Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ordered a US-based Christian missionary group working with indigenous tribes to leave the country, accusing the organisation of imperialist infiltration and links to the CIA.
Chavez said missionaries of the New Tribes Mission, based in Sanford, Florida, were no longer welcome. He spoke at a ceremony in a remote Indian village where he presented property titles to several indigenous groups.
"The New Tribes are leaving Venezuela. This is an irreversible decision that I have made," Chavez said on Wednesday.
"We don't want the New Tribes here. Enough colonialism!"
He accused the missionaries of building luxurious camps next to impoverished Indian villages and circumventing Venezuelan customs authorities as they freely flew in and out on private planes.
"These violations of our national sovereignty have to stop," Chavez said.
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