Venezuela expels two US embassy officials amid Chavez cancer conspiracy
/Vice President Nicolas Maduro said President Hugo Chavez's enemies had poisoned him with cancer before announcing that two US Air Force officials would be expelled from the country for spying on the military and plotting to destabilize the country.
Maduro identified one American as the Air Force attaché and said he had 24 hours to leave the country.
"We are aware of the allegations made by Venezuelan Vice President Maduro over state-run television in Caracas, and can confirm that our Air Attache, Col. David Delmonico, is en route back to the United States," spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Todd Breasseale said in a statement.
Foreign Minister Elias Jaua later announced that two Air Force officials in total had been named "persona non grata" and were being kicked out of Venezuela, AFP reports.
Maduro also accused President Hugo Chavez's enemies of poisoning him with the cancer he has been battling for nearly two years.
"Behind all of [the plots] are the enemies of the fatherland," he said on state television.
Maduro spoke just hours after the government announced Chavez was in "very delicate" health after undergoing cancer surgery in December. Maduro said the president was suffering through the "most difficult hours" since the operation.
In December 2011, Chavez speculated that the United States could be infecting the regions leaders with cancer after Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
