, is the latest move in an escalating diplomatic battle that pits the United States against two of Latin America 's leftist leaders . It comes a day after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that he was expelling the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela , Patrick Duddy . Chavez also said he was recalling the Venezuelan ambassador from the United States . `` He has 72 hours , from this moment , the Yankee ambassador in Caracas , to leave Venezuela , '' Chavez told a crowd of supporters . `` When there 's a new government in the United States , we 'll send an ambassador . A government that respects Latin America . '' The president said he was making the moves `` in solidarity with Bolivia and the people of Bolivia . '' Bolivian President Evo Morales on Thursday accused the United States of fomenting a coup d'etat by rich eastern department landowners against him , and he called for the U.S. ambassador to leave for allegedly encouraging those protesters . For the past two weeks , the demonstrators in the country 's richer eastern lowlands have been protesting Morales ' plans to redistribute the country 's natural
WASHINGTON -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- The United States is expelling the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States in response to a similar move by Venezuela , U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday . `` We have informed the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States that he will be expelled and should leave the United States , '' McCormack said . Separately , the U.S. Treasury Department accused Friday two senior Venezuelan intelligence officials -- Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios and Henry de Jesus Rangel Silva -- and one former official -- Ramon Rodriguez Chacin -- of assisting leftist rebels in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia , or FARC , with narcotics trafficking . `` Today 's designation exposes two senior Venezuelan government officials and one former official who armed , abetted and funded the FARC , even as it terrorized and kidnapped innocents , '' said Adam J. Szubin , director of the Treasury 's Office of Foreign Assets Control , in a statement . The action freezes assets the three men may have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits Americans from conducting business with them . The U.S. decision to expel the Venezuelan ambassador , Bernardo Alvarez Herrera