The United States on Thursday rejected Ecuador's accusation on an American diplomat, hinting to reconsider the relationship with the Latin American country.
"The decision by the government of Ecuador to expel a second American diplomat is very troubling and raises serious concerns about Ecuador's desire to maintain a productive relationship," said State Department Deputy Spokesman Gordon Duguid.
The Ecuadorian Government expelled on Wednesday a second US diplomat in this month over "unacceptable meddling" police officer appointments in programmes receiving US aid.
"We are declaring Mr Mark Sullivan persona-non-grata, he is the First Secretary of the Embassy and we are giving him 48 hours to leave the country," said Foreign Affairs Minister Fander Falconi.
On February 7, the Ecuadorian Government ordered the expulsion of the embassy's attache Armando Astorga for a similar reason.
"The United States rejects any suggestion of wrongdoing by embassy staff," said Duguid.
"Our embassy personnel have acted with the utmost respect for Ecuador's sovereignty. Our programmes have been administered in a transparent and accountable fashion with the full cooperation of Ecuador's senior officials," said Duguid.
The US-Ecuador relationship has been in tense since President Rafael Correa, who has some 70 per cent popularity in Ecuador, rejected to renew a lease ending this year on a coastal air base used by US troops.
Correa is widely viewed as one of the left-winger leaders in Latin America, as well as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Evo Morales. Venezuela and Bolivia both expelled US ambassadors last year.