GUATEMALA CITY - Guatemala’s new President Alejandro Giammattei said on Thursday his country was cutting diplomatic ties with Venezuela and closing its embassy in Caracas, the Central American country’s state news agency reported.

“We have instructed the foreign minister that the only person left in the embassy in Venezuela should return, and that we definitively end relations with the government of Venezuela,” the agency known as AGN quoted Giammattei as saying. “We are going to close the embassy.”