The US has ejected Venezuela’s highest ranking diplomat in the US, alongside two of his colleagues, in what appears to be a retaliatory move, Caracas said. It comes after Venezuela kicked out three US diplomats suspected of sabotage on Tuesday.
“We repudiate this expulsion,” Venezuelan President
Nicolas Maduro's government said in a statement issued to
Reuters, confirming that Calixto Ortega, Venezuela’s acting head
of mission, and two other diplomats had been told to leave the
US.
Maduro’s government rejected that the decision had been
‘reciprocal,’ considering the behavior of Venezuelan officials in
the US compared to their US counterparts.
“If you look at the clear conduct of our officials, who have
at no time dared to meet groups opposed to President Barack
Obama's government, or people interested in acting against
it,” the statement said.
Venezuela expelled three US diplomats on Tuesday, including
head of mission Kelly Keiderling, after having uncovered an
alleged plot.
“We detected a group of US embassy officials dedicated to
meeting the far-right and to financing and encouraging acts of
sabotage against the electrical system and Venezuela's
economy,” Maduro said in a televised speech adding in
English: “Yankees, go home!”
Foreign Minister Elias Jaua later said on state TV that the
expelled Americans had met with opposition and labor leaders in
the southeastern state of Bolivar, and with the opposition
governor of Amazonas state, Liborio Guarulla. He said a protest
note was sent to US Secretary of State John Kerry about the
meeting.
The US Embassy rejected Venezuela’s allegations of conspiracy,
saying the trip was “normal diplomatic engagement” with
opposition forces.
"Of course we met politicians...just like Venezuelan diplomats
in Washington. If they were not going out freely, they would not
be doing their job," Keiderling told reporters late on
Tuesday.
While critics accuse Maduro of continuing a Chavez-like tactic of
inflating diplomatic crises as a way to sideline broader
socio-economic problems in the country, government supporters
highlight a long history of US opposition to socialism in the
country. They point to April 2002’s coup against Chavez, where
documents - declassified in 2004 - indicated the CIA was aware
that a coup was being planned despite denials from the Bush
administration.
Six months ago, Maduro expelled two US military attaches hours
before announcing Chavez’ death from cancer. He later accused one
of them of plotting a coup against Chavez.
Despite tenuous political relations between the two countries,
the US is Venezuela’s primary export market for oil, both crude
and refined, and receives some 800,000 barrels every day,
according to US government statistics.