As the Government of Venezuela signed an agreement with the Government of Turkey to be its Protecting Power for its diplomatic facilities in the United States and was awaiting approval from Washington, on May 24, the U.S. Department of State allowed the unelected Trump designated Juan Guaido opposition to the elected Government of Venezuela to take possession of the Venezuelan Embassy building in Washington, D.C in violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
The Embassy building had been occupied at the request of the elected Government of Venezuela for 36 days by the Civilian Protection Collective which was organized by CODEPINK: Women for Peace, ANSWER and Popular Resistance. Over 50 members of the collective spent varying periods of time inside the building. In the first weeks, educational events were held in the building.
The Trump administration had allowed the Guaido faction to take over two Venezuelan military buildings and the Ambassador's residence in Washington and the Venezuelan consulate in New York City in March 2019.
1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, Article 22 states:
1. The premises of the mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving State (in this case the U.S.) may not enter them, except with the consent of the head of the mission.
2. 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.
3. 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 or execution.
On May 13, the Washington, D.C Metropolitan Police read a statement on their police car loudspeaker system that they pretended was an official law enforcement notification of trespass. Remarkably they later handed copies of what they read to persons in the crowds outside the Embassy.
The document was undated, unsigned and had no letterhead or seal to determine who was the originating authority.
The document read:
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