Spain on Friday ordered Venezuela's ambassador to leave in a tit-for-tat move, escalating a row a day after its top diplomat was kicked out by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's regime. "The government responds proportionally, and therefore has decided in the principle of reciprocity, to declare 'persona non grata' Venezuela's ambassador to Spain," government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo told a news conference.
Venezuela's ambassador to Spain, Mario Isea, was on Wednesday summoned for consultations by his government and is not in Spain, he added. Spain and Venezuela have had tense diplomatic ties since the late Socialist leader Hugo Chavez came to power in 1999. He was succeeded on his death in 2013 by Maduro.