Caracas - Venezuela says it has "ended" its rapprochement with the United States due to a statement by Samantha Power, nominated to become the US envoy to the United Nations.
Power said at a US Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday that if she got the job she would stand up to "repressive regimes" and challenge the "crackdown on civil society being carried out in countries like Cuba, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela."
Washington and Caracas have not exchanged ambassadors since 2010 even though Venezuela exports 900 000 barrels of oil to the US per day.
"The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela hereby ends the process ... of finally normalising our diplomatic relations" that began in early June, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Venezuela is opposed to the "interventionist agenda" presented by Power and noted that her "disrespectful opinions" were later endorsed by the State Department, "contradicting in tone and in content" earlier statements by Secretary of State John Kerry.
Kerry and his Venezuelan counterpart, Elias Jaua, agreed on the sidelines of an Organisation of American States meeting in Guatemala in June that officials would "soon" meet for talks that could lead to an exchange of ambassadors.