Venezuela Sends US Formal Protest on Diplo Cargo
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- Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 16:20:05 GMT
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Venezuela Sends US Formal Protest on Diplo Cargo
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
Reuters via The Washington Post - August 28, 2006
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/28/AR2006082800962.html
Venezuela Sends U.S. Protest Note in Cargo Spat
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela sent a diplomatic protest note to
the United States as part of a continuing spat over some diplomatic cargo,
Venezuela's Foreign Ministry said on Monday, in a further sign of tension
between Washington and Caracas.
The U.S. Embassy in Caracas last week said Venezuela had illegally impounded
20 packages that the United States said were protected by diplomatic
immunity.
But Venezuela said 16 of the 20 packages did not have diplomatic privilege
and described them as "contraband" that included military equipment.
"For the Venezuelan government, in this incident the procedures for
diplomatic relations laid out in the Vienna Convention have been violated,"
the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Embassy officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the
statement.
A U.S. Embassy official last week denied that military goods were part of
the embassy delivery, but said some U.S.-made aircraft equipment that
Venezuela had purchased was on the same plane that delivered the embassy
cargo.
A State Department spokesman last week said "the impounded cargo consisted
of household effects of a U.S. diplomat and a shipment of commissary goods."
Relations between the two countries been tense as the United States
increasingly criticizes President Hugo Chavez's leftist reform campaign
while Chavez slams the United States as a decadent empire.
Venezuela expelled a naval attach=BF on espionage charges earlier this year,
leading the United States to expel a top Venezuelan diplomat in response.
The bag spat started on Thursday with U.S. Embassy accusing Venezuelan
soldiers of illegally impounded some cargo as it was being transported from
the international airport near Caracas to the U.S. Embassy. The U.S. State
Department demanded an explanation of the incident.
Venezuelan Interior Minister Jesse Chacon responded that 16 of the packages
had not gone through customs and had not identified the military equipment
they included. Chacon said the packages included aircraft ejector seats and
chicken.
*
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