Chavez accuses him of conspiring against the dictatorship.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Hugo Chavez ordered the U.S. ambassador to leave Venezuela within 72 hours on Thursday, accusing the diplomat of conspiring against his government and saying he would also withdraw his own envoy from Washington immediately.

Chavez made the move in solidarity with Bolivia after his Andean ally expelled the U.S. diplomat there, accusing him of aiding violent protests. He said a new American ambassador will not be welcome in Caracas “until there’s a U.S. government that respects the people of Latin America,” suggesting that diplomatic relations will be scaled back until President Bush leaves the White House.

“They’re trying to do here what they were doing in Bolivia,” Chavez said, accusing Washington of trying to oust him.

“That’s enough … from you, Yankees,” Chavez said, using an expletive. Waving his fists in the air, he added: “I hold the government of the United States responsible for being behind all the conspiracies against our nations!”

Wow, so we’re responsible for all of the conspiracies against both Venezuela and Bolivia? Pretty freakin impressive considering we’ve been unable to find OBL in the past 7 years and our latest NIE on Iran reported crap that was backtracked weeks later.

As for the expulsion, Washington says it still hasn’t received an official notification from the Venezuelan dictatorship. Chavez may also want to recheck his sources:

Embassy spokeswoman Robin Holzhauer said Ambassador Patrick Duddy is traveling in the United States this week.

Chavez, while certainly not harmless, obviously likes to bloviate. He’s threatened to cut-off oil supplies to the United States if it shows any aggresion, yet such a move would seriously debilitate his country. The United States is the number one purchaser of oil from Venezuela.