Venezuela to nominate envoy to U.S. as unrest seethes

CARACAS (Reuters) - President Nicolas Maduro's government plans to nominate a new ambassador to the United States on Tuesday despite accusing Washington of fomenting violence which has killed more than 13 people, Venezuela's worst unrest in a decade.

Disputes between the ideologically opposed governments were common during the 1999-2013 rule of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez and have continued under his successor, although the United States remains the OPEC member's main export market.

The two nations have been without ambassadors since 2008, and Maduro expelled three U.S. diplomats last week whom he accused of recruiting students to protest against him.

Yet despite the tension, the president said his foreign minister would nominate an envoy to Washington on Tuesday to try to kick-start relations.

"U.S. society needs to know the truth about Venezuela," Maduro said at a meeting with state governors late on Monday in the latest of his daily speeches to the nation.

"They (Americans) think we're killing each other. They think we can't go out to the corner. They're asking for U.S. military intervention in Venezuela. What madness! Should that happen, you and I will be out with a gun defending our territory."

The crisis, in which more than 500 people have been arrested and about 150 injured over the last two weeks, has brought remonstrations from the U.S. government and attracted wider attention. Celebrities such as Madonna and Cher have condemned Maduro.

The 51-year-old former union activist, who narrowly won a presidential election to replace Chavez last year, says international media are in league with "imperialists" abroad to project an image of chaos and repression in Venezuela.

MARADONA BACKS MADURO

Argentine former football great Diego Maradona backed that stance while signing a deal to be a commentator for Caracas-based Telesur network at the World Cup in Brazil in June and July.

"We're seeing all the lies that the imperialists are saying and inventing. I'm prepared to be a soldier for Venezuela in whatever is required," said Maradona, a friend of both Chavez and Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, before declaring:

"Long live Chavez, long live Maduro, long live Venezuela!"

Sporadic protests continued on Tuesday, with students mounting roadblocks in the more affluent eastern districts of the capital Caracas.

Demonstrations began at the start of February but mushroomed across Venezuela after the first deaths on February 12. The students want Maduro to resign over high rates of crime and inflation and shortages of staples such as milk, flour and sugar. They also accuse him of brutal repression of protests.

"I'm not going until he goes," said student Pablo Jimenez, 24, pointing to a photo of Maduro with a big red cross painted over it as he tried to start a fire on a road in the wealthy Sebucan district of Caracas soon after dawn.

Moderate opposition figures have been calling for peaceful protests only, and are questioning the tactics of setting up barricades and burning trash in largely middle-class neighbourhoods that are already mainly pro-opposition.

"There are thousands of reasons to protest but you have to be aware of the risks and the costs of the barricades which could end up strangling our neighbours and the protests themselves before the government," wrote Ramon Muchacho, the opposition mayor of the upscale Chacao district of Caracas.

As on most days, both sides planned rallies in the capital and elsewhere. In Caracas, the opposition planned to march to the Cuban embassy to protest alleged interference in Venezuelan affairs by the island's communist government.

Many Caracas residents stayed home, schools were largely closed, and some businesses also stayed shut.

Residents of Caracas' poorer west side have staged only a few small demonstrations, though government critics there have joined in traditional protests of banging pots and pans at their windows during Maduro's hours-long television broadcasts.

The demonstrations are the biggest challenge to Maduro's 10-month-old government, though there is no sign they could topple him or affect oil shipments.

Venezuela is Latin America's biggest exporter of crude oil and has the world's largest petroleum reserves.

(Editing by James Dalgleish)

WhatsAppFacebookTwitterLinkedinBeloudBluesky