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US sanctions Venezuela officials | US sanctions Venezuela officials |
(30 minutes later) | |
The US Treasury has frozen the assets of two senior Venezuelan officials it accuses of aiding Colombian rebels, in an escalating diplomatic row. | |
The US said Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios and Henry de Jesus Rangel Silva were "materially assisting the [Farc rebels'] narcotics trafficking". | The US said Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios and Henry de Jesus Rangel Silva were "materially assisting the [Farc rebels'] narcotics trafficking". |
The move came as the US revealed plans to throw out Venezuela's envoy, after Caracas expelled the US ambassador. | |
The US and Bolivia have also engaged in tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions. | |
Relations between Washington and Caracas are not thought to have been helped by this week's arrival in Venezuela of two Russian bomber planes taking part in a military exercise. | |
The latest row began when Bolivia threw out the US ambassador in La Paz, Philip Goldberg, accusing him of meddling in the country's internal affairs. | |
President Evo Morales said the American envoy had been openly siding with an increasingly violent opposition movement in the east of the country. | |
US officials said the allegations were baseless, but nonetheless expelled the Bolivian ambassador to Washington in retaliation. | |
This prompted the Venezuelan leader, a Bolivian ally, to step into the fray. | |
On Thursday, President Hugo Chavez gave US ambassador Patrick Duddy 72 hours to leave Caracas, telling him: "Go to hell 100 times." | On Thursday, President Hugo Chavez gave US ambassador Patrick Duddy 72 hours to leave Caracas, telling him: "Go to hell 100 times." |
BBC South America correspondent Daniel Schweimler says the spat between oil-exporting Venezuela and the US is in neither side's interest. | BBC South America correspondent Daniel Schweimler says the spat between oil-exporting Venezuela and the US is in neither side's interest. |
The US is a leading trade partner and a major aid donor to Latin America, so few in the region will be happy relations have plummeted to this new low, says our correspondent. |