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Venezuelan demands explanations from U.S. about alleged NSA spying on PDVSA

Xinhua, November 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

Venezuela handed over a "protest note" on Thursday to the U.S. Charge d'Affaires in Caracas, Lee McClenny, over the alleged espionage on Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.

The Venezuelan deputy foreign minister, Alejandro Fleming, met with McClenny where the latter was given a letter condemning these actions after the information was published on Wednesday by the Caracas based channel, TeleSUR, citing a letter from former NSA operative Edward Snowden.

On Wednesday, President Nicolas Maduro ordered the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry to demand explanations regarding this matter and to review diplomatic relations with the United States.

The letter provided by Snowden revealed that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had spied on some 10,000 employees from the Venezuelan oil company.

The list of profiles, whose personal and professional life was revised illegally, included former PDVSA president and current Venezuelan ambassador to the UN, Rafael Ramirez, and other senior executives.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez ratified on Thursday the review of bilateral relations, as she considered the actions of espionage to be a "serious aggression".

"These serious attacks against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and violations of international law motivate our review of relations with the United States," she wrote on her Twitter account.

The letter also revealed the involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the U.S. Embassy in Caracas in these alleged espionage activities. Endit