Federal charges against four Venezuelan Embassy protectors dropped!
https://socialistaction.org/2020/06/03/federal-charges-against-four-venezuelan-embassy-protectors-dropped/
June 3, 2020
Statement by the four Embassy Protectors, Washington, D.C., June 3, 2020
The federal charge of “interfering with certain protective functions”
levied against four members of the Embassy Protection Collective was
formally dropped today in a hearing before Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell
in US District Court. The four defendants are Adrienne Pine, David Paul,
Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers. They were arrested on May 16, 2019
when federal police raided the Venezuelan Embassy in violation of the
Vienna Convention, which requires host countries to protect embassies
and restricts them from entering without permission from the sovereign
government.
Judge Howell sentenced the Embassy Protective Collective to no jail
time. After a jury refused to convict them in early February, resulting
in a mistrial, the prosecutors offered to drop the federal charge and
substitute one of most minor local misdemeanor charges in the D.C. Code,
incommoding, that is, basically causing a disturbance. The protectors
faced a potential year in jail and $100,000 fine each. They are now free
on six months of probation.
The four protectors were in the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, D.C.
for over a month last spring with the permission of the elected,
constitutional government of Venezuela, which is recognized by the
United Nations and over 130 countries. The United States was attempting
to overthrow the democratically elected Venezuelan government. When that
failed, it took the unprecedented step of recognizing the then-president
of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, as president and handing
Venezuela’s assets in the United States over to him. All of this
violates international law.
The Embassy Protection Collective formed in April 2019 to stop the US
government from illegally giving Venezuela’s main embassy in the United
States to Guaidó’s supporters. Guaidó’s political party has little
support within Venezuela and was behind violent protests in 2014 and
2017 that killed over 140 Venezuelans. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge
Arreaza and other members of the elected government, including President
Maduro, expressed their full support for the U.S. peace activists. Many
social movements within Venezuela also expressed solidarity with the
protectors.
The protectors remained inside the embassy without incident until April
30 when the United States once again attempted and failed to execute a
coup. On that day, regime change actors working with the U.S. State
Department and Juan Guaidó’s “ambassador,” Carlos Vecchio, placed the
embassy under siege, assaulting protectors, damaging and breaking into
the embassy and preventing food and supplies from being delivered. Over
the following 16 days, the number of protectors inside dwindled from
roughly 80 people to four to conserve food, especially after power and
water were illegally cut off around May 9. The four were the last
protectors inside when the U.S. government made the decision to conduct
a SWAT-style raid.
Today’s sentence marks yet another victory in the effort to protect the
Venezuelan Embassy. The Embassy Protection Collective broke through the
blockade and got supplies to the people inside; the people inside
prevented the coup supporters from staying in the embassy. The embassy
was not turned over to Guaidó. It remains empty today. The federal
charges against the four have been dropped.
The United States continues to threaten the Venezuelan people, using
tactics illegal under international law. In recent months, the economic
war has escalated. The President and other members of the Venezuelan
government are facing bogus drug trafficking charges by the U.S.
Department of Justice. The Drug Enforcement Agency has falsely labeled
Venezuela a minor transshipment point for drugs. Meanwhile, major drug
trafficking states allied with the United States, Colombia and Honduras,
are ignored with impunity. The U.S. has placed a bounty on Venezuelan
officials. The U.S. Navy is surrounding Venezuela’s coastal region while
U.S. soldiers have been sent from Colombia to the Venezuelan border.
U.S.-backed mercenaries have tried to enter Venezuela to kidnap or
assassinate the President. None of this has deterred the Venezuelan
people from defending their sovereignty and their Bolivarian
revolutionary process.
The Embassy Protection Collective is planning to host a webinar
featuring social movement leaders from Venezuela in an effort to build
international solidarity and opposition to U.S. imperialism. The
protectors share a vision with Venezuelans and many people around the
world of a future based on peace between countries, international
cooperation and respect for international law. The U.S. activists hope
their government will end its sanctions, blockade and aggression toward
Venezuela and all countries being targeted and join in the spirit of
international cooperation that prevails in this time of a global
pandemic, recession and climate crisis.
The four embassy protectors thank the many people in the U.S., Venezuela
and around the world who supported them through the last year. They
thank their defense committee for building that support and raising
funds to pay legal fees. They thank their excellent legal team. And they
affirm their solidarity with all who are resisting injustice and state
violence both domestically and abroad.
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--
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Carl Sagan
“Every aspect of Nature reveals a deep mystery and touches our sense of wonder
and awe. Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to
nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will
prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront
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Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will
penetrate its deepest mysteries.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos
