The French Foreign Ministry reacted this Wednesday to the measure previously taken by Venezuela to reduce the diplomatic representations of France, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Italy to only three officials, after representatives of these countries ignored the institutions. legitimate interests of Caracas and its authorities.
In this sense, Paris applied diplomatic reciprocity and requested that Venezuela also reduce its diplomatic staff in the European city, for which it gave a period of five days.
A spokesperson for the French Foreign Ministry declared that this decision is “a measure of reciprocity” for the reduction of diplomatic staff in Caracas that Venezuela forced last week, and added that Paris “categorically” rejects the reasons given by the Venezuelan government. .
The communication to the Venezuelan embassy was made last Monday and they were given a period of five days for the diplomats to leave France.
France said it “categorically rejects the allegations of interference” and insisted that the statements by its officials that violated the sovereignty of Venezuela were made in the supposed spirit of “maintaining a dialogue with all the parties to facilitate a way out of the crisis.” “peaceful.”
The reason for the reaction of the Venezuelan government against those of France, the Netherlands and Italy is due to “its support for extremist groups and its interference in internal affairs”, which was described by Caracas as “hostile conduct” of the representatives. of those governments.
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry had announced last Tuesday that France, the Netherlands and Italy would only be able to have three diplomats in their respective embassies and that they would also need written authorization to travel more than 40 kilometers from Plaza Bolívar in Caracas. .
This situation of diplomatic tensions occurs within the framework of what the Venezuelan government has called a “multidimensional attack” perpetrated by the United States government and several of its satellite countries in Europe and Latin America, in which a forced exit is sought. of the legitimate government.
The government of Venezuela has denounced that in this type of “multidimensional attack” the economic blockade is used through coercive measures, the media attack through social media platforms and information matrices and the threat of international armed aggression, added to the infiltration of mercenaries to destabilize the country.