Caracas – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened on Sunday to expel U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield “if he insists” on provoking irregular situations involving “the Venezuelan people.”
“If you are going to continue agitating, go on and pack your bags because I’m going to throw you out of here, Ambassador Brownfield. I’m going to throw you out of Venezuela if you keep provoking the Venezuelan people. You’re going to have to leave,” Chavez said on his Sunday radio and television show “Alo, Presidente!”
Chavez added that his government would issue an “equal” response if Washington “takes any measures against Venezuela motivated … (by) Brownfield’s provocations.”
He also called the U.S. envoy a “demagogue, ridiculous and cynical.”
The Venezuelan leader said that Brownfield “provoked” an incident on Friday where government supporters threw tomatoes and other food at him, beat on his car and pursued his diplomatic motorcade through a section of western Caracas.
The U.S. diplomat, who visited a children’s baseball school affiliated with the Baltimore Orioles to donate gloves, bats and baseballs, showed up at the site without coordinating his trip with Venezuelan authorities, Chavez said on his radio and TV show.
After saying that his government “rejects any attacks” on diplomats or citizens, the Venezuelan leader said that Brownfield acts in an “irresponsible” manner when he inconveniently visits sites where allegedly he is not welcome.
“You could – with your imprudence and your provocations – one of these days cause a serious incident because … (you) go around with armed people,” Chavez warned, presumably referring to Brownfield’s bodyguards.
He said that despite the fact that Brownfield “did not coordinate (his visit to the Coche neighborhood) either with the Foreign Ministry or with the (Caracas) City Hall,” local police were dispatched to the site to “protect him.”
Chavez also complained that the U.S. State Department “is threatening” Venezuela because of the Friday incident instead of “giving clear instructions to its ambassador, who has become an agitator.”
“The U.S. ambassador is not respecting the Vienna Convention and then afterwards the empire comes along and threatens us. It’s you who are the provocateur, Mr. Ambassador,” Chavez said, employing his typical term for Washington.
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 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, bats and other equipment to a youth baseball program. 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 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 Chavez became president in the late 1990s. But they grew even testier after an abortive April 2002 putsch that removed him from power for two days, a coup the Venezuelan leader – a close friend of Cuban leader Fidel Castro – has long blamed on the United States.
