OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 6:43 AM PT — Friday, January 25, 2019
Dictator Nicolas Maduro orders Venezuela’s Embassy and consulates in the U.S. to close. Maduro issued the demand on Thursday, just a day after the regime announced it would cut all political and diplomatic ties with Washington.
The leader has also ordered all Venezuelan personnel and diplomats to return to the country as early as Saturday.
This comes as tensions between the U.S. and Maduro are at an all-time high after the White House announced its decision to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president.
Venezuela’s Embassy in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. President Nicolas Maduro ordered all of Venezuela’s diplomats home from the United States and defiantly closed the country’s embassy as relations between the two nations rapidly collapsed.(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
“That’s why I announce to the people and free nations of the world that as a constitutional president, head of state and head of government, I swear I respect my duties, fulfill it and enforce the independence, sovereignty and peace of our country,” stated Maduro. “I announce that Venezuela breaks its diplomatic and political relations with the imperialist government of the United States.”
The Venezuelan has reportedly welcomed talks with opposition leader Guaido to work out the country’s political crisis.
