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Everything was planned. It was necessary to act quickly and surprisingly to disconcert the security forces surrounding the building of this charming neighborhood in the heart of Washington. At one point in the afternoon, through one of the windows of Embbady of Venezuela In this capital, a rope unexpectedly falls on the way. In a fast movement, a protester in the street attaches a bag of food to him and the rope lifts. There is a party and a relief at the top of the four-storey building because this ration will allow a little more support to those who occupy the diplomatic seat since the beginning of the month. Security forces react and there are detainees. Others in the street breathe the fury in front of the episode.
They do not let the food go up. The building has been cut since Wednesday and the tension is rising in Georgetown, an elegant Washington neighborhood that does not usually see tents in the streets, awnings and hundreds of people with streamers and music at full volume. Those at the embbady support the regime of Nicolás Maduro and they say that they are there to prevent the United States from going to war in Venezuela.
Those on the outside want the diplomatic headquarters to be handed over to the acting president's representatives Juan Guaidówhich is recognized by more than 50 countries.
An opposition activist is demonstrating against Nicolás Maduro's government in front of the Venezuelan Embbady in the United States. / AFP
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Earlier this month, activists from the Code Pink organization and other US groups who oppose the intervention in Venezuela they occupied the building peacefullyThey closed the doors with chains and did not let in the diplomatic authorities of Guaidó, who were going to seize the siege with the ambbadador named Carlos Vecchio at the head.
The activists say that they are invited by the Maduro government and that their mission is to oppose any military intervention. But the reaction did not wait. Shortly after the occupation, Venezuelans from the United States who support Guaidó learned of the existence of the occupation and went to the building to ask the "illegal intruders" to go.
The the hostility is palpable in the environment. Venezuelans have settled in tents on the sidewalks and many are sleeping there. There are pizza boxes, bottles of mineral water and stands where people can give food and medicine. All this surrounded by fences, patrol cars, police and secret service agents who control all movements. Neighbors look incredulous at an unexpected landscape in this area of typical English brick houses costing several million dollars.
The chaivsta group "collective protection of the Embbady" hangs banners on the facade of the Venezuelan Embbady in Washington. / EFE
At the height of the embbady occupation, about 50 people were inside, sleeping on couches or on the floor, sharing culinary tasks and participating in artistic and musical activities. But now only about 15 people stay in the building. Without electricity, you can now see them reading near the windows. Some smile from above, fists raised, promising resistance.
"When the opposition arrived in the early days of May, it was very violent, I was attacked day by day by very great men, they beat us, they insulted us," he said. Clarin Medea Benjamín, co-founder of Code Pink, who is on the opposite sidewalk with several members of her organization, separated by barriers of Guaidó supporters, who surround the embbady. "Now they have calmed down a bit and sometimes we are talking to them, and many of us have been attacked and arrested by the police," he said.
Andrea Anwright, a retired colonel and diplomat who wears a t-shirt of US veterans, says she supports the takeover because "Trump should not choose who should be the president of Venezuela. Venezuela has an elected president, which the United States does not want, but it is not a sufficient reason to say that we have to name another person we love more Venezuela is a sovereign state. "
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the Code Pink organization, gives instructions to activists outside the embbady. / The New York Times
The anti-madurists reply: "We have made it impossible to prevent the entrance of food and water to the embbady or drugs. Two days ago, the secret services are came in and asked us to give in because someone needed corrective action.They are not kidnapped there, they can go out whenever they wish, "he says. Clarin Catherine Caminero, a woman from Caracas who has been camping for several days next to the embbady. "There is no Venezuelan inside, it is an extremist group against war and military invasions," he said.
Lisa Miró Casado is surrounded by banners that insure that Maduro is a dictator and who present pictures of malnourished children. "What existed here as a representation did not work for us because they did not even let us vote." We already have an ambbadador recognized by the US government and we are waiting for these people to leave and Carlos Vecchio to formally take possession. of the building. "
The Code Pink activists say they are in an "illegal situation" and are negotiating a neutral third country – possibly Switzerland – for the diplomatic seat. Nobody wants to give a millimeter to his position. Meanwhile, tension rises in this corner of Washington.
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