Above photo: By Adrienne Pine
Come to Washington, DC starting on Saturday, May 4 at 1:00 pm to set up a permanent presence of love and resistance in solidarity with the Embassy Protectors who are inside the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, DC. We will set up a pop-up tent across the street from the front of the embassy at 1099 30th St., NW.
We are asking our allies to surround the embassy with love and resistance to quell the hatred and violence coming from occupying right-wing extremists. Organize a few friends, your group or a bunch of groups and hold a solidarity rally outside the embassy. The best location is 30th Street, across from the entrance to the embassy.
Bring supplies for the protectors such as coffee, food, hygiene and cleaning products, socks and T shirts. The right-wing extremists are preventing supplies from getting into the embassy. Contact info@popularresistance.org if you are bringing supplies or CODEPINK or the ANSWER Coalition.
SIGN ON TO THE DECLARATION: Sign as an individual or organization in support of the Venezuelan’s right to determine their own government and control their embassies. CLICK HERE TO SIGN.
We are asking everyone to contact your member of Congress to demand that they:
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Respect the Vienna Convention of 1961 and protect the integrity of the embassy.
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Obey DC law by not evicting us from the premises without due process.
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Recognize that the elected and legitimate government of Venezuela is the administration of Nicolas Maduro as have the United Nations and over 140 countries.
The Embassy Protection Collective, a group of organizations and individuals, is residing and working in the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, DC at the invitation of the elected Venezuelan government as an interim protectorate. We have taken on the responsibility for maintaining, cleaning, and caring for the building until a permanent protectorate for the embassy, in the form of a mutual formal agreement to find third-party host countries to safeguard the Venezuelan and U.S. embassies in Washington and Caracas, respectively is established. We have received innumerable messages of support and love from around the world. We are safe in the building, and our will is strong.
The right-wing group occupying the exterior of the building is violently harassing and attacking individuals who are outside protesting U.S. intervention. They are also blocking entrances to the building, and have caused extensive damage to the building’s exterior—including destroying security cameras, drilling into doors and hitting the garage door with a sledgehammer.
Many of the members of this group of Pan-American Trump supporters outside the building are white supremacists, shouting the most vulgar racist, misogynistic and homophobic insults and death threats imaginable at Embassy Protectors and our supporters. Numerous videotaped examples of this behavior have been published online.
The Secret Service has witnessed the violence of this right wing hate group against Embassy Protectors and our supporters and against the Embassy building, and has done nothing to discourage them. While the right-wing protestors have perpetrated numerous acts of violence against us, we have maintained a consistently disciplined and peaceful presence. Nonetheless, in all but one particularly egregious case of battery, the Secret Service has only detained individuals protesting U.S. intervention in Venezuela. Examples of charges leveled against us include “Tossing Missiles”—the offense listed on Ariel Gold’s arrest warrant for trying to throw lettuce to Embassy Protectors, as the right-wing group has been blocking people and supplies from coming in the building.
Allowing unelected, failed Venezuelan coup mongers—who are taking their orders from war criminal and genocide abettor Elliott Abrams and others in the Trump administration—to take the embassy would be an escalation of international aggression. It would also be a violation of Article 22 of the 1961 Vienna Conventions, on Diplomatic Relations, which is explicit that foreign embassies should be protected by the host government and their space should not be violated even when countries are at war or have severed diplomatic relations. Specifically, international law requires:
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The premises of the mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving State may not enter them, except with the consent of the head of the mission.
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The receiving State is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the mission or impairment of its dignity.
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The premises of the mission, their furnishings and other property thereon and the means of transport of the mission shall be immune from search, requisition, attachment or execution.
Here is a list of organizations that have signed onto the Embassy Protection Collective Declaration:
ANSWER Coalition
CODEPINK
Popular Resistance
Chicago ALBA Solidarity
Alliance for Global Justice
Tortilla con Sal Collective
MARCH ON THE PENTAGON
Echoes of Silence Environmental and Latin America Solidarity Collective
Veterans For Peace
Casa Baltimore/Limay
Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES)
International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity
U.S. Peace Council
Green Party of Monmouth County NJ
CEO Pipe Organs/Golden Ponds Farm
National Coalition to Protect Student Privacy
Party of Communists USA
Movement 4 Peoples’ Democracy
Solidarity with Novorossiya & Antifascists in Ukraine
Orinoco Tribune
U. S. Friends of the Soviet People
New Progressive Alliance
RiveraSun.com
Knowdrones.com
US PEACE COUNCIL
DC Venezuela Action Network
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Alliance for Global Justice
International Action Center
No War On Venezuela Campaign
International Action Center
Canadian Peace Congress
National Lawyers Guild International Committee
Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press
Labor Community Alliance of South Florida
Environmentalists Against War
NH Veterans for Peace
The Campaign to End US and Canada Sanctions against Venezuela
International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity
Coop Anti-War Cafe Berlin
Berliner Alliance “Hands off Venezuela”
Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality
Trade Justice Alliance Alliance
National Network on Cuba (NNOC),.
