JOURNALIST MAX BLUMENTHAL
ARRESTED, HIT WITH POLITICAL PROSECUTION RELATED TO VENEZUELA REPORTING
28 OCT 2019
Journalist
Max Blumenthal was arrested on October 25 and charged with “assault” in a political cause that he says is “completely false” and “manufactured” by
Venezuela opposition supporters.
From April to May, supporters of Juan
Guaido’s attempted coup in Venezuela surrounded the Venezuela embassy in Washington,
D.C. They engaged in verbal and physical assaults that authorities largely
permitted.
Blumenthal, the editor of The Grayzone, reported on antiwar and international solidarity
activists, who attempted to protect the embassy from the right-wing opposition.
According to Grayzone reporter Ben
Norton, “A team of D.C. 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 D.C. central jail, where he was held for two days in
various cells and cages,” Norton additionally
reported. “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 D.C. police and
corrections officers, effectively denying him access to the outside world.”
The “assault” charge filed against
Blumenthal stemmed from an alleged incident on May 7 that happened more than
five months ago.
Naylet Pacheco, a 58 year-old opposition
supporter, told police she was “guarding” the
Venezuela embassy’s rear gate. She was one of several individuals who tried to
prevent food and water from being delivered to activists inside the embassy.
She apparently described Code Pink as
the “activist group that support(s) Venezuelan President and [was] living
illegally in the Venezuela embassy.”
Ben Rubinstein, the brother of MintPress
News journalist Alex Rubinstein, was at the embassy to help with food
deliveries. Pacheco alleges Rubinstein and Blumenthal came to a rear gate and
Rubinstein said, “Oh! It’s you again?” and then kicked her in the stomach. She
alleges Blumenthal then kicked her in the stomach “several times.” She
allegedly screamed for help.
One of the opposition supporters
allegedly recorded video of Pacheco’s supposed attackers as they left. Police
maintain Pacheco was able to “positively identify” Rubinstein and Blumenthal
from the video.
Pacheco went to the George Washington
University Hospital on May 8, but an x-ray and CT scan found no broken bones or
internal bleeding.
The Washington Post published a story on May 9 that mentioned
the alleged incident and quoted Pacheco. Pacheco told the Post something
different. She said she was “pushed against a wall and kicked by several men.”
There is no mention of being kicked in the stomach.
A quote from Pacheco that the Post
published was translated from Spanish. She required a Spanish translator when
she provided her account of the alleged incident to police. It is unclear if
she understands or speaks English.
Ben Rubinstein told The Grayzone, “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.”
He was charged with “assault” on May 9,
and his case is still pending in the D.C. Superior Court.
Brian Becker, who is the national
director of the antiwar ANSWER Coalition was present at the Venezuela embassy
to support the embassy protectors. He witnessed the conduct of opposition
supporters in response to the solidarity activism of Code Pink and other groups
and provided some context.
Embassy protectors were in “the
Venezuelan embassy, which is the property of Venezuela, the legal owner of the
building. We were there holding events in solidarity with peace and in
opposition to the economic sanctions imposed on Venezuela and the attempt to
steal Venezuelan national assets, including its embassy, and turn them over to
an unelected group that the United States had selected to be the new governing
power in Venezuela,” according to Becker.
Yet, Becker declared, “Supporters of
Juan Guaido, in a coordinated way, laid siege to the building and engaged in
violent assaults against the building, vandalizing the building, breaking into
the building, physically attacking people who were outside the building,
including myself.”
“This went on at all hours of the day
and night with the obvious support and complicity of different U.S. government
and law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. State Department police
agencies.”
“While they were engaged in these
violent assaults who had come up to stand with and support people who were
inside the Venezuelan embassy, they also did everything in their power to
prevent any food from being brought in from the outside to the people who were
then living inside the embassy,” Becker further contended.
Alex Rubinstein tweeted, “As I was besieged in the Venezuelan
embassy, my brother was arrested over bogus accusations he savagely beat an
elderly woman while trying to deliver food. I knew then that it was a political
prosecution. Now journalist Max Blumenthal has been arrested over the same fake
incident.”
“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,” the NLG IC stated. “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.”
Indeed, in a story by Leonardo Flores, The Grayzone
reported that USAID diverted $41.9 million from aid to Central America in order
to pay the salaries of Juan Guaido’s team of lobbyists working to influence the U.S.
foreign policy.
The NLG IC continued, “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.”
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