Above photo: Activists pose for a photo after an evening of Palestinian resistance music and presentation on the Black Alliance for Peace’s “Shut down AFRICOM” campaign by Pan African Community Action.
Embassy Protection Collective Urgent Call to Action:
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 30t St., NW. We are asking our allies to surround the embassy with love and resistance to quell the hatred and violence coming from occupying fascists. Bring supplies for the protectors such as coffee, food, hygiene and cleaning products, socks and T-shirts. Here is the Facebook Page.
We are asking everyone to contact your member of Congress to demand that they:
- Respect the Vienna Convention of 1961 and protect the integrity of the embassy.
- Obey DC law by not evicting us from the premises without due process.
- Recognize that the elected and legitimate government of Venezuela is the administration of Nicolas Maduro as have the United Nations and over 140 countries.
Background:
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 levelled 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 According to 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
We need more activists who care about the future of resistance in the world to join with us. Email [email protected] to let her know when you can come or just come on by. Onward to Peace!
Here is a list of organizations that have signed onto the Embassy Protection Collective Declaration:
ANSWER CoalitionCODEPINKPopular ResistanceChicago ALBA SolidarityAlliance for Global JusticeTortilla con Sal CollectiveMARCH ON THE PENTAGONEchoes of Silence Environmental and Latin America Solidarity CollectiveVeterans For PeaceCasa Baltimore/LimayInternational Committee for Peace, Justice and DignityU.S. Peace CouncilGreen Party of Monmouth County NJCEO Pipe Organs/Golden Ponds FarmNational Coalition to Protect Student PrivacyParty of Communists USAMovement 4 Peoples' DemocracySolidarity with Novorossiya & Antifascists in UkraineOrinoco TribuneS. Friends of the Soviet PeopleNew Progressive AllianceRiveraSun.comKnowdrones.comUS PEACE COUNCILDC Venezuela Action NetworkSamidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity NetworkAlliance for Global JusticeInternational Action CenterNo War On Venezuela CampaignInternational Action CenterCanadian Peace CongressNational Lawyers Guild International CommitteeWomen's Institute for Freedom of the PressLabor Community Alliance of South FloridaEnvironmentalists Against WarNH Veterans for PeaceThe Campaign to End US and Canada Sanctions against VenezuelaInternational Committee for Peace, Justice and DignityCoop Anti-War Cafe BerlinBerliner Alliance "Hands off Venezuela"Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & EqualityTrade Justice Alliance AllianceNational Network on Cuba (NNOC),.Rooms for PEACEAutomated Storage & Retrieval SystemsVeterans For Peace Chapter 180 - FresnoThe Literacy ProjectCOASAPNo War On Venezuela CampaignChicago Anti-War CoalitionVeterans For Peace, Chapter 23, Rochester, NYCommunity Organizing CenterVeterans For Peace Chap 122White Rabbit Grove RDNAPeace and Freedom PartyWorld Union of FreethinkersAxis of Logic www.axisoflogic.comVeterans for Peace Chapter 23, Rochester, NYPoor People’s Economic Human Rights CampaignRefuge Ministries of Tampa Bay/InternationalRevolutionary Road radio showECOTERRA InternationalGreater Brunswick PeaceWorksVeterans For PeaceYouth Against War and RacismVictor Jara Riksförbundet-SverigeWitness for Peace SouthwestVeterans For Peace - NYC Chapter 034International Peace Research AssociationSan Diego County Central Committee of the Peace and Freedom Party of CaliforniaVeterans For Peace Ch 27Carlos Baliño InstituteCentral America Solidarity Coalition.National Network on CubaMütter gegen den Krieg Berlin-BrandenburgThe Korean American National Coordinating CouncilKingdom of HeavenMinnesota Peace Action CoalitionCorruption Watch USAFox Valley Citizens for Peace & JusticePeoples Power AssemblyStruggle La LuchaSocialist Unity PartyEarth EvolutionNew Progressive Alliancephogg phoundation/y.e.s. |
United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)Raging GranniesChico 350Scientists4mekongMaine WTR Resource CenterComité SantrichlibreCentro de investigación y estudio de fronterasCentro de investigación y Estudios de FronterasLa Junta (Perú)Code BlackAlbanyPark, North Park, Mayfair Neighbors for Peace and Justice (Chicago)March19th Anti-War Coalition (Chicago)Friends of Latin AmericaColectivo Trinchera RevolucionariaFire This Time Movement for Social Justice Venezuela Solidarity Campaign - Vancouver, CAMobilization Against War and Occupation (MAWO) - Vancouver, CanadaVancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba (VCSC)Friends of Cuba Against the US Blockade - Vancouver, CanadaKeeton CorporationAssociation of Roman Catholic Women PriestsSOARPALAsociación Paz ClimáticaTraprock Center for Peace and JusticeWomen Against Military MadnessAlbuquerque Chapter 63, Veterans For PeaceSocialist Revolution (IMT)Vrede met VenezuelaTask Force on the AmericasMarcha Patriotica Capítulo CaliforniaMaine Green Independent PartyNational Council of Gray Panthers NetworksEcumenical Peace Institute/Clergy & Laity ConcernedVeterans For PeaceCovertAction MagazineFundación Familia y Ambiente FUNDAFAMHilton Head for PeaceVeterans For Peace Chapter 72Red Ecológica de ChileSquawk RadioPeace Action Committee of the Green Party of the United StatesWe Act RadioLa Cuadra PatriotaFord Law AZShow Up! AmericaWestern Mass. Venezuela Solidarity CoalitionFirst Nations Enforcement AgencyCircle of CompassionArise For Social JusticeCentral America Solidarity Coalition and the Racine Coalition for Peace and Justice.Global Coalition for PeaceThe WomXn’s Freedom Collective PartyComité de Base FMLN, Adelaide, Australia.Pittsburgh Anti-Imperialist LeagueRed de Intelectuales, Artistas y Movimientos Sociales en Defensa de la Humanidad REDHEarth/Animal Liberation FrontIzquierda Unida VenezuelaPeople's Liberation PartyCenter Student Struggle for National LiberationThe WomXn’s Freedom Collective PartyPEMBEBASAN (PUSAT PERJUANGAN MAHASISWA UNTUK PEMBEBASAN NASIONAL)St. Pete for PeaceCenter for Student Struggle for the National Liberation of Collectives in Ternate City, NorthMalukuGreen Party of Alameda CountyAustralia-Venezuela Solidatity NetworkPEMBEBASANS.P.A.N (Stop Police AbuseNow)Serikat Kobelco IndonesiaFront Mahasiswa Demokratik (FMD)SPRICPGB-MLPerserikatan Sosialis (Indonesia)Sindicales de la Lucha Popular en Indonesia/Serikat Perjuangan Rakyat IndonesiaElders RisingKreisverband DIE LINKE Oberhausen, Paroli e.V.Green Party of Allegheny CountyEmbassy Protection CollectiveAsociación Americana de JuristasHaiti Liberté NewspaperGreen Party Of Bay CountyMOV. Ecuatoriano Alfarista Bolivariano MEABGammon Law Office, PLLCNicaragua Center for Community ActionU&Us Padova (Italy)Peace Action WIBeyond War and Militarism, Syracuse, NYCISPES |
