WASHINGTON, April 8: The US government issued a strong warning to Venezuela on Friday after protesters pelted the US envoy’s car with eggs and fruit in a neighbourhood south of Caracas. “This action was an outrageous violation of the Vienna Convention,” the State Department’s number three official told the Venezuelan government, department deputy spokesman Sean McCormack said.
The US ambassador to Venezuela, William Brownfield, was blocked on Friday from attending a charity event at a sports centre and protestors pelted his car with eggs and fruit, a US embassy spokeswoman in Caracas said.
Mr McCormack said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked Nicholas Burns, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, to call the Venezuelan ambassador here to protest the incident.
“Nick told the Venezuelan ambassador that we hold the government of Venezuela responsible for the ambassador’s security and if such an incident happens again, there will be severe diplomatic consequences between the two countries,” the spokesman said.
“Nick told the ambassador that this action was an outrageous violation of the Vienna Convention, that this action was clearly condoned by the local government, that it was a government-sponsored attempt to intimidate ambassador Brownfield and (the) US embassy,” the spokesman said.
“We made it clear that we will not be intimidated.”
Mr Brownfield met a hostile reception as he arrived at a sports centre in the working-class suburb of Coche, south of the capital, to present a donation to a youth baseball team, embassy spokeswoman Salome Hernandez said.—AFP
