Spanish:
 
|
US slams Venezuela over assault on ambassador's car
AFP
WASHINGTON
Petroleumworld.com 04 10 06The US government issued a strong warning to Venezuela Friday after protestors pelted a US envoy's car with eggs and fruit in a neighborhood 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 told AFP.
The US ambassador to Venezuela William Brownfield was blocked Friday from attending a charity event at a sports center and protestors pelted his car with eggs and fruit, a US embassy spokeswoman in Caracas said.
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."
Brownfield met with a hostile reception as he arrived at a sports center in the working-class suburb of Coche, south of the capital earlier Friday, to present a donation to a youth basedball team, embassy spokeswoman Salome Hernandez said.
An official who claimed to be from the Coche mayor's office told him he did not have permission to enter the building. After that incident and pressure from others who said they represented the city government, Brownfield was forced to leave.
When the ambassador got into his vehicle, it had been covered in thrown eggs and fruit, Hernandez said.
Video footage aired by Globovision television showed protestors shouting: "Get out gringo!" "Get out coup-backer!" "Get out rubbish!"
"People on motorbikes pursued the ambassador's car for 15 to 20 minutes," Hernandez said, adding that the riders had pounded on the envoy's car as it departed the neighborhood.
It is unclear who the protestors were although some people at the scene were apparently local municipality workers.
In recent months, supporters of Venezuela's populist president, Hugo Chavez, have protested the US envoy's presence at different events, forcing Brownfield in one incident to remain within a building for several hours.
Relations between Chavez and the administration of US President George W. Bush have worsened in recent years.
Washington has charged Chavez's government with restricting the freedom of the press and harassing the opposition while Chavez frequently criticizes Bush for the Iraq war and has openly called the US leader a "coward" and a "murderer".
Following Friday's incident, Brownfield offered to hold a dialogue with the protestors who pelted his car.
"I accept the right in any part of Venezuela to protest and demonstrate. What I do not accept is violence ... and I invite these groups to have a dialogue," Brownfield told reporters.
AFP 04 07 06 2304 GMTCopyright © 1994-2006 Agence France-Presse. All Rights Reserved.
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels