Politics
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez denied on Monday night the expulsion of a group of officials from the Venezuelan Consulate in Houston, United States, and said that his former consul in that US city had been stripped out of his post for moving the consulate without permission from the authorities of both countries.

"Our lead diplomat in Houston moved the consulate without approval from the US authorities or Venezuela's Embassy in Washington," Chávez said explaining the removal of the Venezuelan official.

"We have to accept that there was a mistake. There was no coordination with the authorities of that country. Then, all this has been used by some Venezuelans here, particularly some media and, of course, by some sectors in the United States," Chávez said. 

Chávez made the comments in a live TV broadcast from the Palace of Miraflores (the seat of the Venezuelan government), where he met with regional leaders and candidates of his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

Venezuela's Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro said that the situation had been clarified and solved "from the administrative and diplomatic point of view." He said that the incident had been manipulated to generate some "noise" during the transition period between both US Presidents.

With regard to the statements of deputy spokesman of the US State Department Robert Wood, Maduro said: "We will evaluate them. We will talk on Tuesday with State Department officials who addressed the issue."

On Monday, Wood told reporters that "in August the Venezuelan Government had requested authorization to lease some office space for the consulate. And prior to getting that authorization from the (US State) Department, they went ahead and leased this property anyway, which was a violation of (...) the Foreign Relations Act. And so there have been a number of steps that have transpired since."

When asked whether the consulate had been closed, Wood replied, "I don't know that there was necessarily a formal closure yet."

Translated by Gerardo Cárdenas