The two US embassy employees shot and wounded at a nightclub in Venezuela’s capital Caracas work in the office of the defense attache, the State Department said Wednesday.
State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki told reporters that one of the men hurt in the incident early Tuesday, which Venezuelan media said occurred at a strip club, was a civilian and the other was a uniformed service member.
“We of course hold any employees representing the United States, no matter where they work, to a high standard, but we’ll let the final details of the process work themselves through,” Psaki said.
She confirmed that the men, identified by Venezuelan media as Roberto Ezequiel Rosas and Paul Marwin, had sustained “non-life-threatening” gunshot wounds during the incident, which took place at around 4:00 am.
Psaki stressed that embassy staff were cooperating with the Venezuelan authorities, despite tense ties between the two countries that have lacked ambassadors in each other’s country since 2010.
Venezuelan television channel Globovision reported on its website that the incident took place at the Antonella bar located in a shopping center in the Chacao district of Caracas, after an altercation with other bar patrons.
Bar staff told AFP on condition of anonymity that the venue is indeed a strip club that only admits men over the age of 30, but refused to say anything about the alleged incident involving the US embassy personnel.
A district policeman, who also spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said a shooting incident had been reported just outside the Antonella bar, involving three Americans.
In the entryway of the club, there are photos of female strippers.
Venezuela has the highest murder rate in South America with 54 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. In the first quarter of 2013 alone, there were 3,400 murders, according to government statistics.
Several diplomats have been assaulted in recent months in the country.
US confirms defense attache staff shot in Venezuela
