Sep 12, 2008 7:15 am US/Pacific
US: Venezuelan Officials Aided Drug Traffickers
WASHINGTON (AP) ―
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Members of the Venezuelan National Guard stand guard on March 4, 2008 in San Antonio del Tachira, Venezuela, in the border with Colombia.
Rodrigo Arangua/AFP/Getty Images
The United States expelled Venezuela's ambassador Friday as a diplomatic shoving match with leftist Latin American leaders intensified, and Washington accused two senior Venezuelan government officials of aiding drug traffickers in Colombia.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack condemned the expulsions this week of the American ambassadors to Venezuela and Bolivia. He said the United States would kick out the Venezuelan even though anti-American Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had seemingly beaten him to the punch by announcing Thursday night that he was yanking his ambassador.
"This reflects the weakness and desperation of these leaders," McCormack said of Chavez and the embattled Bolivian president, Evo Morales.
Morales began the diplomatic tit for tat by expelling the U.S. ambassador Wednesday. Chavez, who has been a political patron for Morales, followed suit Thursday.
"Clearly he's worried about his protege," McCormack said of Chavez.
Separately, the Treasury Department announced sanctions against Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios and Henry de Jesus Rangel Silva, both high ranking Venezuelan intelligence officials. A former government minister, Ramon Emilio Rodriguez Chacin, was also named.
Treasury said Friday the three materially assisted the narcotics trafficking activities of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, describing the leftist group as a narco-terrorist organization.
At the State Department, McCormack said the sanctions had been in the works for some time and are unrelated to the diplomatic dispute.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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