Rooms for PEACE
Automated Storage & Retrieval Systems
Veterans For Peace Chapter 180 – Fresno
The Literacy Project
COASAP
No War On Venezuela Campaign
Chicago Anti-War Coalition
Veterans For Peace, Chapter 23, Rochester, NY
Community Organizing Center
Veterans For Peace Chap 122
White Rabbit Grove RDNA
Peace and Freedom Party
World Union of Freethinkers
Axis of Logic www.axisoflogic.com
Veterans for Peace Chapter 23, Rochester, NY
Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign
Refuge Ministries of Tampa Bay/International
Revolutionary Road radio show
ECOTERRA International
Greater Brunswick PeaceWorks
Veterans For Peace
Youth Against War and Racism
Victor Jara Riksförbundet-Sverige
Witness for Peace Southwest
Veterans For Peace – NYC Chapter 034
International Peace Research Association
San Diego County Central Committee of the Peace and Freedom Party of California
Veterans For Peace Ch 27
Carlos Baliño Institute
Central America Solidarity Coalition.
National Network on Cuba
Mütter gegen den Krieg Berlin-Brandenburg
The Korean American National Coordinating Council
Kingdom of Heaven
Minnesota Peace Action Coalition
Corruption Watch USA
Fox Valley Citizens for Peace & Justice
Peoples Power Assembly
Struggle La Lucha
Socialist Unity Party
Earth Evolution
New Progressive Alliance
phogg phoundation/y.e.s.
United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)
Raging Grannies
Chico 350
Scientists4mekong
Maine WTR Resource Center
Comité Santrichlibre
Centro de investigación y estudio de fronteras
Centro de investigación y Estudios de Fronteras
La Junta (Perú)
Code Black
AlbanyPark, North Park, Mayfair Neighbors for Peace and Justice (Chicago)
March19th Anti-War Coalition (Chicago)
Friends of Latin America
Colectivo Trinchera Revolucionaria
Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice Venezuela Solidarity Campaign – Vancouver, CA
Mobilization Against War and Occupation (MAWO) – Vancouver, Canada
Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba (VCSC)
Friends of Cuba Against the US Blockade – Vancouver, Canada
Keeton Corporation
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
SOARPAL
Asociación Paz Climática
Traprock Center for Peace and Justice
Women Against Military Madness
Albuquerque Chapter 63, Veterans For Peace
Socialist Revolution (IMT)
Vrede met Venezuela
Task Force on the Americas
Marcha Patriotica Capítulo California
Maine Green Independent Party
National Council of Gray Panthers Networks
Ecumenical Peace Institute/Clergy & Laity Concerned
Veterans For Peace
CovertAction Magazine
Fundación Familia y Ambiente FUNDAFAM
Hilton Head for Peace
Veterans For Peace Chapter 72
Red Ecológica de Chile
Squawk Radio
Peace Action Committee of the Green Party of the United States
We Act Radio
La Cuadra Patriota
Ford Law AZ
Show Up! America
Western Mass. Venezuela Solidarity Coalition
First Nations Enforcement Agency
Circle of Compassion
Arise For Social Justice
Central America Solidarity Coalition and the Racine Coalition for Peace and Justice.
Global Coalition for Peace
The WomXn’s Freedom Collective Party
Comité de Base FMLN, Adelaide, Australia.
Pittsburgh Anti-Imperialist League
Red de Intelectuales, Artistas y Movimientos Sociales en Defensa de la Humanidad REDH
Earth/Animal Liberation Front
Izquierda Unida Venezuela
People’s Liberation Party
Center Student Struggle for National Liberation
The WomXn’s Freedom Collective Party
PEMBEBASAN (PUSAT PERJUANGAN MAHASISWA UNTUK PEMBEBASAN NASIONAL)
St. Pete for Peace
Center for Student Struggle for the National Liberation of Collectives in Ternate City, North
Maluku
Green Party of Alameda County
Australia-Venezuela Solidatity Network
PEMBEBASAN
S.P.A.N (Stop Police AbuseNow)
Serikat Kobelco Indonesia
Front Mahasiswa Demokratik (FMD)
SPRI
CPGB-ML
Perserikatan Sosialis (Indonesia)
Sindicales de la Lucha Popular en Indonesia/Serikat Perjuangan Rakyat Indonesia
Elders Rising
Kreisverband DIE LINKE Oberhausen, Paroli e.V.
Green Party of Allegheny County
Embassy Protection Collective
Asociación Americana de Juristas
Haiti Liberté Newspaper
Green Party Of Bay County
MOV. Ecuatoriano Alfarista Bolivariano MEAB
Gammon Law Office, PLLC
Nicaragua Center for Community Action
U&Us Padova (Italy)
Peace Action WI
Beyond War and Militarism, Syracuse, NY