Top Story USA
27
January 2007
Chavez threatens to expel US ambassador
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a fierce critic of George
Bush, has announced that the U.S. representative to Caracas
will be asked to leave if he continued to "meddle in Venezuela's
issues."
President Chavez, who has ruled Venezuela since 1999, has warned
that if William Brownfield continues to voice his comments against
his plan to nationalize the telecommunications and power industries,
the U.S. Ambassador to the South American country will be declared
"persona non grata."
Such comments would "be violating the Geneva Conventions
and would be incurring a serious violation," Chavez.
Although, Brownfield told reporters he was hoping to improve
rocky relations with Chavez over their differences of opinion,
the career diplomat from Texas said his bags are "always
packed and ready" if he was forced to leave his post.
Relations between Chavez and the White House remain tense, with
Chavez criticizing the Bush administration of trying to topple
him, a move the US constantly denies. The United States, on
the other hand, has accused the Venezuelan President of illegally
seizing assets of companies that have worked in Venezuela for
a long time.
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