Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Trump Prosecutors Make Move to Ensure that Embassy Protectors are Convicted
Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor
15 Jan 2020
Trump Prosecutors Make Move to Ensure that Embassy Protectors are Convicted
Trump Prosecutors Make Move to Ensure that Embassy Protectors are Convicted

Trump’s prosecutors are trying to suppress the facts of the US attempted coup in Venezuela, and railroad the Embassy Protectors to prison.

“The prosecutors would leave the jury wearing a blindfold, unaware of the facts, context or why the Embassy Protectors were in the embassy.”

As the trial approaches, the lawyers for the Trump Administration’s  prosecution of the four Venezuelan Embassy Protectors who were arrested last May are asking the court to make sure the jury is kept ignorant about the facts and circumstances surrounding the actions of the protectors.

In a recently filed motion by government lawyers, state prosecutors are seeking to severely restrict what can be discussed during the trial scheduled for February 11, 2020. Judge Beryl Howell will hear arguments on the motion at the pre-trial hearing on January 29.

What does the prosecution want to repress? Everything that might give the defenders the ability to challenge the state’s case.

The prosecutors do not want jurors to know that Nicolas Maduro is the democratically elected president of Venezuela. They also do not want the illegitimacy of the failed coup leader Juan Guaido to be known to the jurors as the eviction and arrest of the four was based on the direction of a fake ambassador, Carlos Vecchio, who is wanted for violent crimes in Venezuela and is allied with Guaido.

The Trump prosecutors do not want the jury to know that the Embassy Protectors were inside the embassy with the permission of the elected government of Venezuela that is recognized under Venezuelan law and by the United Nations.

And, they do not want the Vienna Convention discussed so jurors are unaware that the United States violated international law when police entered the embassy to arrest the four who remained inside.

“The Embassy Protectors were inside the embassy with the permission of the elected government of Venezuela.”

The parties will also discuss voir dire, i.e., the questions that will be used to pick the jury and ensure they are not biased, as well as jury instructions, which the court will read to the jurors before they deliberate.

The government’s motion in limine, if approved by the judge, would leave the jury wearing a blindfold, unaware of the facts, context or why the Embassy Protectors were in the embassy. This will ensure the desired outcome of the state which is to convict the defenders and make them a model for how the state intends to deal with challenges to its illegal policies.

The jurors will also not be told that the protectors were under siege, surrounded by a pro-coup mob that was working with the police, threatening the protectors and blocking food from going into the embassy. And, they will not know the government had the electricity and water turned off in the embassy.

While there were negotiations between the US and Venezuela for a mutual protecting power agreement during the final days of the embassy protection, the jurors will not be told that the negotiations were occurring and that they would have resulted in Switzerland protecting the US embassy in Caracas and Turkey protecting the Venezuelan embassy in DC. The embassy protectors told the police they would leave voluntarily when that agreement was reached. The day before the four were arrested, Samuel Moncada, the Venezuelan ambassador to the UN, held a press conference where he discussed the negotiations for a protecting power agreement and said the Embassy Protectors were in the embassy with Venezuela’s permission.

“The United States violated international law when police entered the embassy to arrest the four who remained inside.”

The government is also urging the court not to allow the four to explain they were exercising their rights under the First Amendment to political expression and criticizing the US government for their continuing efforts to force the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Venezuela.

If Judge Howell grants the Trump government’s motion, it will leave the Embassy Protectors virtually defenseless. The government wants the prosecution to be about three things (1) the four were in the embassy, (2) they were given a notice of eviction by the police, and (3) they refused to leave.

The judge has thus far shown she leans toward the government’s narrow view of the case and does not want the questionable legality of the state’s order to vacate the embassy and its clearly illegal entry into the embassy and arrest of the defenders as part of the trial. When the motion for discovery was argued, the judge ruled against the Embassy Protectors regarding documents and other materials related to some of the above issues. See this article we wrote at the time, “Embassy Protectors Are Being Denied Their Right To A Fair Trial.”

In this period of normalized illegality and attempts at intimidation, we shall not allow the state to move against these courageous activists without resistance from our movements. While today it is the defenders, tomorrow it could be any of us.

Ajamu Baraka and Bahman Azad are the co-chairs of the Embassy Protectors Defense Committee. Baraka is the national organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace and member of the Secretariat of the U.S. Peace Council. Azad is coordinator for theCoalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases and the Executive Secretary of the U.S. Peace Council.

