CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Venezuelan officials are criticizing the Bush administration's decision to expel s diplomat from Caracas' mission in Washington.
Jeny Figueredo, chief of staff of the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States, was told to leave the country Friday after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expelled an American naval attaché from the U.S. mission in Venezuela amid espionage allegations.
Chavez's decision followed last week's allegations that a group of Venezuelan military officers passed information to a navy attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas.
"Venezuela does not accept the justification for the decision as being part of the process of diplomatic reciprocity," read a statement from the Venezuelan mission in Washington, sent to United Press International. "On the contrary, we view it as an act of political retaliation."
The U.S. State Department said Figueredo was being expelled in direct response to Venezuela's expulsion Thursday of Navy Cmdr. John Correa, the naval attaché at the U.S. embassy in Caracas, the Miami Herald reported Friday.
"Look, we don't like to get into ... tit-for-tat games like this with the Venezuelan government," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, "but they initiated this, and we were forced to respond."
