Update. Yesterday’s email described the peace activists occupying the Venezuelan embassy in

Washington, DC, to prevent Trump from installing a fake “pro-Guaidò” ambassador there.

Today’s events are absolutely incredible. The activists, on the defensive up to now, have started to attack.

1. A police raid was about to take place this morning when the activists’ lawyer, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, stood before the door and told the cops to desist: “If you obey illegal orders, you will be breaking the law and will face prosecution.” Yes, as unbelievable as it may sound, the police had come without a legal warrant for entry into the embassy (nor could they have obtained one from any court, since by international law embassies are off limits to local police). Mara and the police chief discussed the issue for over an hour and, in the end, Mara won out. The chief ordered his men not to enter, but only to stand guard outside the embassy, while he returned to headquarters to consult with his superiors.

Couldn’t Trump, Pompeo and Bolton have planned the raid any better? Apparently not. They left their police chief in the lurch, ill advised and unprepared; and so he backed down.

2. Later this morning, on behalf of the peace activists inside the embassy, the National Lawyers Guild sent a “cease and desist” warning to Pompeo, the Secret Service (responsible for protecting embassies), and the Washington police chief laying out the illegalities that they were committing at the Venezuelan Embassy and promising prosecution. That letter is enclosed for your perusal. 

The letter was also addressed to the “United Nations Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights” who immediately scheduled a hearing, which took place this very afternoon, at the U.N. headquarters in New York, on Trump’s violation of embassy status. (The Secret Service and the Washington police have permitted a pro-Guaidò opposition mob to attack the Venezuelan embassy and those inside, and this violates the Vienna Convention.) 

An action so quick by the notoriously slow U.N. may sound strange, indeed, but actually, the Rapporteur had been following the case since its inception, at the urgent request of many countries who are worried about the precedent Trump is establishing in permitting local police to raid a foreign embassy. So this morning’s letter from the Lawyers’ Guild was simply the formal complaint needed to put an inquiry into the Trump administration officially on the docket at the UN.

Now it will be Trump who has to defend himself.

3. Then, in the afternoon, Jesse Jackson showed up, with boxes of food, water, and a mini electricity generator. What a surprise!

You see, inside the embassy, the food and water supplies had been dwindling; plus there has been no current for days to run communications equipment. The Pink Code support group on the sidewalk outside the embassy had been trying to get supplies in through the windows but, most of the time, the pro-Guaidò mob would attack them and destroy the supplies before they could be hoisted up on a rope into the embassy. While the police would stand by without doing anything. 

This explains why, of the 20 occupiers, 16 decided to leave the building a couple of days ago, so that the remaining food would suffice for the four volunteers who were holding the fort.

But today — like the arrival of the Cavalry in a western movie — Jesse Jackson arrived on the scene with his Rainbow Coaltion aides bringing several cases of food and supplies. The pro-Guaidò mob attacked them and tried to take the supplies away but this time, to avoid a national scandal, the police finally stepped in and held the mob back while, from inside the embassy, the four peace activists hoisted the cases up through a window. Jackson promised to return every day with supplies, as long as necessary.

4. This Saturday there will be a national demonstration outside the Venezuelan embassy, called by the Answer Coaltion, Code Pink, Popular Resistance and Black Alliance for Peace. A large turnout is expected. The pro-Guaidò mob will be far outnumbered. Perhaps in view of the demonstration and to avoid possible incidents between the two factions, the police have ordered Guaidò supporters, many who have been living in tents outside the Embassy to keep supplies from getting in at night, to fold up their tents and take them away.

What an about face!

That’s the news for today. Keep tuned.

patrick