Venezuela Expels US Diplomats, Rejects Sanctions

Venezuela ordered the expulsion of the top two US diplomats in the country on Tuesday, saying it was the victim of a “political and financial lynching” after Washington tightened sanctions over Nicolas Maduro’s reelection.

Maduro announced the expulsions in a televised speech after being officially proclaimed the winner of Sunday’s election in the South American nation, AFP reported.

The Venezuelan president declared US charge d’affaires Todd Robinson and deputy head of mission Brian Naranjo “personae non gratae.”

“They must leave the country in 48 hours in protest and in defense of the dignity of the Venezuelan homeland... Enough of conspiracies!” he said.

The United States immediately threatened to retaliate. A US State Department official told AFP that Washington had “not received notification from the Venezuelan government through diplomatic channels,” but that if the expulsions are confirmed, “the United States may take appropriate reciprocal action.”

In anticipation that Venezuela’s charge d’affaires in Washington, Carlos Ron, would be expulsed, he was appointed vice minister of foreign affairs for North America.

On Monday, US President Donald Trump tightened sanctions against Caracas, making it harder for the Maduro government to sell off state assets.

“I repudiate all the sanctions that are sought against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, because they harm it, they generate suffering for the people of Venezuela,” Maduro said in the speech.

He promised to present “evidence” that both diplomats were engaged in a political, military and economic “conspiracy”.

Robinson denied the allegations. “We strongly reject the accusations against me and against” Naranjo, he told journalists in the western city of Merida, promising to return there even despite Maduro expulsing him.

 Threat to World Peace

Washington and Caracas have not exchanged ambassadors since 2010, and relations between the two countries have been tense since the late leftist president Hugo Chavez, Maduro’s mentor, assumed power in 1999.

The Venezuelan foreign ministry earlier lashed out at the US sanctions, accusing Washington of intensifying a “criminal financial and economic blockade,” which it called a crime against humanity for impeding “access to essential goods.”

“We alert the international community to the threat to world peace represented by the supremacist, racist and interventionist regime that governs Washington today, inspired by the nefarious postulates of the Ku Klux Klan,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

It said US policy “promotes hatred, intolerance and political and financial lynching” of Venezuela.

Washington has previously imposed sanctions on the president and his senior aides, and banned US entities from buying any more debt from Caracas or state oil company PDVSA.

The European Union said it was also weighing new sanctions after the election.