Related News
US ban on Maduro’s flight riles Venezuela
Print Edition
The United States approved a last-minute flight plan for Venezuelan officials, the State Department said yesterday, in a move that allowed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to fly over Puerto Rico on his way to China.
Washington told Venezuela late on Thursday that permission was granted even though the request had not been properly submitted, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.
Maduro said on Twitter at about 10:30pm local time on Thursday that he had left Venezuela for Beijing.
Hours earlier, Venezuela complained that the United States had banned Maduro’s jet from flying through US airspace en route to a state visit in China today, calling it an act of aggression.
Harf said Venezuela did not follow proper steps in its flyover request, giving just one day’s notice instead of the required three. “Additionally, the plane in question was not a state aircraft, which is required for a diplomatic clearance,” she said in a statement.
“Although the request was not properly submitted, US authorities worked with Venezuelan officials at the Venezuelan Embassy to resolve the issue. US authorities made an extraordinary effort to work with relevant authorities to grant overflight approval in a matter of hours,” Harf said.
On Thursday, Venezuela Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said a flight plan filed by Venezuela that would have routed the president’s plane over Puerto Rico had been rejected by US authorities.
“We denounce it as yet more US aggression,” Jaua said. “We reserve the right to take whatever measures we have to if the US government and its aviation authorities don’t rectify this new assault on Venezuela’s sovereignty.”
Jaua told reporters that Washington had no right to deny airspace to any presidential plane. He said the government was studying other routes and the move would not stop Maduro from visiting China.
Maduro has often clashed with Washington since winning an election in April that was triggered by the death from cancer of his mentor, the late leader Hugo Chavez.
“What’s going on in the United States? Why are they so nervous? Why so much despair?” Maduro asked on state TV during a meeting with his party’s candidates for local elections. “Denying a head of state permission to fly through airspace that they colonized, like in Puerto Rico, is a grave mistake.”
His trip to China would go ahead regardless, Maduro said, to applause from the crowd. “They can’t stop us!”
Venezuela’s president later accused the US of not wanting to issue a visa for General Wilmer Barrientos, his minister in the office of the presidency, to attend meetings of the UN General Assembly next week in New York.
“They want to put conditions, if we decide to go to New York ... They don’t want to give a visa to my minister,” he said. “Do we want to go as tourists? We’re going to the United Nations. You’re obligated to give visas to all the delegation.”
The latest diplomatic spat is reminiscent of this year’s incident when Bolivia said France, Spain, Italy and Portugal denied their airspace to President Evo Morales’ jet, apparently on suspicion the aircraft might have been carrying US intelligence agency contractor Edward Snowden out of Russia.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
