U.S. supporters of embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro were warned on Thursday to end a sit-in protest at the country's shuttered embassy in Washington.
The U.S. envoy for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, said the protesters who have camped out at the embassy for more than two weeks are breaking the law and will have to leave.
Abrams refused to discuss possible timing of when the activists could be arrested.
Signs hang on the chained front door to the shuttered Venezuelan Embassy, Thursday, April 25, 2019, in Washington. Activists have been staging a round-the-clock vigil inside the embassy, occupying it to prevent representatives of Juan Guiado, opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president, from taking over the building. (AP PhotoPatrick Semansky)
Metropolitan Police spokeswoman Alaina Gertz said the State Department and the Foreign Missions Branch of the Secret Service are handling the protest.
Maduro closed the embassy in January and recalled his country's diplomats after the U.S. recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president. The U.S. and about 50 other nations view Maduro's re-election last year as illegitimate.
Activists from the group Codepink accuse the U.S. of trying to orchestrate a coup in Venezuela and have camped out at the closed embassy since April 10.
CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin stands near a photograph of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro inside the Venezuelan Embassy, Thursday, April 25, 2019, in Washington, during a round-the-clock occupation of the building to prevent access to representatives of Juan Guiado, opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president of Venezuela. (AP PhotoPatrick Semansky)
Abrams said on Thursday following a speech at the Atlantic Council that the activists are "clearly breaking the law."
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Codepink, said she is one of a dozen people who have been sleeping inside the embassy and have been holding evening events.
"We feel this is part of an orchestrated coup that can lead to a civil war and can lead to tremendous violence," Benjamin said. "We want to say stop."
Protesters against Juan Guiado, opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president of Venezuela, chant outside the Venezuelan Embassy, Thursday, April 25, 2019, in Washington. Activists are occupying the embassy to prevent representatives of Guiado from taking over the building. (AP PhotoPatrick Semansky)
Benjamin said a Venezuelan diplomat loyal to Maduro had given her the keys to the embassy. She refused to identify the diplomat.
Abrams said that regardless of who handed the keys to Benjamin, they are trespassers because "there is a Venezuelan ambassador to the US, and he has told them to leave."
Carlos Vecchio, designated by Guaido as Venezuela's ambassador, refused to comment on Thursday morning.
In New York, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said on Thursday during a press conference at the United Nations that the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington is the property of the Venezuelan government and that these demonstrators are helping Venezuela keep its building.
"We have to protect that Venezuelan building," Arreaza said. "It would be crazy to take it over illegally right? Have we proposed to do that in the U.S. Embassy in Caracas? Never."
Arreaza added that if the U.S. ejects the protesters, "We would have to think how to reciprocate in that case. I hope it does not happen."
Arreaza also said that he hopes the U.S. decides to respect Venezuelan property so the demonstrators soon will be able to go home.
The United Nations recognizes Maduro as Venezuela's president. The only two multilateral organizations that have recognized Guaido as president are the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Development Bank.
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Associated Press writers Ashraf Khalil and Colleen Long in Washington, and Claudia Torrens in New York contributed to this report.
Follow Luis Alonso Lugo on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/luisalonsolugo
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.
Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said.
Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).
Ukraine is trying to root out corruption that has long dogged the country. A dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials lose their jobs.
That has caused embarrassment and unease as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.
In Ukraine's capital, doctors and ambulance crews evacuated patients from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.
Parents hefting bags of clothes, toys and food carried toddlers and led young children from the Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1 on the outskirts of the city. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.
In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleged that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that the claim was “a lie and provocation.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that civic authorities were awaiting an assessment from security services before deciding when it was safe to reopen the hospital.
“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold online talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said late Thursday that the meeting would discuss how to turn around Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.
Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday.
It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War. However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to the Russian onslaught, which is using glide bombs — powerful Soviet-era weapons that were originally unguided but have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system — that obliterate targets.
“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.
It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new U.S. military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.
While that U.S. help wasn’t forthcoming, Ukraine’s European partners didn’t pick up the slack, according to German’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Ukraine support.
“The European aid in recent months is nowhere near enough to fill the gap left by the lack of U.S. assistance, particularly in the area of ammunition and artillery shells,” it said in a report Thursday.
Ukraine is making a broad effort to take back the initiative in the war after more than two years of fighting. It plans to manufacture more of its own weapons in the future, and is clamping down on young people avoiding conscription, though it will take time to process and train any new recruits.
Jill Lawless contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Ukrainian young acting student Gleb Batonskiy plays piano in a public park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
