Meanwhile at the Venezuelan Embassy in DC

In Washington, D.C., activists with the groups CodePink and Popular Resistance are occupying the Venezuelan Embassy alongside a skeletal staff of Venezuelan diplomatic workers, where they’re demanding the Trump administration cancel plans to turn the embassy over to Venezuelan opposition leaders. They’re also protesting U.S. sanctions on Venezuela that have exacerbated a growing humanitarian crisis. The U.S. State Department has ordered the group to vacate the building by Wednesday. In response, CodePink’s Medea Benjamin wrote, “Like it or not, the Maduro government is actually the government in power in Venezuela and is recognized by the United Nations. This Trump-orchestrated plan of creating a parallel government and then simply taking over diplomatic premises is totally illegal.”

  Democracy Now!

Apparently, they didn't leave. (Wednesday was two days ago.)

The United States said Thursday that leftist activists defiantly occupying the Venezuelan embassy in Washington should leave and make way for representatives of US-recognized leader Juan Guaido.

Elliott Abrams, the envoy heading the US push to topple President Nicolas Maduro, called the sit-in "a violation of the law" and said that Guaido's ambassador in Washington would discuss with security officials how to remove them.

"This is sovereign Venezuelan territory. They have to leave," Abrams told reporters, without setting a timeline.

  Yahoo

I don't get it. If it's sovereign Venezuelan territory - which it is - then Venezuela gets to tell them whether they need to leave or not, and just because the US recognizes Guaidó as the leader of that country, it doesn't make him such.

The final Maduro envoys at the embassy left after the Organization of American States voted on April 10 to accept Guaido's envoy as Venezuela's representative to the Washington-based body.

[...]

Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza warned the United States against forcibly evicting the activists, suggesting unspecified retaliation against the US embassy in Caracas.

"How crazy they would be to enter illegally," he said at the United Nations. "If they did, we would have to think of how to reciprocate."

Activists are making it clear that they are in the embassy with the permission of the foreign ministry. In fact, on Wednesday night, Carlos Ron, the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs for Venezuela, sent a video message to the protectors.

[...]

The address was followed by a live event with John Kiriakou, a CIA whistleblower who exposed the torture program and went to jail for doing so. He gave an insider’s view of US regime change efforts to a packed and energized room. Did you know the CIA has a special department where agents can go to request a plan for specific US regime change efforts?

Following the live event, embassy protectors met with their lawyers and discussed plans for holding the space as long as necessary so the Venezuelan and US governments have time to complete negotiations over the disposition of their respective embassies.

[...]

People arrived from California, Colorado, Massachusetts and surrounding states. People streamed into the embassy throughout the day Wednesday, into the early morning hours and continued throughout Thursday. Greeters scrambled to assist new arrivals with finding a couch or floor space to put their sleeping bag.

Police presence also grew. Secret Service agents and DC police lurked outside as guests arrived for the evening event. Throughout the early morning hours, Secret Service officers cruised by the embassy at regular intervals. At one point, police approached the building, triggering the activists’ mobilization response, but it was a false alarm.

[...]

When pressed, the Secret Service were unable to elucidate what charge they would use in an arrest since protectors were given the keys to the building and are here with permission of the elected government. Still, protectors know that police could come anytime and are prepared to hold the space nonviolently both as tenants/guests with the right to live here and to uphold the Vienna Convention.

[...]

There is now a constant presence of reporters, and police, outside the embassy.

[...]

La lucha continua.

  Popular Resistance

Many activists-tenants have slept in the embassy continuously since April 10, with some staying full-time and others rotating in shifts.

The activists are present at the explicit request and consent of the Venezuelan government. Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said outside the United Nations Thursday: “We have to protect that Venezuelan building. It would be crazy to take it over illegally, right? Have we proposed to do that in the U.S. Embassy in Caracas? Never.”

[...]

If the Venezuelan embassy is allowed to be seized in the name of Guaido, it would set a dangerous precedent that could be followed elsewhere in the hemisphere, where so far only Costa Rica has permitted the occupation of diplomatic offices by the Venezuelan opposition.

  Liberation News