" target="_blank"> <span>declared</span></a><span>
a “crime against humanity” by an American U.N. Special Rapporteur who
visited the country, are estimated to have killed at least</span><a href="https://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/venezuela-sanctions-2019-04.pdf" target="_blank"> <span>40,000 people</span></a><span> between 2018 and 2019 alone. The U.N. has</span><a href="http://undocs.org/A/HRC/37/L.34" target="_blank"> <span>called</span></a><span> on all member states to break them.</span></p>
<p><span>The punitive nature of the sanctions matches the treatment of the Embassy Protection Collective. Pine told </span><i><span>MintPress</span></i><span>:</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span>We were prosecuted because the Trump administration
wants to set an example to terrify others who might consider putting
their bodies on the line to protest U.S.-led coups, counterinsurgency
programs, unilateral coercive measures, and other imperialist wars and
policies, and to stand in solidarity with peoples and nations wishing to
forge their own path without U.S. interference around the world.”</span></p></blockquote>
<p>Feature photo | Left to right, David Paul, Margaret Flowers, Adrienne
Pine and Kevin Zeese pose in front of a D.C. court house before
deliberations began on Feb. 14, 2020. Photo | Embassy Protection
Collective</p>
<p><em><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/AlanRMacLeod" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Alan MacLeod</a></strong> is a Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Bad-News-from-Venezuela-Twenty-years-of-fake-news-and-misreporting/Macleod/p/book/9781138489233" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting</a> and <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Propaganda-in-the-Information-Age-Still-Manufacturing-Consent-1st-Edition/MacLeod/p/book/9781138366404?fbclid=IwAR2xQQWJd98C25wapG4ynmlEnGvL5wxG_mp5RwpBwtwPDxInjNZ1Oo7KD-E" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent</a>. He has also contributed to <a href="https://fair.org/author/alan-macleod/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/alan-macleod" rel="noopener" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>, <a href="https://www.salon.com/writer/alan-macleod" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Salon</a>, <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/author/alan-macleod/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">The Grayzone</a>, <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/author/alan-macleod" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Jacobin Magazine</a>, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/author/alan-macleod" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a> the <a href="https://ahtribune.com/author.html?id=1088" rel="noopener" target="_blank">American Herald Tribune</a> and <a href="https://www.thecanary.co/author/alan-macleod/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">The Canary</a>.</em></p>
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