US diplomats expelled in Latin America
Yahoo News/AFP
by Sylvie Lanteaume
September 12, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Washington tried Friday to play down its concerns in Latin America by attributing the expulsion of its envoys from Bolivia and Venezuela as a byproduct of domestic problems in those countries.

"We regret the actions of both President Hugo Chavez and President Evo Morales to expel our ambassadors in Venezuela and Bolivia," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

"This reflects the weakness and desperation of these leaders as they face internal challenges, and an inability to communicate effectively internationally in order to build international support," he added.

In 48 hours, Bolivia and Venezuela expelled the US ambassadors from their capitals and the United States retaliatated with reciprocal steps against their envoys in Washington.

Morales accused the US ambassador in La Paz, Philip Goldberg, of promoting separatism in Bolivia where the governors of five of the nine provinces reject a new draft constitution which he hopes to put to a referendum.

The State Department replied the following day by ordering the expulsion of Gustavo Guzman, the Bolivian ambassador in Washington.

Hours later Chavez, the self-styled leader of the radical left in Latin America, ordered the expulsion of Patrick Duddy, the US ambassador in Caracas, in what he called an act of "solidarity" with Bolivia.

Chavez also alleged that his government had uncovered a coup plot hatched by active and retired military officers, which he said had tacit US approval.

He again threatened to suspend oil shipments to the United States, its main importer, if his government became the victim of US "aggression."

"The charges leveled against our fine ambassadors by the leaders of Bolivia and Venezuela are false, and the leaders of those countries know it," McCormack said after announcing the expulsion of Venezuela's ambassador in Washington, Bernardo Alvarez Herrera.

"The only meaningful conspiracy in the region is the common commitment of democratic countries to enhance opportunities for their citizens. The only overthrow we seek is that of poverty," the US spokesman said.

He added that Chavez "has also committed a number of serious missteps in the region just recently, if we look at what happened with the FARC in Colombia," or the Spanish acronym of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

He has also happened to invite in the Russian military for "military exercises," he added.

Two TU-160 bombers from Russia landed in Venezuela on Wednesday for training flights, according to Moscow and Caracas.

McCormack showed journalists a photograph of one of the bombers, which was shadowed by a US F-15 fighter plane, as it flew to Venezuela.

"As you can see, we are watching it closely," McCormack said. "And if it can't make it back, we'd be happy to make sure the guys get back when they're intended to go back on the 15th."

He declined to make any link between the deployment of the Russian bombers in a region which Washington has long considered its sphere of influence and the presence of US warships off Georgian waters neighboring Russia.

The sanctions that the US Treasury imposed on two senior Venezuelan intelligence officers and a former interior minister, he said, had nothing to do with these incidents.

The Treasury froze any assets in the United States belonging to the three whom it accused of aiding FARC rebels involved in the drug trade.

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