Venezuelan Ambassador Samual Moncada and Tighe Berry of CodePink held a Press Conference at the United Nations on May 16, 2019
The ambassador of Venezuela to the United Nations ( UN ), Samuel Moncada, denounced on Wednesday from the headquarters of the agency in New York, United States ( USA ), the continuing violation of the Vienna Convention governing diplomatic relations in the framework of the siege to the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, which happens with the consent of US authorities. “The attitude of the USA is unusual. They refuse to comply with the Convention that requires the protection of diplomatic premises even in situations of war (…) we are not at war and we do not want a war. Let’s go to the agreement, do not violate international law,” Moncada urged during a joint press conference with activist Tighe Berry, a member of the anti-war movement Code Pink .
The Venezuelan representative reiterated the call to dialogue to the US side and warned that the actions violating international law on the diplomatic headquarters of the South American country “can set a serious precedent where any embassy in the world may be in danger. There is a State Department and its objective should be diplomacy, not war,” he added.
Also, Moncada indicated that if the situation with the embassy building can not be resolved within the framework of Article 45 of the Vienna Convention, which establishes the tutelage of third States to settle the conflict, the government of Venezuela could take the matter to the General Assembly of the UN and the International Court of Justice (CIJ).
For his part, activist Tighe Berry explained to the international media that the Embassy Protection Collective has mobilized for peace in Venezuela:
“We try to stop a US military intervention that would cause many deaths (…) the American people do not want war either. We have resisted in solidarity with the Venezuelan people,” he said.
Berry said that Washington Police and Secret Service forces have openly allowed violent groups to act against the embassy’s defenders, who have maintained a peaceful attitude despite the provocations.
“From our collective we have not exercised any violent action against the Venezuelan opposition (…) instead we have had women and elderly people beaten,” he said, while saying that his lawyers are preparing several lawsuits against public officials that did nothing to prevent these aggressions.
Since mid-April, US activists have peacefully occupied the Venezuelan embassy in Washington before the threat of usurpation by Carlos Vecchio, “representative” of the opposition Juan Guaidó. Last Monday the local police illegally broke into the headquarters to deliver an eviction document. The police have maintained a passive attitude in the face of the violent actions of Venezuelan oppositors who besiege the building and prevent the entry of food and supplies. Recently the electric power and the water service were cut from the outside as a new measure of pressure against the activists.
They try to kill the people of Venezuela with economic deprivation
Moncada also denounced the United States for “trying to kill the people of Venezuela with economic deprivation.” He described the representatives of Donald Trump’s government as psychopaths who, through economic extortion, deprive Venezuelans of their food and medicine. In turn, he added that by means of the financial blow on a world scale, they steal the resources of the country, appropriating the assets of the nation as is the case of Citgo.
The Ambassador said that the government of the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, has always opted for dialogue with the opposition throughout 20 years of democracy.
“We do not want to exterminate the opposition, we have for 20 years resisted destabilizing attacks”.
He added that “we are a perfect case of the US, which has been supporting the group of destabilizers in Venezuela for 20 years,” and warned that “what we will never allow is for a foreign country to intervene in Venezuela.”
Moncada said that unlike the representatives of the opposition who run to hide in the embassies to avoid their responsibility to justice for their participation in the attempted coup last April 30, revolutionary officials are not sold to the empire.
“We are not Guaidó. We are patriots, we are Venezuelans and we do not cry to obtain a visa,” he said.