The ordeal of Venezuela erupted on the streets of Washington Wednesday as supporters of embattled President Nicholas Maduro and struggling would-be president Juan Guaido faced off noisily but peacefully at the country’s embassy in the upscale Georgetown neighborhood.
With two dozen American supporters of Maduro holed up in the Embassy, a a slightly larger crowd of Guaido supporters gathered on the street outside to sing the Venezuelan national anthem and demand they leave. Carlos Vecchio, named by Guaido as the country’s U.S. ambassador, spoke to the crowd but left under heavy security without attempting to enter the building.
“This Embassy belongs to the Venezuelan people,” said Mathew Burwick, a Venezuelan industrial designer who came from his home in North Carolina to join the protest. “The people inside are not Venezuelans.”
Inside the Embassy, the protesters said they had been invited to stay by the Venezuelan diplomats who were ordered to leave the country with the Trump administration recognized Guaido as president. They said their Venezuelan supporters stayed away because they did not want to be harassed by Guaido supporters.
Throughout the day, the two crowds exchanged chants under the watchful eyes of Secret Service, Washington DC police, and plainclothes State Department security officers.
“Trump’s Stoogs… Hell No,” chanted the Maduro supporters.
“Hands off our embassy,” responded the Guaido crowd.
When Vecchio left, spokesman Kevin Zeese declared a “major victory” for the Embassy Protection Collective, which calls Guaido’s bid for power “a coup.”
Outside, Guaido supporter named Anaiel, a schoolteacher with a two year old daughter, said she would continue coming back every day “until we get our embassy back.”
The suffering of her family in Venezuela forced her to protest, she said.
“My grandfather is in the hospital and he has to sit in a chair because the hospital had no wheelchairs,” she said. “The hospital has no medicine so my mother had to travel to Colombia every week to buy it. “
As we spoke the Maduro supporters in the Embassy windows and across the street chanted “Sanctions Kill.” The Guaido supporters responded, “Asesinos” (Assassins). By nightfall, the street had emptied assuring the standoff would continue at least another day.
