Venezuela Expels Ecuador’s Envoy in Retaliation

Date: 19 October 2018 - 21:13

News ID: ۵۸۶۷۴

CARACAS (Dispatches) -- Venezuela on Thursday ordered Ecuador's top diplomat in Caracas to leave the country, hours after Quito expelled Venezuela's ambassador over "offensive" comments about its president.
Venezuela said it was "forced to take reciprocal action against the Charge d'Affaires of Ecuador in Venezuela, Elizabeth Mendez, who is declared a persona non-grata and has 72 hours to leave the country".
The move follows Ecuador's expulsion of Venezuelan ambassador Carol Delgado earlier on Thursday for "offensive" comments against President Lenin Moreno by a Venezuelan government minister.
Communication and information minister Jorge Rodriguez had accused Moreno of lying about the number of Venezuelans that have arrived in Ecuador after fleeing the economic meltdown in their homeland.
"I listened stupefied to a president on this continent because I couldn't believe he could be such a liar," Rodriguez said on Wednesday, referring to the claim that "6,000 unwell Venezuelans a day are entering Ecuador".
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez has declared that her government complained to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that "individual officials” have been portraying "a normal migratory flow as a humanitarian crisis to justify an intervention.”
Last month, U.S.-based Organization of American States (OAS) called for a "military intervention” to overthrow Venezuela’s government days after reports of a U.S.-led coup plot against President Nicolas Maduro.
Outgoing U.S. ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley also called for the ouster of President Maduro only a day after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to take strong action against Venezuela.
In his speech to the UN General Assembly last month, Maduro rejected U.S. interventionism in the Latin American country, saying Washington opposes Venezuelan independence and determined to stop it at all costs.
He also condemned "illegal unilateral sanctions” by the U.S. on his country, which Maduro says are aimed at toppling his government.
Maduro further referred to the assassination attempt against him in August, during which two drones laden with explosives went off as he was speaking at a military parade in the capital Caracas. He said the perpetrators had links to U.S. allies.