Spain recalls Venezuelan ambassador over Maduro conspiracy comments

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks during his weekly broadcast "en contacto con Maduro" (In contact with Maduro) in Caracas, in this April 14, 2015 handout picture provided by Miraflores Palace. [Photo/Agencies]

MADRID - Spain called its ambassador to Venezuela back to Madrid for consultation, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said on Wednesday, after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused the Spanish government of conspiracy against him.

Maduro had said in a weekly televised address that attempts to topple the Venezuelan government were receiving logistical, political and diplomatic support from Spain and that the Madrid government was using its power to back the conspiracy.

"The words used by the (Venezuelan) authorities, never by the people of Venezuela, are intolerable," Garcia-Margallo told journalists in congress.

"Given what has happened and the level of verbal irritation that I have seen in President Maduro, I have decided to recall our ambassador in Caracas for consultation," he said.