Expulsions and aggressive language raise stakes in long-running diplomatic battle between US and Venezuela

This article is more than 12 years old

This article is more than 12 years old

President Hugo Chávez last night ordered the US ambassador to leave Venezuela within 72 hours and accused Washington of fomenting a coup attempt against his socialist revolution.

Chávez also ordered Venezuela's ambassador to Washington to return home and threatened to cut oil supplies, plunging relations between the countries to a new low. "Go to hell a hundred times, fucking Yankees," he told a televised rally thronged with supporters clad in red.

The move came a day after Venezuela's ally Bolivia expelled its US ambassador for allegedly backing opposition groups engaged in bloody clashes with police and government supporters; turmoil which claimed eight lives and split the country in two.

The expulsions and aggressive language dramatically raised the stakes in a long-running diplomatic battle between South America's most radical leftist governments and the superpower they term the "empire".

The US retaliated by expelling Bolivia's envoy to Washington and would probably have done the same to Venezuela's envoy, Bernardo Alvarez, had Chávez not recalled him to Caracas first.

In a day of intrigue and brinkmanship, Chávez announced that Venezuelan military officers had plotted to assassinate him with US complicity. "They're trying to do here what they were doing in Bolivia. That's enough shit from you Yankees," he said.

Ties would be restored when the US had a new government that "respected" Latin America, he added.

Coincidental or not, his accusation fell on the 35th anniversary of the CIA-backed coup which replaced Chile's leftist president, Salvador Allende, with the dictator Augusto Pinochet.

The US denied Chávez's claims. The Venezuelan president did not offer evidence of wrongdoing by the ambassador, Patrick Duddy, or other US officials, but he said several Venezuelan military officers had been detained following an investigation by his intelligence services. During his televised address he played a recording of purported conversations between the alleged conspirators.

Earlier, the defence minister, General Gustavo Rangel Briceño, and a pro-Chávez TV host, Mario Silva, named several senior officers from the navy, air force and national guard as suspects.

None appeared to have been charged and details of the alleged plot were scant. Venezuela's president has made previous claims about other alleged conspiracies, which were never substantiated.

He has also made repeated threats to cut oil shipments to the US, a warning he revived yesterday. Such a move would disrupt the US economy but devastate Venezuela's - which may explain why Chávez has never followed through. The markets tend to shrug off the threat as bluster.

The timing of yesterday's rhetoric prompted some to suspect political theatre designed to distract voters. Chavez faces important municipal and regional elections in November with inflation at 30%, Latin America's highest, and a spate of damaging headlines about violent crime and crumbling hospitals.

He has also been embarrassed by a trial in Miami linked to a suitcase with $800,000 (£450,000) discovered in Buenos Aires, allegedly a clandestine payment from Caracas to help Argentina's president, Cristina Kirchner, win an election last year. The US also accused Chávez of turning a blind eye to cocaine trafficking in Venezuela.

Those stories were eclipsed this week by two Russian bombers that visited Venezuela at Chávez's invitation, a foray in advance of the Russian navy squadron which is due to dock in November to underline deepening ties between Caracas and Moscow.

In contrast to the heated but bloodless events in Venezuela the other leading member of Latin America's "pink tide" of leftist governments, Bolivia, has been reeling from violent riots.

Opposition groups opposed to President Evo Morales, a Chávez ally and the Andean country's first indigenous leader, attacked government offices, cut gas pipelines and clashed with police and government supporters. Fighting in the remote northern province of Pando reportedly left eight dead and at least 20 injured.

Morales expelled the US ambassador, Philip Goldberg, after accusing him of supporting the opposition, a claim the envoy denied. In response, the Bush administration ordered Bolivia's envoy, Gustavo Guzman, to leave the US.