Embassy of Venezuela in Washington, D.C. United States (Wikipedia)
By Gary Raynaldo – DIPLOMATIC TIMES
The Venezuela embassy in Washington DC has shuttered operations after the ouster of opposition leader Juan Guaido, according to a press release to the media. “We inform the Venezuelan community in the United States, and the public in general, that the Venezuelan Embassy in the United States and all its officials formally ceased functions on Thursday, January 5, 2023,” the press release said. In Venezuela’s 2018 election, incumbent Nicolás Maduro was declared re-elected as President for a second six-year term. In 2019 after the opposition-controlled National Assembly rejected the 2018 presidential election results, it established an “interim government” led by Guaido. His associates then seized control of the Venezuelan embassy in 2019. The DC embassy was headed by Carlos Vecchio, who served as Guaidó’s ambassador to the US and as a leader of the opposition party Voluntad Popular. Vecchio took to Twitter to characterize the embassy closure as a “political, economic and moral mistake” of the opposition, adding , “Maduro is the only one who benefits from this decision.”
Four years after the opposition appointed Guaidó interim president, Maduro remains firmly in power. So it seems the opposition lost hope in Guaidó and moved to dissolve the so-called interim government
The DC embassy seizure in 2019 by opposition triggered a weeks-long confrontation by activists supporting the Maduro government. The activist group, which calls themselves the Code Pink, began occupying the embassy on April 14, 2019. They said they were living there in the embassy in order to “protect” it from takeover by representatives of “interim president” Guaidó, who they contended was then U.S. President Trump’s puppet mounting a coup against the Maduro government. The takeover by the pro-Maduro activists garnered the support of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who stopped by to deliver bags of food and supplies to the anti-war activists holed up in the Venezuelan embassy.
(Photo by Gary Raynaldo / © Diplomatic Times ) Pro-Maduro activists took over and occupied the Venezuela Embassy located on 30th Street N.W. in the tony Georgetown section of Washington D.C. April 14, 2019.
Photo by Gary Raynaldo / © Diplomatic Times / Supporters of interim president Juan Guaidó in front of Venezuela Embassy located on 30th Street N.W. in D.C. May 9, 2022
Police Arrest And Forcibly Remove Pro-Maduro Activists From Venezuela Embassy in DC
Photo by Gary Raynaldo / ©Diplomatic Times / Police outside Venezuela Embassy in Washington D.C. before the remaining activists (in the windows) were arrested and evicted from the diplomatic compound after weeks of occupying the building to protest the “U.S. backed-coup” against President Nicolas Maduro May 15, 2019.
Finally, after a month of an intense standoff, police made their move on May 15, 2019, arresting and evicting the four remaining activists living inside the diplomatic compound in the tony Georgetown section of D.C. Many observers were of the opinion that after Jackson’s dramatic feeding of the activists and his vow to return to deliver more food and supplies, prompted the supporters of Guaidó to pressure the U.S., which recognized Guaidó as the “legitimate” president of Venezuela, to move into action quickly and evict them.
