U.S. Orders Non-Emergency Government Employees Out of Venezuela
President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday gave U.S. diplomats 72 hours to leave, an order that Pompeo said the U.S. would ignore.
(Bloomberg) -- Secretary of State Michael Pompeo ordered all non-emergency U.S. government employees to leave Venezuela because of increased danger to Americans after President Donald Trump recognized Juan Guaido as the country’s leader.
Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday gave U.S. diplomats 72 hours to leave, an order that Pompeo said the U.S. would ignore. The State Department will maintain a skeleton staff of diplomats at the embassy in Caracas so it can say it’s keeping a presence there.
In an advisory, the State Department also said that the “U.S. government has limited ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in Venezuela. ” It said they should “strongly consider” leaving and warned them to have sufficient supplies if they need to shelter in place.
To contact the reporters on this story: Nick Wadhams in Washington at nwadhams@bloomberg.net;Daniel Cancel in Sao Paulo at dcancel@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert
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