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US expels Venezuelan diplomat

US-Venezuelan relations hit a new low Friday as Washington ordered a Venezuelan diplomat expelled in retaliation for Caracas' move to kick out a US naval attache on espionage charges.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Washington had informed Venezuela by diplomatic note that it was declaring Jenny Figueredo Frias, a minister counselor at the embassy here, persona non grata.

"This decision is in response to the government of Venezuela's decision to yesterday expel Commander John Correa, US naval attache in the US embassy in Caracas," McCormack said.

McCormack said Figueredo, the chief of staff to Venezuela's ambassador, had 72 hours to leave. He did not accuse her of anything but said simply she was "the most appropriate" choice for expulsion.

"We don't like to get into tit-for-tat games like this with the Venezuelan government, but they initiated this and we were forced to respond," McCormack told the daily State Department briefing.

The US move drew fire from Venezuela's Vice Foreign Minister Pavel Rondon, who told Union Radio in Caracas that it was "incongruous and disproportionate."

Caracas's vice foreign minister for North America, Mari Pili Hernandez, insisted Figueredo was a "model" diplomat and called her expulsion a "reprisal of a political character."

But Venezuela would not follow Washington's move with the expulsion of a second US diplomat, she said.

"The decisions that Venezuela takes are taken based on facts and proof, not simply for retaliation," Hernandez said.

The decision by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to accuse the US naval officer of spying and order him out of the country brought diplomatic tensions between Washington and Caracas to a new high.

Chavez said on Monday that Venezuelan authorities infiltrated a group of military officers from the US embassy who he alleged had been spying on his government and preparing operations to arrest him.

US officials called Correa's expulsion unjustified. "None of the military attaches at the US embassy in Caracas was or is involved in inappropriate activities," said Julie Reside, a State Department spokeswoman.

Ties between the countries have gone downhill since the socialist Chavez came to power seven years ago. He frequently accuses Washington of plotting against him and charged it backed an aborted coup in 2002.

The administration of US President George W. Bush has regularly expressed concern about Chavez's influence in Latin America, particularly his alliance with Cuba's communist leader Fidel Castro.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday likened Chavez's rise to power with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. US intelligence chief John Negroponte accused him of seeking ties with Iran and North Korea, two members of Bush's "axis of evil."

In Havana, with Chavez on a visit, Castro on late Friday slammed Rumsfeld's assessment of his Venezuelan ally. Castro said Chavez had "made possible a new chapter in Latin America's history."

The Hitler comparison "is new and unexpected from those who, like Hitler, dreamed of a 1,000-year empire," Castro added.

Chavez for his part said: "Let the dogs of the empire (the United States) bark away. That is their job, to bark. Ours is to fight."
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