UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th April, 2019) Caracas welcomes US activists' attempts to prevent the Venezuelan embassy in Washington from being taken over by opposition leader Juan Guaido's representatives, Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Arreaza said during a press briefing.
For the last couple of weeks, with the permission of the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, the Embassy Protection Collective activist group has been living in the embassy to prevent Guaido representatives from taking it over. The activists have been holding various events like lectures and speeches inside.
"[Social groups] have proposed themselves for legal actions to protect the Venezuelan properties, they are assisting in this regard, and their assistance is very much welcomed," Arreaza said on Thursday.
Arreaza said that the US decision to expel Venezuelan diplomats constitutes a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, adding that his country should protect its diplomatic property.
The so-called deadline set by Washington for Venezuelan diplomats to leave the United States expired on April 24.
Washington intensified sanctions against Venezuela after the US-backed Guaido illegally declared himself interim president in January. UN special rapporteurs and human rights lawyers have argued that the US sanctions violate international law and may constitute crimes against humanity.
Some 40,000 Venezuelans have died in less than two years as a result of illegal US sanctions, a study co-authored by world-renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs revealed on Thursday.
Maduro has accused the United States of trying to orchestrate a coup in order to install Guaido as a US puppet. Russia, Bolivia, China, Cuba, Turkey and a number of other countries have voiced their support for Maduro as the only legitimate president of Venezuela.
