Venezuela recalls top US-based diplomat for consultations

The Venezuelan government has recalled its top US-based diplomat, Maximilien Sanchez Arvelaiz, for "immediate" consultations in the wake of new US sanctions, Efe news agency reported.

"We have called Maximilien Arvelaiz, the charge d'affaires in the United States, home for immediate consultations," said Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez on her Twitter account on Monday.

US President Barack Obama on Monday ordered the imposition of recently-approved sanctions on several Venezuelan officials and declared a "national emergency" due to the "extraordinary risk" posed for US security by the South American country's current situation.

The declaration of a "national emergency" is a tool whereby the US president may apply sanctions against a country under certain circumstances and which allows him to take measures going beyond what Congress has approved.

The Obama administration on Monday identified seven top officials whom it accuses of being linked with human rights violations.

In an executive order, Obama announced the imposition of sanctions on the seven officials, whose assets in the US will be frozen and who are forbidden from entering the country.

Among the sanctioned officials are Gustavo Enrique Gonzalez Lopez, the general director of the SEBIN national intelligence service, and the former director of operations for the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB), Antonio Jose Benavides Torres.

The list also includes Justo Jose Noguera Pietri, the former commanding general of the GNB, National Public Prosecutor Katherine Harrington, National Police director Manuel Eduardo Perez Urdantes, former SEBIN chief Manuel Gregorio Bernal Martinez and Miguel Alcides Vivas Landino, the inspector general of the Venezuelan armed forces.

Sanchez Arvelaiz was appointed by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to be Caracas's ambassador to the US in February 2014, but he still has not received approval to serve in that post and has since been designated charge d'affaires.

Relations between Venezuela and the US have been maintained at a minimum level since 2010, when both countries withdrew their envoys during the presidency of Hugo Chavez, and currently the two countries are represented in each other's capital by charges d'affaires.