The German, Canadian and Australian embassies in Caracas were evacuated after bomb threats were made today, in the sixth week of an opposition strike that has crippled Venezuelan oil exports. No explosives were found in follow-up searches.
Tensions have been rising in the world's No 5 oil exporter as opponents of leftist President Hugo Chavez press ahead with a 39-day-old strike that has slashed the country's petroleum output, refining and exports.
The strikers want the populist former paratrooper to resign and hold early elections.
A man telephoned the German embassy in Caracas' eastern Chacao district and said a bomb had been planted in the diplomatic mission and would explode, the embassy's counselor, Thomas Schafer, told journalists.
The man made the call in the name of a previously unheard of group, the Patriotic Committee for Venezuela.
Similar calls were made to the Canadian and Australian embassies a few blocks away. "We got the same thing," a Canadian embassy spokesman said.
No reason was given for the calls and police had no immediate comment. Diplomats said they had heard that other foreign embassies in Caracas had received similar warnings but that could not immediately be confirmed.
Some foreign embassies in Venezuela, including those of the United States and Britain, have evacuated non-essential personnel during the country's political turmoil and warned their nationals not to travel to the troubled South American country unless absolutely necessary.
Rival street protests by followers and foes of Chavez, who was elected in 1998, often end in violence. Two people were killed in clashes last Friday involving demonstrators from both sides and troops and police.