US officials expelled from Venezuela

The Pentagon has confirmed that a US military official who was expelled from Venezuela amid accusations by Caracas of a conspiracy is en route back to the United States.



However, officials were unsure of the status of a second military official who Venezuela said it also had expelled.



Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro had accused what he described as the country's historic enemies of causing the cancer of President Hugo Chavez, who died yesterday.



Maduro alleged that US Air Attache, Colonel David Delmonico had been seeking out active Venezuelan military officials to obtain information about the armed forces and propose destabilisation projects.



Pentagon officials said the US embassy had posted military attaches in Caracas, as Washington had previously run security cooperation programs with Venezuela before relations soured under Chavez's rule.



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