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Venezuela orders Paraguayan diplomats to leave Caracas

18 October 2012 04:55 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Venezuelan government had asked Paraguay’s remaining diplomats in Caracas to leave within 72 hours, the Paraguayan Embassy said Wednesday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Victor Casartelli, charge d’ Affairs and Paraguay’s top envoy in Caracas, said that the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry had asked him and three other Paraguayan diplomats to leave the country.

In Asuncion, Paraguayan Foreign Minister Jose Felix Fernandez Estigarribia said Wednesday that his government was arranging flights for the diplomats’s departure.

The Paraguayan foreign minister said his government expected to receive an official document from the Venezuelan government as established by the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations.

"We have a delicate situation. So far, we don’ t have the written

communication to abandon Venezuela that we have requested, as established by international law," Estigarribia told Paraguay’ s state-run news agency.

in July, Venezuela and Paraguay withdrew their respective ambassadors over the ouster of left-leaning Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo. Lugo was immediately replaced by his conservative vice president Federico Franco.

After the two countries withdrew their respective ambassadors, Venezuela also recalled its military attaches from Paraguay and apparently expected Paraguay to do the same, Casartelli said.