CARACAS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th January, 2019) The last group of US diplomats has left Venezuela earlier in the day, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday, adding that he had tasked the country's foreign ministry to launch talks with the United States on creation of so-called offices of mutual interests in the countries within 30 days.
Earlier in the day, the ministry released a statement announcing that the offices would be created.
"They [US diplomats] have already left the country, the last group left today," Maduro said in his address for a Venezuelan youth organization.
Talking about the offices of mutual interests, the president recalled that a similar body had been operating in Cuba, which has no diplomatic relations with the United States, during a year. He said that the work of the offices would be organized like it was in Cuba.
On Tuesday, the situation in Venezuela, which has been hit by mass protests since the beginning of the week, escalated when the opposition-controlled National Assembly declared that Maduro had usurped power. Opposition leader Juan Guaido proclaimed himself interim president on the following day.
The United States along with some other states recognized Guaido as the interim president, after which Maduro accused the United States of organizing a coup in Venezuela. Maduro also decided to cut off diplomatic relations with the United States and asked US diplomats to leave the country within 72 hours.
