WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st May, 2019) US law enforcement officials separated supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido from supporters of President Nicolas Maduro gathered outside the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington just as clashes erupted in Caracas and the Trump administration applied more pressure seeking regime change.
Some 50 Guaido supporters rallied in front of the Venezuelan embassy, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Tuesday, which has been used for the past two weeks by pro-Maduro activists who are members of the Embassy Protection Collective.
The goal of the activists is to prevent Guaido - the self-proclaimed interim president of Venezuela - and his so-called government from taking possession of the embassy.
The tensions rose in Washington in other ways, as Trump administration officials called on Venezuelan security and justice officials to betray Maduro and join the opposition. Meanwhile, in Caracas, Guaido earlier in the day sparked a violent uprising and tried another coup attempt, which failed.
Kei Pritsker, an Embassy Protection Collective member, told Sputnik the protests are part of the attempted coup in Venezuela that has been orchestrated by a small number of military defectors allied to Guaido.
Earlier on Tuesday, Guaido called on Venezuelans throughout the world and the country's military to mobilize and overthrow the Maduro government.
Pritsker said the US State Department is fully behind the attempted coup.
The pro-Guaido protesters behaved aggressively at the embassy's front door, but one of them attempted to enter the diplomatic facility from the rear entrance sometime around noon, Pritzker explained.
The attempt prompted an aggressive response by the US Secret Service who then lined the streets and closed off entry on 30th Street on which the embassy is located, and set up a "nest" on the top of a nearby building, Pritzker said.
The Secret Service tried to intimidate the embassy's defenders by crowding them, taking photographs of their faces and the inside spaces of the embassy through the windows, Pritzker said, adding that the embassy defenders were very disciplined and tried to de-escalate the situation at all times.
Pritzker underscored that the Embassy Protection Collective members are present in the diplomatic facility legally and in line with Washington, DC laws and the Vienna Convention, which recognizes the embassy as property of Venezuela's elected government of which they are guests.
The two groups exchanged chants and songs continually throughout the day, but by mid to late afternoon the number of Guaido's supporters began to decrease, the Sputnik correspondent reported.
Pritzker said another protest by pro-Guaido supporters is expected on Wednesday.
The Embassy Protection Collective activist group has been living inside the Venezuelan Embassy in the United States for the last couple of weeks, as the deadline set by Washington for Venezuelan diplomats to leave the United States expired on April 24.
Maduro has accused the United States of trying to orchestrate a coup in order to install opposition leader Guaido as a US puppet so Washington can take control of Venezuela's oil resources. According to UN Special Rapporteur Idriss Jazairy, US sanctions have exacerbated the country's acute economic crisis and can lead to starvation and medical shortages.
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 last week. New sanctions designed to shut down Venezuela's oil trade that too effect Sunday are expected to kill significantly more people, the economists said.
