Surprisingly elegant

My, my... a surprisingly elegant move by a U.S. Department of State that has spent almost the 2 years demonstrating the dictionary citation of "Ham-Handed"...

Washington has revoked the visa of the Venezuelan ambassador to the US, the US state department has said.

Oh, that's good.

Forgive me; I've left out the explanation.

The U.S.A. and Venezuela have lacked Ambassadorial-level relations since summer at the fault of Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez. The U.S. Amb E&P, Patrick Duddy, got pitched in 2008 and went back in July of 2009, but now he's done. His replacement was to be Larry Palmer... but that hasn't settled at all well with Hugo. Chávez has now walked away from the invitation to Palmer and has even let a challenge to the U.S. to cut diplomatic relations.

Well, that isn't what happened.

The Embassy is open, and operating as normally as possible under the Chargé d'Affaires.

The Venezuelan representation in Washington D.C. now gets its chance to find out how well they operate under the same conditions:

Washington has revoked the visa of the Venezuelan ambassador to the US, the US state department has said.

Venezuela's Ambassador to the U.S., Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, was outside the U.S. at the time. He's not been expelled... he just can't come in.

Now, if Hugo would like to discuss matters, things are on an equal footing.

...and if he doesn't want to resolve this, then the hot potato of declaring a diplomatic breach is back in *his* hands.

Yes, it is petty gamesmanship. Much of diplomacy is just that.

But it *might* just get Ambassador-select Larry Palmer his posting.

State department spokesman Mark Toner said Caracas had only itself to blame.

"We said there would be consequences when the Venezuelan government rescinded agreement regarding our nominee, Larry Palmer. We have taken appropriate, proportional and reciprocal action," he said in an emailed statement.

Surprisingly elegant.

***

Addenda: Fausta has a thread on this and links to several other parts of the story. Also, look at this item from Daniel at Venezuela News and Views for his take on the gamesmanship going on... on both sides.

Boa vinda to readers from O Insurgente and thank you for linking here.