Washington - Relations between the United States and Venezuela reached their lowest point in years on Friday after a flurry of diplomatic tit-for-tats, featuring expulsions of ambassadors and some of the harshest words yet between the two sides. The crisis began earlier in the week then Bolivian President Evo Morales, a leftist ally of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, accused the US ambassador of fomenting opposition to his leadership and ordered the American envoy out of the country.
Chavez, in an act of solidarity with Bolivia, did the same to the US representative in Caracas on Thursday. The US State Department responded by expelling the Venezuelan and Bolivian ambassadors.
The diplomatic tussle further soured already antagonistic relations between the US and the two countries led by socialist oriented leaders who have long tapped into anti-American sentiment to boost political support at home.
The spat raises more questions about future relations and further jeopardizes the few remaining areas where the countries have been able to cooperate.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said there will be consequences and noted the US is the largest single-nation provider of aid to Bolivia, a largely impoverished Andean nation. The tension could also undercut decades of cooperation between Washington and La Paz in stemming the production and flow of drugs.
US-Venezuelan relations have steadily moved downhill since a failed 2002 coup against Chavez who alleged Washington was behind the attempted ouster and has since accused the US on a regular basis of plotting to kill him.
Chavez on Thursday reiterated his threat to cut off oil shipments to the US. Venezuela holds some of the world's largest oil reserves outside the Middle East and the US is its biggest export market.
Chavez, who has previously called President George W Bush the "devil" and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "a little girl," unleashed his usual barrage of harsh language against the US.
"Go to hell, shit Yankees," he said in announcing the expulsion of the US ambassador, Patrick Duddy.
McCormack, in some of the strongest words yet directed by a US official at the Venezuelan leader and his "protege" in Bolivia, said the two men were bashing the US to distract attention from their domestic political and economic problems.
"This reflects the weakness and desperation of these leaders," McCormack said, adding, "that's part of the playbook."
"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.
Meanwhile, the Treasury Department on Friday froze any assets in the US belonging to two high-ranking Venezuelan intelligence officials and a third former official on suspicion of arming FARC rebels in neighbouring Colombia.
McCormack said the sanctions against the three Venezuelans were not related to the latest diplomatic dispute and they had been in line for months over concerns the Venezuelan government was assisting FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which is listed by Washington as a terrorist organization.
Chavez has enhanced Washington's annoyance by seeking closer military relations with Russia through weapons sales and this week's arrival of two Soviet-era Russian bombers for exercises. The move comes at a time when US-Russian tensions are at a high over Moscow's invasion of Georgia.
