CARACAS: Venezuela has ended the process of normalizing its relations with the United States over remarks by Washington’s ambassador-designate to the UN, the country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
On Wednesday, the US ambassador-designate to the UN Samantha Power, during her confirmation hearing before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, claimed that Venezuela, along with several other countries, was conducting a “crackdown on civil society.”
“The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela hereby ends the process … of finally normalizing our diplomatic relations” that started in early June, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said in a Friday statement.
The statement added that Caracas is opposed to the “interventionist agenda” presented by Power.
The Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday denounced Power’s remarks as “outrageous,” and demanded “an immediate correction by the US government.”
“Power says she’ll fight repression in Venezuela? What repression? There is repression in the United States, where they kill African-Americans with impunity, and where they hunt the youngster Edward Snowden just for telling the truth,” he said.
The Venezuelan minister of foreign affairs Elias Jaua said “The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela will never accept meddling in its internal affairs. We reject the fact that a nominee for the post of UN ambassador has interference in Venezuela on her agenda.”
