‘This charge is 100% false’: Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal arrested months after reporting on Venezuelan opposition violence

The Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal has been arrested on false charges after reporting on Venezuelan opposition violence outside the DC embassy. He describes the manufactured case as part of a wider campaign of political persecution.

Max Blumenthal (above), the editor of the news site The Grayzone, was arrested on the morning of October 25 on a fabricated charge related to the siege of the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, DC that took place between April and May.

A team of DC police officers appeared at Blumenthal’s door at just after 9 AM, demanding entry and threatening to break his door down. A number of officers had taken positions on the side of his home as though they were prepared for a SWAT-style raid.

Blumenthal was hauled into a police van and ultimately taken to DC central jail, where he was held for two days in various cells and cages. He was shackled by his hands and ankles for over five hours in one such cage along with other inmates. His request for a phone call was denied by DC police and corrections officers, effectively denying him access to the outside world.

Blumenthal was informed that he was accused of simple assault by a Venezuelan opposition member. He declared the charge completely baseless.

“This charge is a 100 percent false, fabricated, bogus, untrue, and malicious lie,” Blumenthal declared. “It is clearly part of a campaign of political persecution designed to silence me and the The Grayzone for our factual journalism exposing the deceptions, corruption and violence of the far-right Venezuelan opposition.”

The arrest warrant was five months old. According to an individual familiar with the case, the warrant for Blumenthal’s arrest was initially rejected. Strangely, this false charge was revived months later without the defendant’s knowledge.

“If the government had at least told me I had a warrant I could have voluntarily surrendered and appeared at my own arraignment. I have nothing to fear because I’m completely innocent of this bogus charge,” Blumenthal stated. “Instead, the federal government essentially enlisted the DC police to SWAT me, ensuring that I would be subjected to an early morning raid and then languish in prison for days without even the ability to call an attorney.”

Background to the embassy siege

In April and May, Washington-backed Venezuelan coup leaders began taking over properties in the United States that belong to the internationally recognized government of Venezuela’s democratically elected President Nicolás Maduro, in violation of international law.

A group of activists responded by keeping a vigil inside the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, DC, in order to protect it from an illegal seizure by the US-supported coup leaders. The activists formed what they called the Embassy Protection Collective. The internationally recognized Venezuelan government gave them permission to stay in its embassy, which is its own sovereign territory under international law.

In response, hordes of violent right-wing activists who support the Venezuelan opposition launched a de facto 24/7 siege of the embassy, preventing people, food, and supplies from entering the building.

The Grayzone reporter Anya Parampil and Alex Rubinstein, a contributor to The Grayzone, were embedded in the embassy with several peace activists.

Parampil and journalists including Blumenthal documented the right-wing mobs lashing out with racist and sexist invective as well as violence at Venezuelan solidarity activists who gathered outside the embassy to show support for the protectors.

The Secret Service is endangering the public with its dereliction of duty https://t.co/pMJIrj23Up

— Alex Rubinstein (@RealAlexRubi) May 8, 2019

MPD / Secret service standing by as strobe lights are shined across an active road #HandsOffVenezeula #embassyprotectioncollective pic.twitter.com/NBBfeFefPb

— meow mix (@bratatouillle) May 8, 2019

‘This ginned up claim… is simply false’

Court documents indicate the false charge of simple assault stems from Blumenthal’s participation in a delivery of food and sanitary supplies to peace activists and journalists inside the Venezuelan embassy on May 8, 2019.

The charge was manufactured by a Venezuelan opposition member who was among those laying siege to the embassy in a sustained bid to starve out the activists inside.

“I was not party to any violent actions around the Venezuelan embassy,” Blumenthal reiterated. “This ginned up claim of simple assault is simply false.”

https://www.youtube.com/embed/BNXUg77grUA

According to court documents, Ben Rubinstein, the brother of journalist Alex Rubinstein, also participated in the non-violent and legal food delivery. Rubinstein was arrested over 12 hours later after the food delivery by Secret Service police officers.

He spent 20 hours in jail, alongside Gerry Condon, president of Veterans for Peace, who was arrested after being brutalized by Secret Service officers for attempting to toss a cucumber inside an embassy window.

“The opposition members made up these lies about Max and I know they’re lying, and they are obviously using the government and police as tools to get revenge,” Ben Rubinstein told The Grayzone.

Retaliation for The Grayzone’s reporting on the violent Venezuelan opposition

Max Blumenthal reported extensively from outside the Venezuelan embassy in May. He filed a story explaining how “the pro-coup mob outside turned violent, physically assaulting embassy protectors, and hurling racist, sexist and homophobic abuse at others.”

