Venezuelan Ambassador to the United States Carlos Vecchio published a video Monday showing the extensive state of disrepair in which a small group of communists left the U.S. embassy after illegally occupying it for days.
Vecchio, appointed by legitimate Venezuelan President Juan Guaidó, published a video on Twitter that showed the building full of trash, loose cables, unwashed dishes, and in a state of general disrepair.
“This is how the usurpers and invaders of the regime left our embassy in #Washington,” he wrote. “Nicolás Maduro is destruction and corruption. This is why there is urgency for ceasing the usurpation in #Venezuela. A country of progress for all will soon be reborn”:
This month, local police evicted a group of communist protesters identified as Code Pink agitators working in tandem with the Maduro regime to occupy the building after Maduro’s representatives returned to Caracas. The protesters attracted dozens of Venezuelans who surrounded the building demanding the return of their embassy to their people.
Vecchio, whom Guaidó appointed in January following his presidential inauguration by the National Assembly, said the state of the building reflects what the Maduro regime has done to Venezuela as it experiences the worst economic and humanitarian crisis in the country’s history.
“Upon entering our embassy for the first time, I felt the emotion of stepping on a piece of our homeland but, at the same time, anger at finding a country of Venezuelans totally abandoned,” Vecchio said in the video. “The destruction we witnessed reflects what this regime has done to Venezuela.”
He continued:
Destruction, Maduro is destruction, usurpation is destruction and it made me think, if this is what they are doing here, imagine what we are going to find in Venezuela when they leave power. That’s why it’s time to stop this madness and end this tragedy.
Now is the moment. This all gives us more strength and conviction to keep fighting. When I say that change is coming, it’s because they aren’t able to stop it. This embassy inspires us to conquer our freedom. From now on, it will be “Embassy of Liberty.”
Now that the embassy has returned to the hands of the Venezuelan government, Vecchio and his team will have the opportunity to use the building as the diplomatic headquarters for relations between the U.S. and Guaidó’s administration.
In Venezuela, Maduro’s regime retains the backing of the military, which guarantees its control. Last month, Guaidó declared that some sections of the military had deserted the regime and were ready to back a transition to democracy, although the mutiny soon fizzled out after the military high brass refused to desert the Maduro regime.
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