|PIC1|The deadline set for a U.S.-based Christian missionary group to leave Venezuela has passed Sunday following repeated calls from the country’s president for the preachers to leave.

The final deadline followed repeated calls from President Hugo Chavez for the missionaries in the country with New Tribes Mission to leave, after making numerous accusations that the missionaries were American imperialists.

The workers with the mission group were also accused of being spies with the CIA and colonialists.

The first unexpected demand for the NTM missionaries to leave the country last October resulted in most of the 160 evangelical preachers and their families leaving the country to return to the U.S, reports the BBC.

At the time of Sunday’s deadline only 30 NTM missionaries were still in the South American country. The mission group told the BBC that all the missionaries left the tribal areas in compliance with the orders of the Venezuelan government.

According to the BBC, however, Venezuela’s Interior Ministry remains dissatisfied that the missionaries are still in other areas of the country and wants them to leave altogether.

|TOP|New Tribes Mission were shocked by the call last year for its workers to leave, after serving to bring the Gospel to 12 different indigenous tribes in Venezuela over the last 60 years.

The U.S. Christian mission group also provided the indigenous peoples with basic health care and literacy classes.

New Tribes Mission was working in the country for over half a century with the mission of bringing the love of Christ to indigenous tribes completely unaware of the Bible, Christ and Christianity.