Venezuela gives US 15 days on embassy staff cut

Venezuela is giving the United States 15 days to present plans to slash the staff of the American embassy in Caracas, Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez said.
The move came after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro lashed out Saturday at US "conspiracies" against his socialist government and ordered his foreign ministry to reduce the number of officials at the American embassy from 100 to 17.
Rodriguez told journalists yesterday that she had a "cordial" meeting with the top US diplomat in Caracas, Lee McClenny, to discuss the new measures.
"Regarding the reduction to 17 staff, he was given a period of 15 days to present a plan," said the foreign minister.

She also said the government would in the coming hours publish its new visa requirement for US visitors -- another measure announced by Maduro.
In a fiery speech Saturday that showed rising tensions between the two countries, Maduro said he was banning a list of US "terrorists" from Venezuela, including former president George W Bush and his vice president Dick Cheney, as well as Hispanic American lawmakers Marco Rubio, Bob Menendez and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Calling for "equal terms between states," he said the United States must not have more diplomats in Caracas than Venezuela has in Washington -- 17. He also announced plans to charge US citizens the same visa fee that Venezuelans pay to visit the United States.

Tensions have been growing between the two countries since Maduro said on February 12 that a US-backed coup plot against him had been disrupted.
The United States dismissed the claim as "baseless and false."
In the following days, Venezuelan security forces arrested the opposition mayor of Caracas on charges of conspiring to overthrow the government, a move condemned by Washington.
Like his late mentor Hugo Chavez, Maduro regularly denounces alleged coup plots and assassination attempts against him.
A fervent critic of "American imperialism," he has had numerous diplomatic spats with the United States. The two countries have not sent ambassadors to each other's capitals since 2010.