MOSCOW, January 24./TASS/. Venezuelan Ambassador to Russia Carlos Rafael Fario Tortosa said on Thursday that the staff of the US diplomatic mission in Venezuela would be stripped of diplomatic immunity after 72 hours President Nicolas Maduro had given them to leave the country.
However, after this deadline expires, the authorities are not planning to use any force not to give in to provocations from the US. "They are no longer diplomats," the ambassador told Rossiya-24 television. "We consider already now that we have no political and diplomatic relations with that country," he added.
"If they don’t want to leave, we are in no hurry, we have enough time <...> We will be waiting," the ambassador spoke of the US diplomats. According to him, they may stay in the building of the US Embassy. "We won’t be doing anything," Carlos Rafael Fario Tortosa said.
On January 23, Juan Guaido declared himself acting president during an opposition rally in Caracas. Venezuela's incumbent President Nicolas Maduro described these developments as an attempted coup organized by Washington and said he was breaking diplomatic ties with the US.
US President Donald Trump and Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) Luis Almagro recognized Guaido as acting head of state. Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala, Colombia, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Peru, Chile and Ecuador made similar statements later.
Russia, Bolivia, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua and Turkey supported Maduro. Belarus and China called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict without outside interference. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres made a statement in support of the dialogue between the conflicting sides.