Blumenthal documented an opposition activist breaking into and subsequently vandalizing the embassy, in violation of international law. He also reported on opposition members destroying the embassy’s security cameras, while the authorities stood idly by.

To the left of the fascist is “Mohamed,” the right-wing vigilante who broke into the embassy two days ago and ransacked an entire room: https://t.co/eIEjlKj4M7 @DCPoliceDept has taken no action beyond aiding and abetting this squalid mob https://t.co/RIQy5bkHZ2

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) May 3, 2019

The Venezuelan coup regime’s supposed ambassador to the United States, Carlos Vecchio, who is not recognized by the United Nations and the vast majority of the international community, helped to lead this aggressive mob as it besieged the embassy.

The Grayzone’s Anya Parampil exposed Vecchio to be a former lawyer for the oil corporation Exxon. The Grayzone has documented his close links to the US government, and has reported at length on accusations of corruption. Vecchio was a regular presence outside the DC embassy, appearing with his gaggle to stage manage the situation.

The Grayzone has also published numerous exposés on Venezuelan coup leader Juan Guaidó, who was selected by the US government to be the so-called “interim president” in Caracas, detailing his extensive ties to Washington and his notorious corruption.

Blumenthal was arrested literally hours after The Grayzone published an article on USAID paying the salaries of Guaidó’s team as they lobbied the US government.

“I am firmly convinced that this case is part of a wider campaign of political persecution using the legal system to shut down our factual investigative journalism about the coup against Venezuela and the wider policy of economic warfare and regime change waged by the Trump administration,” Blumenthal stated.

If this had happened to a journalist in Venezuela, every Western human rights NGO and news wire would be howling about Maduro’s authoritarianism. It will be revealing to see how these same elements react to a clear-cut case of political repression in their own backyard.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he National Lawyers Guild International Committee strongly condemns the arrest of independent journalist Max Blumenthal. Blumenthal was arrested from his Washington, DC, home by a large group of police on October 25, held in jail for two days and denied access to an attorney throughout this period.

Reporting on his arrest, Blumenthal noted that the arrest warrant was five months old and had previously been denied. The charges date back to Blumenthal’s work covering the U.S.’ unlawful seizure of the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, D.C., and its transfer to a group of supporters of the Venezuelan opposition.

A group of U.S.-based justice activists were invited to remain in the embassy by the Venezuelan diplomats, representing the internationally recognized government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, who were forced to leave the country. The Embassy Protection Collective remained inside the embassy for weeks, conducting a vigil inside while the building was surrounded 24/7 by far-right supporters of a coup in Venezuela.

Washington, D.C., police allowed this group to lay siege to the embassy, denying participants in the Embassy Protection Collective access to food and water. Utilities were turned off including water, electricity and other essential services reaching the embassy in order to drive out the protectors and install a U.S.-supported representative in a nearly unprecedented assault on the protections granted to diplomatic installations, particularly embassies and consulates.

These actions came in violation of the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations which requires the U.S. to recognize the inviolability of embassies and to “take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion.” The Vienna Convention was ratified by the United States in 1972 and thus is a part of federal law.

Blumenthal is being charged with assault due to a complaint by one of these supporters of the U.S-backed claimant to the Venezuelan presidency, Juan Guaido. During the Embassy Protection Collective’s vigil, supporters and others would attempt to deliver food to those inside, who included two reporters for Blumenthal’s media outlet, “The Grayzone.” Several people, including the president of Veterans for Peace, were arrested for attempting to bring food and water to the embassy protectors.

We join Blumenthal in noting that his arrest took place hours after The Grayzone issued a report on USAID funding to lobbyists for the Venezuelan opposition. It also appears to be a form of retaliation practiced against both embassy protection activists and critical journalists for their opposition to the U.S.’ unlawful intervention in Venezuela, support for an attempted coup and unilateral coercive economic sanctions directed against the country.

At the same time that we condemn the arrest of Blumenthal, we note that this comes alongside the conviction of seven anti-nuclear protesters, who now face up to 20 years in prison. In that case, the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 were explicitly denied the ability to bring expert witnesses to testify about their actions in light of international law and the illegality of nuclear weapons.

The arrest of Blumenthal is also not separate from the global policies of sanctions, suppression and regime change being pursued by the U.S. government. Unilateral coercive measures, prohibited under international law, are being imposed by the U.S. against Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua and other nations. They represent a grave risk to both national sovereignty and the international rule of law, and by imposing poverty and deprivation on entire countries, deprive millions of people of their fundamental economic and social human rights.