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at [email protected]

Regime Change Venezuela

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles. Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Venezuela Continues To Be the Model for True Democracy in the Americas
Jacqueline Luqman
Venezuela Continues To Be the Model for True Democracy in the Americas
03 May 2022
The 2002 attempted coup against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez was undone because of popular action.
The Venezuela Coup 20 Years Later
Dan Beeton
The Venezuela Coup 20 Years Later
26 April 2022
The legacy of Venezuela’s short-lived 2002 coup d’etat, and the subsequent countercoup, endures for US-Latin American relations.
US’s Flaunting of Diplomatic Immunity Challenged in Court –  Imprisoned Venezuelan Diplomat Contests Extraterritorial Judicial Abuse
Roger D. Harris
US’s Flaunting of Diplomatic Immunity Challenged in Court – Imprisoned Venezuelan Diplomat Contests Extraterritorial Judicial Abuse
12 April 2022
The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations protects the rights of Alex Saab.
Illegally Imprisoned Venezuelan Diplomat Faces US Court Amid a Shifting Global Context
Roger D. Harris
Illegally Imprisoned Venezuelan Diplomat Faces US Court Amid a Shifting Global Context
06 April 2022
Alex Saab’s April 6 hearing takes place in the setting of a mercurial world situation, where events in Ukraine may have indirect bearing on his
The Racist, Imperialist War on Venezuela
Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
The Racist, Imperialist War on Venezuela
24 November 2021
We are reprinting Glen Ford’s 2019 article on Venezuela not to demonstrate that he was prescient on the issue of U.S.-Venezuela policies, but b
The U.S. has twice kidnapped Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab. His next court appearance is scheduled for Monday, November 1, and supporters are demanding his freedom. Washington’s actions against Saab contradict both international and humanitarian laws. 
Lauren Smith
Miami Defenders of Twice US Kidnapped Venezuelan Ambassador, Alex Saab, Rally for his Release
26 October 2021
The U.S. has twice kidnapped Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab.
Venezuela Immunizes Its Population Against COVID-19 with Cuban Vaccine
Peoples Dispatch Staff
Venezuela Immunizes Its Population Against COVID-19 with Cuban Vaccine
08 July 2021
Venezuela signed an agreement with Cuba for the purchase of 12 million doses of Abdal after the country announced and celebrated the success of its
The Case of Alex Saab - US Abduction of Venezuelan Diplomat, a Global Challenge 
Sara Flounders and Roger D. Harris 
The Case of Alex Saab - US Abduction of Venezuelan Diplomat, a Global Challenge 
23 June 2021
The case involves the kidnapping of a diplomat by the world’s sole superpower locked in an unequal struggle to destroy the formerly prosperous, oil
Sanctions Against Venezuela Will Continue Under Biden
Vijay Prashad
Sanctions Against Venezuela Will Continue Under Biden
18 November 2020
There is every indication that a Biden administration will maintain the punitive sanctions against Venezuela, suffocating the country during the pa
Open Letter to the Africans of Brazil, Colombia and Guyana
by the signatories
Open Letter to the Africans of Brazil, Colombia and Guyana
04 November 2020
These neo-colonial regimes are covertly and overtly facilitating the US Empire’s encirclement of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

More Stories


  • Black Agenda Radio March 24, 2023
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio March 24, 2023
    24 Mar 2023
    In this segment, we learn why Atlanta is the site of the planned Cop City police training facility in what purports to be a Black mecca
  • Ray McGovern Connects Anniversary of Iraq Invasion and Ukraine Proxy War - Part 1
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Ray McGovern Connects Anniversary of Iraq Invasion and Ukraine Proxy War - Part 1
    24 Mar 2023
    Ray McGovern served as a CIA analyst for 27 years, from the administration of John F. Kennedy to that of George H. W. Bush.
  • How Atlanta Politics Led to Cop City
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    How Atlanta Politics Led to Cop City
    24 Mar 2023
    Tea Troutman is a community organizer, urbanist, and cultural critic from Atlanta, Georgia. They are currently a Ph.D. student in Geography at the University of Minnesota working on a dissertation…
  • Biden Continues Punitive Immigration Policies - Part 1
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Biden Continues Punitive Immigration Policies - Part 1
    24 Mar 2023
    Aly Wane is on the advisory board of the Immigrant Justice Network. He joins us from Syracuse, New York to discuss Biden administration immigration policy and its similarities with that of Trump and…
  • Commemorations of the Attack on Iraq March 20th and Libya March 19th Reaffirm that the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination Remains the Greatest Threat to International Peace on our Planet
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Commemorations of the Attack on Iraq March 20th and Libya March 19th Reaffirm that the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination Remains the Greatest Threat to International Peace on our Planet
    22 Mar 2023
    Iraq and Libya were both targeted by the U.S. in the month of March. The anniversaries of these war crimes must be commemorated, and the nature of the US/EU/NATO war machine must be understood.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us