CARACAS, Sept 12: Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has thrust his Opec nation into its worst diplomatic crisis for years by expelling the US ambassador in a growing feud between Washington and Latin America’s leftist leaders.

Chavez, who calls Fidel Castro his mentor, also repeated a threat he has made often to cut off Venezuela’s oil supply to the United States.

“Go to hell, shit Yankees, we are a dignified people, go to hell a hundred times,” Chavez shouted at a political rally to thousands of roaring supporters dressed in red.

Chavez is the most radical of a growing number of leftist governments in Latin America that to a greater or lesser degree oppose Washington’s traditional dominance in Latin America.

Venezuela has some of the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East and despite Chavez’s clashes with the Bush administration, is a major supplier to the United States, which is its biggest customer.

Chavez said Thursday’s move was made in support of his close ally President Evo Morales of Bolivia, where violent anti-government protests have killed eight people.

“The Yankee ambassador in Caracas has got 72 hours to get out of Venezuela, in solidarity with Bolivia,” Chavez said.

Morales, a leftist Aymara Indian, this week expelled the US ambassador in the poor Andean nation after accusing him of instigating the protests.

Chavez said Washington was behind an alleged plot by retired military officers to kill him and said it had plans to bomb him from planes marked as Venezuelan.

“If there was an aggression against Venezuela there would be no oil for the people or for the government of the United States,” the former paratrooper said.

The United States has rejected the allegations by Chavez and Morales. It retaliated against Bolivia on Thursday by ordering its ambassador to Washington to leave. Chavez told his own ambassador to the United States to come home before he was thrown out.The US State Department said it had not been officially notified of the expulsion.

Chavez was briefly ousted in a 2002 coup that was initially welcomed by Washington. Even after the coup Chavez did not go so far as to expel the US ambassador.

In a busy week even for the outspoken socialist, Chavez allowed two Russian long-range bombers to land in Venezuela and played audio tapes live on television that appeared to show military officers conspiring against him.

He also cut US flights to Venezuela and warned he would support “armed movements” to back Morales in the event of a coup against him.

Chavez frequently calls the United States an aggressive empire and has aligned himself with Russia. Moscow is also sending warships for naval exercises later this year in its first such move since the Cold War.—Reuters