Credit: M. Saint  Gomez  / Diplomatic Times /  Supporters of  interim president Juan Guaidó demand that the pro-Maduro activists leave the Venezuela Embassy located on 30th Street N.W. in the tony Georgetown section of Washington D.C.  May 1 , 2019. 

By M. Saint Gomez    DIPLOMATIC TIMES

WASHINGTON D.C.  –   An activist group that supports embattled Venezuela President Nicholas Maduro has been protesting and living inside of the Venezuela Embassy in Washington D.C. for weeks. The group, which calls themselves the Code Pink, has been occupying the embassy since April 14.  They say they are living there in order to “protect”  the embassy from takeover by representatives of  “interim president” Juan Guaidó, who they contend is Trump’s puppet mounting a coup against the Maduro government. The U.S. State Department, which backs Guaidó and considers him as the legitimate president of Venezuela, ordered all pro-Maduro diplomats out of the embassy and to leave the country.  The activists say one of the embassy staff give them the keys to the building as he was leaving on April 14. Code Pink contends the diplomat gave them permission to occupy the embassy to prevent pro-Guaidó diplomats from moving in.  Code Pink also calls itself the Embassy Protection Collective. The action by the activists is unprecedented, as it is the first time Americans have taken over and occupied  a foreign embassy on U.S. soil.  Embassies are considered sovereign territory under Article 22 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, and any attempt by a host country to enter or to remove persons there without permission of the parent country is a violation of international law, according to legal scholars. 

Credit: M. Saint  Gomez  / Diplomatic Times /   Pro-Maduro activists hanged a banner “Eyes of Chavez” representing the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez’  “piercing eyes”   on the Latin American country’s embassy in Washington D.C. 

Credit: Codepink.org /   Pro-Maduro activists pose inside Venezuela Embassy in Washington D.C. 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.

Pro-Guaidó supporters vow to evict the  Code Pink activists who they say are illegally occupying their embassy. 

Credit: M. Saint  Gomez  / Diplomatic Times /  Supporters of opposition leader  Guaidó  rally outside Venezuela embassy May 1, 2019

“This is our embassy. The people inside are not even Venezuelans. They have never been to Venezuela. They are all white people who don’t care about the  Venezuelan people,”

-Pro-Guaidó supporter. 

Anti-Maduro protester says opposition leader Guaido is the duly-elected president of Venezuela

Supporters of opposition leader  Guaidó  rally outside Venezuela embassy May 1, 2019

Credit: M. Saint  Gomez  / Diplomatic Times /  Anti-Maduro supporters hang placard above Venezuelan flage declaring “This is our Embassy” 

Credit: M. Saint  Gomez  / Diplomatic Times /  Supporters of opposition leader Guaidó display Venezuela flag on steps of embassy May 1, 2019.

Credit: M. Saint  Gomez  / Diplomatic Times /  Supporters of opposition leader Guaidó  sit on steps of embassy May 1, 2019.

Credit: M. Saint  Gomez  / Diplomatic Times /  Supporters of opposition leader Guaidó  display Venezuela flag on steps of embassy May 1, 2019.