FOUR activists from the Codepink campaign group defiantly protected the Venezuelan embassy in Washington yesterday after police threatened to arrest those occupying the building.

Police officials read a document which threatened that “anyone who refuses to obey the demands and orders to vacate the property will be in violation of federal and district of Columbia law, and could be arrested and criminally prosecuted.”

Protesters were preventing an attempt by a representative of the illegitimate self-declared interim president Juan Guiado from entering the building.

Carlos Vecchio has been appointed as Mr Guaido’s spokesman and is treated as an ambassador by the US government which is trying to remove President Nicolas Maduro from power.

But the attempt to remove the protesters has been branded illegal and a breach of the Vienna Convention, which states: “The premises of the mission shall be inviolable.”

It gives assurances that the receiving state, the US, may not enter the building without consent and must protect it against intrusion or damage.

Lawyers for the activists said: “They are defending international law, defending the Vienna Convention and are worried about a domino effect. This is a very dangerous path.”