CARACAS — Venezuela’s government has given the United States two weeks to slash the size of its mission here to 17 diplomats as tensions between the two nations rise.
Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez made the announcement Monday after a rare meeting with the top American diplomat in Caracas.
She said it is up to the United States to decide which of an estimated 100 diplomats stationed here it wishes to send home, making it clear that the goal is to strike a balance with the 17 Venezuelan diplomats that serve in the United States.
President Nicolas Maduro said over the weekend that his socialist government had detained Americans on suspicion of spying and would be taking steps to shrink and curtail the movement of the US Embassy staff he accuses of plotting with the opposition to oust him.
The United States has not exchanged ambassadors with the country since 2010, so the US Embassy was represented by Chargé d’Affaires Lee McClenny.
Maduro regularly denounces the United States for meddling in his country’s affairs, and has taken to leading weekly chants of ‘‘Gringo, go home.’’