Climbing Back on Hugo Chavez’s Hot Seat: Ambassador Duddy to Return to Caracas?

Ray Walser / June 25, 2009

On September 11, 2008, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, at a mass rally of fanatics, ordered U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, Patrick Duddy, out of the country within 72 hours. The reason for Duddy’s expulsion was Chávez’s pique with the diplomatic spat between the Bush Administration and the government of Bolivian Evo Morales. The expulsion speech was laced with hate-filled invectives.
“Go straight to hell you, Yankees of s—t,” screamed Chávez. The four-letter expletive figured prominently throughout the speech.

For a professional diplomat like Ambassador Duddy, those events were certainly traumatic, personally and professionally.

The expulsion was an act over which the Ambassador had no control. Yet, it represented a failure of his diplomatic mission and a loss of diplomatic effectiveness in Caracas. (more…)