A U.S. official accused Venezuela of undermining democratic movements in Latin America
A U.S. official accused Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, of undermining democratic movements in Latin America, Bloomberg reported.
?The administration has found mounting evidence that Venezuela is actively using its oil wealth to destabilize its democratic neighbors in the Americas by funding anti-democratic groups in Bolivia, Ecuador and elsewhere,'' Matthew Reynolds, the State Department's acting assistant secretary for legislative affairs, stated in a letter to a congresswoman.
Venezuela demanded the U.S. show evidence of Reynolds's accusations.
"Otherwise this accusation, repeated again and again, merely exposes its authors to public discredit,'' the Venezuelan foreign ministry said in a statement.
Reynolds's comments are the latest volley in an ongoing rhetorical spat between the two countries. The U.S. has been sharply critical of President Hugo Chavez's crackdown on press freedom and opposition political groups.
The two countries clashed earlier this year over the U.S. refusal to extradite terrorism suspect Luis Posada Carriles, who the South American country says planned the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people.
