Ambassador

Chavez expells US ambassador

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has given the US ambassador 72 hours to leave the country.

'Go to hell, sh*t Yankees, we are a dignified people, go to hell a hundred times,' Mr Chavez shouted at a political rally.

Mr Chavez also repeated a threat he has often made to cut off Venezuela's oil supply to the United States.

Venezuela has some of the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East and despite Chavez's clashes with the Bush administration, is a major supplier to the US.

'The Yankee ambassador in Caracas has got 72 hours to get out of Venezuela, in solidarity with Bolivia,' Mr Chavez said.

Bolivian President Evo Morales expelled the US ambassador from La Paz yesterday, accusing him of instigating violent protests in the Andean nation.

Mr Chavez said Washington was behind an alleged plot by retired military officers to kill him and said it had plans to bomb him from planes marked as Venezuelan.

The US State Department said it had not been officially notified of the expulsion.

In a busy week even for Mr Chavez, he allowed two Russian long-range bombers to land in Venezuela and played audio tapes live on television that appeared to show military officers conspiring against him.

He also cut US flights to Venezuela and warned he would support 'armed movements' to back Morales in the event of a coup against him.

Chavez frequently calls the United States an aggressive empire and has aligned himself with Russia. Moscow is also sending warships for naval exercises later this year in its first such move since the Cold War.

(Published by RTÉ News - September 12, 2008)