Staunch Maduro foe Peru expels Caracas’ ambassador

CARACAS, Venezuela — The Peruvian government expelled Venezuela’s ambassador Friday as regional pressure built on President Nicolas Maduro’s government for allegedly trampling his country’s constitutional order.

Peru gave Ambassador Diego Molero, a former Venezuelan defense minister, five days to leave the country. The diplomatic action by Peru, which was the strongest yet from a Latin American government, came as the Trump administration weighed putting economic sanctions on Venezuela to punish Maduro for what Washington calls an illegitimate power grab.

Maduro has tried to deflect the pressure from Washington, and on Thursday he said he wants to meet with Trump.

But the apparent olive branch was undermined in the same speech by an angry rant in which Maduro accused Trump of being behind a failed attack on a Venezuelan military base early Sunday.

The Trump administration in turn has called Maduro a “dictator” and imposed sanctions on him and more than two dozen other former and current Venezuelan officials.

Reaction in Latin America has been far more subdued.

Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has been until recently a lonely exception in openly condemning Maduro.

Meanwhile, Maduro’s government has sent mixed signals about how much more confrontation it is willing to accept.

Venezuela is in the midst of a severe economic downturn caused by low oil prices and government policies that have scared away private investment. The country’s bonds are one of the few ways the current government is able to raise money to support its collapsing economy.

But as the country’s political crisis has worsened, the bonds issued by the government as well as the stateowned oil company PDVSA have become a point of contention and concern for investors who increasingly worry they are supporting an oppressive regime as well as a country that is a great risk of defaulting on its debts.