Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro threatened to levy charges against the United States this week for allegedly running spy missions in Venezuelan skies.
“All these new, unusual, extraordinary provocations against Venezuela will be denounced before the UN, the UNASUR [Union of South American Nations], the CELAC [Community of Latin American and Caribbean States], the ALBA [Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America], and other organizations,” Maduro threatened on his television show Sunday. His promise to bring the United States to international court followed a broadcast in which Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino claimed the United States had flown a number of surveillance missions over Venezuela.
Specifically, Padrino claimed that a bombadier Dash 8 aircraft entered Venezuelan airspace, describing the aircraft as “possessing an electronic system allowing for the detection of thermal energy to create images.” This aircraft allegedly conducted a surveillance mission, “made circular search patterns and continued going southbound (…) violating Venezuelan airspace.”
Padrino added that multiple “intelligence aircraft of the United States based in Curaçao” also violated Venezuelan airspace. He alleged the U.S. Coast Guard had specifically flown these missions.
The U.S. Coast Guard adamantly denies flying missions in the area. Chief Warrant Officer Chad Saylor called the claims “unfounded” and added, “As far as we know, there was no U.S. Coast Guard that was flying through Venezuelan airspace… if there is an aircraft, it’s not ours.”
The Latin Postnotes that, in addition to the Coast Guard’s denial of running such a mission, the Coast Guard “does not operate any Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft, according to their website.”
This has not stopped Maduro from using these claims as fodder for material on the campaign trail, as Venezuelans will vote in a parliamentary election on December 6. Maduro urged Venezuelans to cast a “vote of punishment” against the anti-socialist opposition for not condemning the airspace violations. “I would like to know if they [the opposition] will condemn the provocations of U.S. Southern Command and the military power of the U.S. against the Venezuelan nation,” he said on Sunday. “It is easy to predict they will not say anything, because those people don’t feel for the nation.” He also claimed the opposition “wants to fill the nation with chaos.”
This is far from the first time Maduro or his cabinet have made bizarre accusations against the United States. In February, Maduro deemed it an “insolent” “threat” from Secretary of State John Kerry to have declared his rampant human rights violations against the Venezuelan opposition “unacceptable.” He has accused Vice President Joe Biden of personally organizing a coup effort to overthrow him. He has also told Venezuelans on national television that President Obama is planning to bomb the capital, Caracas, using aircraft disguised to look like the Venezuelan military’s.
In his most recent accusation of wrongdoing against the United States, Maduro did not even state what the U.S. was planning that could harm the Venezuelan people. He merely warned, “Where there is a conspiracy, there is a gringo.“
In addition to allegedly planning to bring America to international court over the alleged violation of airspace, Maduro claims he will bring a lawsuit to the American court system against President Obama over an executive order passed in March that proclaimed Venezuela a “national security threat.”
With little evidence on the Venezuelan government’s side regarding the latest alleged transgression, a poll in the newspaper El Nuevo Herald found that almost 80 percent of readers do not believe the United States conducted spy missions against Venezuela off the Caribbean coast.
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