CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuela’s foreign ministry said Wednesday it had recalled its ambassador to Brazil for consultations, after Brazil’s Government last week vetoed Venezuela’s application to join the BRICS group of emerging economies.

The move by the Government of left-wing Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva infuriated Venezuela’s socialist strongman Nicolas Maduro, who views Brazil as a natural ally.

The foreign ministry said that Maduro had ordered Ambassador Manuel Vadell to be recalled for consultations “immediately” and that it had also summoned Brazil’s charge d’affaires in Caracas to protest the veto.

The ministry did not take aim directly at Lula, who missed the BRICS summit, held in Russia last week and at which Venezuela’s application was discussed, after suffering a head injury at home.

Instead, in a statement, it attacked the “irrational behaviour of Brazilian diplomats, who contravened the approval of the rest of BRICS members by adopting a blocking policy”.

Relations between Venezuela and several Latin American countries have soured since the country’s disputed July 18 elections.

Electoral officials aligned with Maduro declared him the winner of the July 28 vote, but did not release detailed results to back up the claim.

The opposition, meanwhile, claimed that its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won by a landslide, publishing detailed polling station results.

Brazil has yet to recognise Maduro’s re-election, saying it wants first to see a detailed breakdown of results.

Several other Latin American countries, such as Argentina and Peru, have joined the United States in backing the opposition’s victory claim.

Lula was a close ally of Maduro’s predecessor, revolutionary socialist leader Hugo Chavez, but has been critical of Maduro’s Government, calling it a “very unpleasant regime” with an “authoritarian bias.”

The foreign ministry in Caracas focused its attacks on the “recurring interventionist, rude statements” by people speaking on behalf of the Brazilian Government.

It took particular aim at former Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, an advisor to Lula, who said Brazil had vetoed the BRICS application because Caracas “breached the trust” of its partners by failing to hold transparent elections.

Amorim acted as an observer in the election.

The foreign ministry accused Amorim of being a “messenger of North American imperialism”. Venezuelan parliament president Jorge Rodriguez said he asked the assembly to declare him persona non grata.

BRICS is an acronym for the five founding members of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It sees itself as a diplomatic counterweight to the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations.

BRICS this year added four more nations: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

NATO member Turkey is also seeking to join the grouping, which represents just under half of the world’s population, and around a third of global gross domestic product.