US Embassy Worker Shot at Strip Club Didn't Realize It

Two US embassy officials in Venezuela have received non-life-threatening injuries—but possibly some damage to their careers—after being shot at a strip club in Caracas early yesterday. The men were shot during a brawl that broke out at the club in an upscale part of the capital around 4:25am, police sources tell Reuters. One embassy worker was shot in the leg; the other was shot in the stomach but didn't notice the injury until he arrived home, according to the police report.

The two men are members of the support staff in the office of the defense attaché, but there does not appear to have been a political motive behind the shootings, a State Department official tells the New York Times. A soaring murder rate has made the Venezuelan capital one of the most dangerous cities in the world, although the part of town where the men were shot was not off-limits to embassy personnel. The incident isn't the only one recently involving US embassy personnel. (More Caracas stories.)