[toeslist] Venezuela says US violated airspace
 
Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 09:56:47 -0500 (CDT)


UPDATED ON:
MONDAY, MAY 19, 2008
21:33 MECCA TIME, 18:33 GMT

Venezuela says US violated airspace
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5E82E401-D5B2-49F7-A7D8-76B609072F4A.htm

Venezuela has accused the US of provocation and plans to summon the 
American ambassador to explain the alleged violation of its airspace by 
a US military aircraft.
    
General Gustavo Rangel, the Venezuelan defence minister, said on Monday 
that a US S-3 naval aircraft was detected over two of its Caribbean 
islands, including La Orchila which houses a military base, over the 
weekend.
    
Venezuelan authorities contacted the pilot by radio, who responded that 
he would head back to another Caribbean island, Curacao, a former Dutch 
colony used by the US for training, Rangel said.
 

Rangel said Venezuela believed the flyover was deliberate.

 
"This is just the latest step in a series of provocations in which they 
[the US] want to involve our country," he told a news conference.
 
Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan foreign minister, also said that Patrick 
Duddy, the US ambassador, would be summoned and that "we will ask for an 
explanation" on Tuesday.
 
'Strayed inadvertently'
 
Sean McCormack, the US state department spokesman, said on Monday that 
the aircraft "may have strayed inadvertently into Venezuelan airspace" 
while conducting a counter-drug mission.
 
Rangel said Venezuela believed the incident was
deliberate and saw it as "provocation" [EPA]
But he added that the US respected Venezuela's sovereignty and that it 
"will look into the allegations and provide them [Venezuela] with an 
answer".
 
A US defence official said the aircraft was likely to have accidentally 
entered Venezuelan airspace after experiencing "intermittent 
navigational problems".
 

The US Joint Interagency Task Force South, which co-ordinates 
counter-drug operations in the region from Florida, thanked Venezuelan 
air traffic controllers for their "assistance in guiding the US aircraft 
to international airspace".

 

A statement from the agency said the incident was under investigation.

 

Complaint against Colombia

 

The incident comes after Venezuela said it had issued a formal protest 
to Colombian authorities about an alleged cross-border incident 
involving Colombian soldiers.
 
Venezuela said on Sunday that a 60-strong Colombian military unit was 
"intercepted" 800 metres within the Venezuelan side of the border in the 
southeastern state of Apure.
 
Colombia has denied the incident.
 
Tensions between Colombia, Venezuela and the US remain high after last 
week's report from Interpol, the international police agency, that said 
documents on laptops seized from a Colombian Farc rebel camp in Ecuador 
- which Colombia says show evidence of links between the group and 
Venezuela - had not been tampered with.
 
Colombia and the US have accused Venezuela of supporting and funding the 
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), but Venezuela has denied 
the charges, saying the documents are fake.
 
Interpol was asked by Colombia to examine the laptops, along with hard 
disk drives and several USB memory sticks following their recovery after 
the March raid in which Raul Reyes, one of the group's senior leaders, 
was killed.