The Venezuelan embassy occupation was a 2019 sit-in at the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, D.C. John Kiriakou says he was one of about two dozen people who went into the embassy that night at the Venezuelan government’s request, as the United States was breaking relations with Venezuela; he says he still has some of the Venezuelan government’s property sitting around his house, which he is holding until the government can retake the embassy and reclaim it.[1][2]
Kiriakou recounts that as he left the embassy that night, past a crowd of dueling pro- and anti-Venezuelan-government chants, he overheard one uniformed Secret Service officer say to another, of the crowd outside, “The ones that are out here are with us. The ones that are in there are with Putin.” Kiriakou cites the remark as an example of the U.S. government feeding its own people and employees propaganda that makes it easier to hate people over political disagreements.[3][4]