The United States is expelling three Venezuelan embassy officials in a tit-for-tat move after Caracas kicked out three American diplomats last week, a State Department official said today.
The three Venezuelans have been given 48 hours to leave the United States, the official said, in a move that came just as Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said he was planning to appoint a new ambassador to Washington.
The "State Department has declared First Secretary Ignacio Luis Cajal Avalos, First Secretary Victor Manuel Pisani Azpurua, and Second Secretary Marcos Jose Garcia Figueredo of the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington DC personae non gratae," the official said in a statement sent to AFP.
"They have been allowed 48 hours to leave the United States."
Maduro announced on February 16 that three US diplomats were being expelled, accusing them of meeting with protest leaders under the guise of offering them visas.
Those allegations have been rejected as baseless by the US administration. The United States and Venezuela have not had mutual ambassadors since ties deteriorated in 2010.
Venezuela has been rocked by three weeks of protests, fuelled by anger from students and opposition members over living conditions marked by rampant street crime, runaway inflation and economic woes.
Maduro insists the protests are a US-inspired coup d'etat to assail his democratic rule, less than a year since he was narrowly elected successor to the late leftist icon Hugo Chavez.
But he also said he wanted to enhance dialogue with Washington because Americans did not understand what is happening with the violence in his oil-rich country.
