Venezuela President Orders Review of US Ties Over Spying

President Nicolas Maduro said he will file a formal protest and review relations with Washington following a report of U.S. spying on Venezuela's state oil company, including intercepting calls and emails of ex-Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez. Maduro cited a report published Wednesday by the news outlet "The Intercept" based on a March 2011 article in an internal U.S. National Security Agency newsletter that it said was obtained by leaker Edward Snowden. Maduro said on national television late Wednesday that he was ordering an investigation and that U.S. charge d'affaires Lee McClenny would be summoned for a formal protest. The U.S. and Venezuela have not had ambassadors in each others capitals since 2010. More…

The United States government “has no interest or intent to destabilize the Venezuelan government,” U.S. State Department spokesperson John Kirby said Thursday in response to teleSUR’s report that its embassy in Caracas is being used to spy on the South American nation.

The comments come after teleSUR revealed Wednesday that U.S. intelligence agents posing as diplomats, working out of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, helped the National Security Agency obtain internal communications from Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela—and aided its effort to crack PDVSA’s computer network wide open.

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