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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| U.S. says to withdraw all remaining diplomatic personnel from Venezuela |
| 2019-03-12 |
| (Reuters) - The United States is to withdraw all remaining diplomatic personnel from Venezuela this week, the U.S. State Department announced late on Thursday. "Like the January 24 decision to withdraw all dependents and reduce embassy staff to a minimum, this decision reflects the deteriorating situation in Venezuela as well as the conclusion that the presence of U.S. diplomatic staff at the embassy has become a constraint on U.S. policy," the State Department said. It did not say on what day the personnel would be withdrawn from the embassy in Caracas. The South American nation has been in the throes of political unrest for months over its contested presidential election. Venezuela is suspending school and business activities on Tuesday amid a continuing power blackout, Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said in a televised broadcast on Monday. It is the third such cancellation since power went out last week. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #11 ...burn in place. no water pressure, they're not going to douse it. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2019-03-12 20:14 |
| #10 Ah'm sure the burn barrels are SMOKIN'! |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2019-03-12 20:13 |
| #9 #7 So I think shit is about to get real, real soon. I suspect the widespread power outage was a tripwire that triggered the decision to withdraw. We should be able to run for at least a week w/o power. Maybe the gen-sets crapped out. There's less than 30 people left so the logistics of taking off are not overwhelming. What is overwhelming is the amount of things being destroyed right now. The machines usually break before we run out of paper to shred and hard drives to crunch. |
| Posted by: Bangkok Billy 2019-03-12 17:41 |
| #8 "What does it matter now?" |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2019-03-12 17:26 |
| #7 So I think shit is about to get real, real soon. My guess as well. The Wagner Group may have been conducting EXFIL 'Havana dry runs' for the bus driver. Likely to be a number of people getting deceased real soon... but I've been wrong before. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2019-03-12 17:18 |
| #6 Usually the US only pulls out everyone when they have good intel that shit is going sideways and they don't want ambassadors killed or taken hostage. So I think shit is about to get real, real soon. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2019-03-12 17:12 |
| #5 Apparently Maduro's National Guard has been playing some baseball against some protestors, and Maddy gave a speech basically removing the leash from the brown shirt dogs. Basically, officially, stage 4 socialism. Combine that with blackouts and a likely, impending outbreak of cholera, starting to sound a bit too sporty. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2019-03-12 16:25 |
| #4 Omega Man |
| Posted by: Frank G 2019-03-12 13:42 |
| #3 Could be the only non-Maduro building in Caracas with power would make it a tempting destination for civilians. Like in those survival books where on day ten that character fires up the generator and gets jumped by every friend, neighbor, joe, and bad guy within earshot. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2019-03-12 13:27 |
| #2 Random guesses: Risk of being taken as hostages. Not enough helicopters to get them all out at once. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2019-03-12 13:09 |
| #1 the presence of U.S. diplomatic staff at the embassy has become a constraint on U.S. policy Oh yeah? What's that supposed to mean? |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2019-03-12 12:48 |