The Venezuelan government ordered Panama’s ambassador and three other diplomats at the mission to leave the country within 48 hours, a Panamanian official said Thursday, a day after Caracas broke ties with Panama City

The Venezuelan government ordered Panama's ambassador and three other diplomats at the mission to leave the country within 48 hours, a Panamanian official said Thursday, a day after Caracas broke ties with Panama City.
  
"We received a note from the foreign ministry of Venezuela that was delivered to our embassy in which it declared four diplomats working in our embassy as 'persona non grata,'" Panama's Deputy Foreign Minister Mayra Arosemena told reporters.
  
The diplomats are Ambassador Pedro Pereira, charge d'affaires Jaime Serrano and two other embassy officials. "We have recalled our staff today and they are traveling (to Panama) tomorrow," Arosemena said.
  
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced Wednesday he was breaking diplomatic ties with Panama after the country called a meeting of North and Latin American nations over weeks of sometimes violent protests in Caracas.
  
Maduro also said he was freezing all trade and economic ties with the Central American nation. "Nobody will conspire with impunity to ask for an intervention against our fatherland. Enough!" Maduro said after Panama requested a private meeting of the Washington-based Organization of American States.

In an interview with CNN, Maduro also renewed his call for establishing a new level of relations with the United States after years of frosty relations. "My message (to the US) is: respect, dialogue, that we overcome the visions they have of our country," Maduro said. "Our message to those who rule the US is respect Venezuela, respect Latin America and let's establish new levels of relations."