Caracas – The Venezuelan government on Saturday denied playing a role in an incident in which the U.S. ambassador’s visit to a sports facility in this capital was interrupted and his motorcade was pelted with eggs and tomatoes and pursued by motorcyclists.
The administration of President Hugo Chavez said it “denounces any act of protest that oversteps the limits of respect and consideration for any individual, a national or foreigner.”
But Foreign Minister Alcides Rondon also said at a press conference Saturday that Venezuela, which has had tense relations with the Bush administration for years, will respond with “reciprocity” if Washington takes the retaliatory measure of “restricting the movements” of its ambassador to the United States, Bernardo Alvarez.
Rondon’s remarks were in response to statements by the U.S. State Department, which accused Caracas officials of complicity in Friday’s incident involving Ambassador William Brownfield.
The State Department on Friday warned Alvarez that Venezuela would face “severe diplomatic consequences” if such an incident were to re-occur. One of those “consequences” would be to restrict the ambassador’s movement in the United States.
The fracas involving Brownfield “clearly was condoned by the local government,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday, maintaining that members of the Caracas municipal administration were distributing snacks to the protesters who ultimately pelted Brownfield’s car with eggs and tomatoes.
Describing the incident as the fourth instance of officially condoned hostility against U.S. diplomats in Venezuela within less than a month, McCormack said: “We will not be intimidated.”
Brownfield was visiting a sports facility in the western part of Caracas to donate gloves and bats to a youth baseball program affiliated with the U.S. Major Leagues’ Baltimore Orioles. At the entrance, he was met by a group of people gathered to protest his presence, U.S. Embassy spokesman Brian Penn told EFE Friday in the Venezuelan capital.
The demonstrators shouted “get out, get out,” but prevented Brownfield from exiting the premises for some 30 minutes. The ambassador was only able to leave after heavily armed police arrived and cleared a path for his convoy.
Penn said the leader of the demonstrators presented himself as a official with the Caracas municipal government, which is controlled by Mayor Juan Barreto of Venezuela’s ruling party. The protester told Brownfield to leave the facility because he did not have authorization to be there.
As the four-vehicle diplomatic convoy was exiting the area, demonstrators began pelting the cars with eggs, tomatoes, lettuce and onions and also began pounding on the cars, Penn said.
Later, after the police had withdrawn, a group of “some 20 motorcyclists” chased after the convoy for another 15 minutes and even struck the vehicle with their hands, without any authorities intervening to stop them, Penn said.
In Saturday’s press conference, Rondon offered a detailed explanation of Friday’s incident, which he concluded could have been avoided if Brownfield had coordinated the visit with Caracas municipal officials and the national security forces.
“It appears as if someone … acting in bad faith could have invited the ambassador at an opportune moment,” Rondon said.
“We’re not asking the ambassador to present his agenda of activities for our approval … but it must be made clear that in our country’s political situation there are areas where the presence of some people is not welcome,” Rondon said.
Brownfield’s recent visits and public activities in Venezuela have been interrupted by groups of supporters of President Hugo Chavez, a leftist self-styled “revolutionary” who accuses the United States of seeking to overthrow him.
On March 23, the diplomat said he felt concerned over the lack of security during his trips within Venezuela.
Relations between Caracas and Washington have been uneasy since the leftist-populist Chavez became president in the late 1990s. But they grew even testier after an abortive April 2002 putsch that removed Chavez from power for two days, a coup the Venezuelan leader has long blamed on the United States.
