The Colombian consul in the Venezuelan city of Maracaibo resigned after being accused by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of conspiring against his government, the Foreign Ministry told Efe on Monday.
Carlos Galvis Fajardo "presented his resignation and it was accepted," the ministry said.
A program on Venezuelan television released on Saturday a supposed telephone conversation between Galvis Fajardo and the Colombian presidential advisor Jose Obdulio Gaviria in which the diplomat expresses his satisfaction at two opposition victories in the recent regional elections.
In that conversation, Galvis Fajardo hailed the recent opposition election victories in several regions of Venezuela and spoke of contacting the new state governors who oppose Chavez's government and activating "some plans," the Venezuelan leader said.
On Sunday, Chavez himself asked Colombia for the immediate withdrawal of the consul, saying that he was suspected of being involved in plans to destabilize the government.
Bogota "will present two notes to Caracas today," the Foreign Ministry source told Efe, and said that in the first one, "the Colombian government will express its annoyance at the interception of the call" to the until-Monday consul in the capital of Zulia state, near the border of the two countries. The second note, the source said, is a complaint "for speaking badly about Colombia on the television program" in which Galvis Fajardo's conversation was revealed.
The consul spoke Sunday with Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez, and during an interview on the private news channel Globovision denied being involved in any plot against the Chavez government.
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