Venezuelan leader Maduro expels top 2 U.S. diplomats

Americans given 48 hours to leave the country

WASHINGTON — Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro announced that he is expelling the top U.S. diplomat in Venezuela and his deputy for conspiring against Venezuela. He said they must leave for the “dignity and independence” of Venezuela.

Maduro declared Charge d’Affaires Todd Robinson and his deputy, Brian Naranjo, “persona non grata” and gave them 48 hours to leave the country during a televised address Tuesday in which he denounced the “offensive” U.S. sanctions, which he said violated international law and caused greater harm and suffering for the Venezuelan people.

“I say to the government of Donald Trump, I say to the government of the Ku Klux Klan,” Maduro declared to applause from supporters. “I say not with sanctions, not with threats, you didn’t stop the elections. The elections happened. And they were successful. … Venezuela is the victim of a threat never seen before.”

The State Department said it had seen the reports but did not immediately confirm Maduro’s actions.

The announcement comes after the United States’ latest sanctions against the Venezuelan government in response to what it called an illegitimate and “sham” election Sunday that gave Maduro another six-year term.

The Trump administration announced it was blocking the Venezuelan government from selling off the nation’s assets in exchange for cash.

Trump said he signed the executive order to prevent corrupt Venezuelan officials from conducting “fire sales” and lining their own pockets by selling Venezuelan debt that the nation’s people would be saddled with in the future. “This money belongs to the Venezuelan people,” Trump said.