The US has expelled Venezuela’s charge d’affaires in Washington and two other diplomats in reprisal for the expulsion of three US diplomats from Caracas, both countries said late on Tuesday.
The tit-for-tat move came a day after the expulsion of the US diplomats, accused of plotting acts of sabotage against the government, the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in Caracas.
It called the US move unjustified, saying the Venezuelan diplomats had not been meeting with people opposed to US President Barack Obama.
Venezuela said the three diplomats it ejected, including US charge d’affaires Kelly Keiderling, had met with the “Venezuelan far right” — the government’s term for the opposition — to finance Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s opponents and “encourage actions to sabotage the power system and the economy.”
The two countries — at each other’s throats politically, but eager supplier and buyer of Venezuelan oil — have not had ambassadors in each other’s capitals since 2010.
Maduro is a firebrand anti-US populist in the mold of his predecessor, former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who died in March of cancer.
Some analysts in Venezuela said Maduro expelled the US diplomats to create a fracas and divert people’s attention from his country’s economic woes, with key municipal elections due in December.
“The United States is the big wild card for the revolutionary government. That is why the government does not want any stability in relations,” said Felix Gerardo Arellano, a professor of political science at the Central University of Venezuela.
Venezuela suffers from inflation, acute and regular shortages of basic goods, rampant street crime and other woes. On Sept. 3 an electrical blackout left 70 percent of the country without power for hours. The government has blamed the opposition, saying it seeks to create social unrest.
In Washington, a US Department of State official confirmed that the Venezuelan charge d’affaires Calixto Ortega Rios and two other diplomats had been told on Monday they had 48 hours to leave the US. Ortega and another diplomat were based in Washington, while the third was the consul in Houston, Texas.
“It is regrettable that the Venezuelan government has again decided to expel US diplomatic officials based on groundless allegations, which require reciprocal action,” the official said.
“It is counterproductive to the interests of both our countries and not a serious way for a country to conduct its foreign policy,” the official said.
US Department of State spokeswoman Jen Psaki said earlier in the day that Venezuela’s charges appeared to have arisen out of a trip to Bolivar state by the three Americans who “were there conducting normal diplomatic engagement.”
“We, of course, maintain regular contacts across the Venezuelan political spectrum. And we maintain a broad perspective on Venezuela and travel frequently ....that’s what diplomats do,” she said.
Keiderling, the Caracas government said, acknowledged meeting with members of “civil society” as part of her normal diplomatic work.
The foreign ministry blasted this as “a confession of open interference in the internal affairs of Venezuela.”
Washington has been trying to improve ties with Caracas since the death of long-standing US foe Chavez, but little progress has been made. Still, the US is Venezuela’s top oil buyer, purchasing 900,000 barrels a day.
“We’ve had a relationship with Venezuela that we’ve been working on for some time. We’re not going to give up on those efforts,” Psaki said.
In June, the two countries agreed to begin discussions aimed at returning ambassadors to Caracas and Washington after talks between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Elias Jaua.
However, Venezuela broke off the rapprochement in July after the now US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, lumped Caracas with other “repressive regimes.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese