U.S. military officers shot outside Venezuela strip club
(CBS News) In Venezuela, two American officials from the United States Embassy in Caracas are recovering after they were shot and wounded Tuesday outside a strip club.
The two men are enlisted military officers who work at the U.S. Embassy and the State Department says their injuries are not life-threatening. Venezuelan authorities say that they have identified their attackers, but no arrests have been made.
Investigators responded to a report that two Americans were shot outside a Caracas strip club at 4 a.m. Tuesday morning. According to Venezuelan officials, Roberto Rosas and Paul Marwin got into an argument at the nightspot, and then later, stepped outside where they were shot.
Patrick Ventrell, spokesperson for the State Department, said, "We can confirm that two members of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas were injured during an incident early this morning. Medical staff inform us that their injuries do not appear to be life-threatening."
Both men are Department of Defense employees who advise on military matters at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas. The local doctor who treated them, Carlos Pacheco, said the victims are recovering -- one from a leg wound, the other from a shot to the abdomen.
Venezuela has one of the highest murder rates in the world. And the club is in an area of the capital that is supposed to be off-limits to embassy personnel. Venezuelan police say they are investigating "to discover how the events took place."
It's the latest embarrassing incident involving American personnel in South America. Last year, 11 Secret Service agents were disciplined for engaging with prostitutes in Colombia prior to a visit by President Obama. A dozen military members were also implicated in the scandal.
It's not clear if this episode is simply a quarrel or whether it'll have an affect on the rocky relationship between the U.S. and Venezuela. In March, the Venezuelans expelled two American military attaches from the embassy in Caracas, accusing them of trying to destabilize the country.
Watch Margaret Brennan's report in the video above.