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US expels two Venezuelan diplomats in tit-for-tat retaliation
The Obama administration has expelled two junior Venezuelan diplomats in direct response to last week's expulsion of two Americans, the State Department said Monday.
The diplomats are Orlando Jose Montanez Olivares, a second secretary based in Washington, and Victor Camacaro Mata, a consular officer in New York. They were declared personae non gratae on Saturday and have left the country.
“Sometimes it takes us a while to evaluate what has gone down with our personnel and to decide on a response,” spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. “It was a matter of working out who were appropriate people to ask to leave.”
President Obama has expressed hope for better relations with Venezuela – he sent a delegation to Chavez's funeral over the weekend – but Nuland said the retaliation was justified and necessary.
“Clearly, when you have an incident that you consider unjust, then you need to take reciprocal action and make your point clear,” she said, calling it necessary to “protect our own people.”
“We've also said, all the way through this … that we do hope for better relations with Venezuela; there is work that we would like to do together – particularly in the areas of counterterrorism, counternarcotics, economics and energy relations - but it's going to take a change of tone from Caracas.”
New presidential elections are scheduled for April 14.
