The Embassy of Venezuela in Washington, D.C. is the

diplomatic mission A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...

of the

Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The embassy is located at 1099 30th Street,

Northwest, Washington, D.C. Northwest (NW or N.W.) is the northwestern quadrant of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, and is located north of the National Mall and west of North Capitol Street. It is the largest of the four quadrants of the city (NW, NE, S ...

in the Georgetown neighborhood. The embassy also operates Consulates-General in

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Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

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, and

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

. On January 23, 2019, the

Nicolás Maduro Nicolás Maduro Moros (; born 23 November 1962) is a Venezuelan politician and president of Venezuela since 2013, with his presidency under dispute since 2019. Beginning his working life as a bus driver, Maduro rose to become a trade unio ...

-led government of Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations with the United States. From 2019 to January 2023, Venezuelan embassies and consulates in the US were administered by representatives of

Juan Guaidó Juan Gerardo Guaidó Márquez (born 28 July 1983) is a Venezuelan politician, a former member of the Social democracy, social-democratic Popular Will party, and federal deputy to the National Assembly (Venezuela), National Assembly representing ...

, who was recognized by the US as the acting president of Venezuela during the

Venezuelan presidential crisis The Venezuelan presidential crisis is an ongoing political crisis concerning the leadership and the legitimate president of Venezuela; the office of the president has been contested since 10 January 2019, with the nation and the world divided ...

. As of 2023, the embassy is not operational.

Venezuelan presidential crisis

On January 24, 2019,

ordered the closure of both the embassy and all Venezuelan consulates in the United States. This move came as a response to US recognition of

as interim president. On January 29, 2019, Juan Guaidó appointed Carlos Vecchio to serve as Venezuelan ambassador to the United States. This move was recognized by US Secretary of State

Mike Pompeo Michael Richard Pompeo (; born December 30, 1963) is an American politician, diplomat, and businessman who served under President Donald Trump as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 2017 to 2018 and as the 70th United State ...

Occupation by Code Pink

On April 10, 2019, the group of members of

Code Pink Code Pink: Women for Peace (often stylized as CODEPINK) is a left-wing internationally active non-governmental organization that describes itself as a "grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end U.S.-funded wars and occupations, ...

and other left-wing organizations began occupying the embassy by invitation from the Maduro government. As of May 1, fifty Americans supporting Maduro were living in the building, whose entrance was locked down by its occupants. As a response, hundreds of supporters of Guaidó, mostly Venezuelan nationals, assembled outside the embassy in protest, mocking the mostly American occupants for not speaking Spanish and calling them thieves and trespassers. The standoff caused clashed between both groups. According to the embassy occupants, the protesters prevented people from bringing in food. The occupants held signs outside the embassy saying, "Hands Off Venezuela!" and "No to U.S. coup plots", while protesters chanted "Guaidó" and "Hands off my embassy". On May 8, the power company shut off electricity to the embassy, and on May 11, running water was also cut off. On May 13, after staying for over a month in the embassy, authorities served an eviction notice its occupants, asking them to leave immediately. Gustavo Tarre, Venezuela's representative to the

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, declared to

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that at the time there were seven people in the building, three of which left that after the notice was served. On May 16, the four protesters remaining:

Kevin Zeese Kevin Bruce Zeese (October 28, 1955 – September 6, 2020) was an American lawyer, U.S. Senate candidate and political activist. He worked to end the war on drugs and mass incarceration, and was instrumental in organizing the 2011 Occupy encam ...

, Margaret Flowers, Adrienne Pine and David Paul, were forcibly removed from the embassy by police. Journalist

Max Blumenthal Max Blumenthal (born December 18, 1977) is an American journalist, author and blogger who is the editor of ''The Grayzone'' website, which is known for spreading conspiracy theories and engaging in denial of atrocities committed by dictatorial ...

, who has good relations with Nicolás Maduro, was arrested in October 2019 charged with assaulting a woman during the occupation of the embassy; the charges were later dropped. During the 2019

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, Maduro honored Code Pink for their actions.

Missing paintings

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in collaboration with the

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(FBI) and Italian

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opened an investigation of missing pieces of European and Latin American artwork that disappeared during the exit of Maduro representatives and the occupation of Code Pink. The paintings were exhibited during the

Inter-American Development Bank The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB or IADB) is an international financial institution headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States of America, and serving as the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribb ...

in Washington 2018, including a landscape of Caracas by

Manuel Cabré Manuel Cabré (January 25, 1890 – February 26, 1984) was a noted Spanish-Venezuelan landscape painter who is remembered as "the painter of El Ávila" ( es, link=no, El pintor de El Ávila). Life and career Cabré was born on January 25, 1890 ...

, the portrait of "Juanita" by

Armando Reverón Armando Reverón (May 10, 1889 – September 17, 1954) was a Venezuelan painter and sculptor, precursor of Arte Povera and considered one of the most important of the 20th century in Latin America. While his mental health deteriorated throughou ...

, and a

social realism Social realism is the term used for work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers and filmmakers that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structure ...

piece by . Together, the paintings are estimated to worth about $1 million.

Consular services

Carlos Vecchio declared that Maduro's administration, and his predecessor

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...

, had denied consular services for Venezuelans in the United States for more than 10 years. Director of Consultar Affairs, Brian Fincheltub, announced that the embassy would progressively reactivate said services. On May 28, Vecchio announced the creation of the Unique Consular Registry, which allows Venezuelan citizens in the United States to access to its services network. Gustavo Marcano, Counselor Minister of the embassy, explained that in the first phase of the Consular Registry an official census of Venezuelan residents would be carried out, to determined in which states and cites they are distributed in to inform about their current situation and the consular needs to the embassy. Marcano would later state that 70% of the citizens in the Registry expressed that their main necessity was the passport extension. Juan Guaidó announced the extension of the validity of expired Venezuelan passports for five years since their expiration date. On June 7, 2019, the United States State Department announced the recognition of this extension for the emission of visas and other consular processes; the department also announced that the

United States Border Patrol The United States Border Patrol (USBP) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency under the United States' U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Customs and Border Protection and is responsible for securing ...

would also accept these passports. In a press conference, Vecchio explained that Venezuelans would be able to enter the United States with expired passports, request visas or use them as a valid identification document for procedures such as the driver's license. In 2020, the embassy of Venezuela announced that starting from February 19, Venezuelan residents would be able to request No Objection Letters for permanence requests for studies or work, a process would be carried out by Guaidó's diplomatic mission and the US State Department. The director of Consular Affairs, Brian Fincheltub, announced that the embassy would activate the process and emission of said documents, without costs. The document allows foreigners in the United States to extend their stay period originally authorized in the visa. In 2022, the Venezuelan opposition moved to dissolve the interim government led by Guaidó. As a result of this move, Vecchio stepped down from his role as ambassador to the US, and the embassy ceased functioning again.

Notes

:1.As part of the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis, the US recognized Carlos Vecchio as Venezuela's ambassador from 2019 to 2022. The Venezuelan government led by Nicolás Maduro has not had an ambassador in the US since 2019.

References

External links

Official website

wikimapia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Embassy of Venezuela in Washington, D.C.

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Georgetown (Washington, D.C.) United States–Venezuela relations