The Embassy of Caracas in Washington, the other scenario of the Venezuelan crisis

Against the Chavez militants who took the diplomatic headquarters, a dozen exiles spontaneously began a camp outside the building with banners with the face of Nicolás Maduro and the legend “usurper”

The diplomatic headquarters of Venezuela in Washington is closed with padlock, from the fourth floor hang placards placed by activists favorable to the Chavez regime that say “No to the coup”, but on the sidewalk there are banners with the figure of Nicolás Maduro with a sign that says “usurper”.

For weeks, the crossroads that Venezuela faces between the Maduro dictatorship – supported by Russia and China – and opposition leader Juan Guaidó, supported by the United States and more than 50 countries, also moved the conflict to the diplomatic headquarters in Washington.

A group of American activists who grouped in the Embassy Protection Collective has been living for weeks at headquarters, with the consent of the regime.

The activists’ purpose is to prevent the entry of Guaidó’s delegates and to guard the premises after the departure of the last government diplomats on April 24, after both countries broke relations.

Without eleectricity

On Wednesday a team of the PEPCO company cut the electricity of the place, leaving in the light of the candle activists installed inside.

For Carlos Vecchio, the representative of Guaidó in the United States, recognized by Washington as ambassador, this is to give the “invaders” of his embassy “a little of the experience of living in Venezuela”, in reference to the blackouts that affect the country.

Vecchio affirmed Saturday that since May 1 he gave his consent to the US authorities to “recover” the embassy.

“I have already signed all the necessary documents for that (…) It is in the hands of the State Department and the Secret Service,” he said in a statement.

Since the failed uprising of a group of soldiers against Maduro last week, there were spontaneous protests by Venezuelans who want to get activists out of the diplomatic headquarters.

Now, the sidewalk in front of the diplomatic headquarters located in the elegant neighborhood of Georgetown looks like a camp, with four awnings that protect the Venezuelans who seek to enter from the sun.

They have a generator, food and coffee to hang out while preventing activists from entering the building with food.

The Venezuelan anthem sounds several times a day, water bottles accumulate, there are wet towels and even clothes hanging.

Some set up sleeping tents and also planted crosses to remember the dead in the wave of protests against the government in 2014.

Caracas demands to protect the building

The chancellor chavista, Jorge Arreaza, demanded to the Department of State of the United States that fulfills “with its obligation like signatarios of the Convention of Vienna on Diplomatic Relations” and protects the building, as and its government does the own thing with its facilities in Caracas .

In its article 22, the Vienna Convention establishes that “the premises of the mission are inviolable” and stipulates that “agents of the receiving State may not enter them without the consent of the head of the mission”.

But the State Department said that “the Venezuelan government, led by interim president Juan Gauido, has legal authority over the embassy in Washington.”

“Any unauthorized person on the property is an intruder,” he warned.

For Fernando Cutz, former White House advisor and current expert at The Cohen Group, “the reason for not involving the police is to try to resolve this in a peaceful way.”

“The strategy is to let things calm down a bit and then more people want to go to their homes (…) with each person leaving, it becomes easier to resolve the situation in a more appropriate and peaceful way,” he explained. the AFP.

With Infobae information.