Venezuela has ordered the withdrawal of diplomats from Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay, accusing their governments’ of “meddling actions and statements” following President Nicolás Maduro’s contested election victory on Sunday.
Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei had said he would not recognise the results published by Venezuela’s state-controlled electoral authority, which gave Maduro 51.2 per cent of the vote, calling them “an electoral scam”.
Chile’s leftist President Gabriel Boric had called the results “hard to believe”.
Venezuela will remove all diplomatic staff from the seven countries, foreign minister Yván Gil said in a statement on social media, labelling their leaders “a group of rightwing governments [that are] subordinate to Washington”.