Now this.The Associated Press wrote:US envoy calls plane incident accidental
By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER – 4 days ago
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Washington's top diplomat in Venezuela said Tuesday the United States is taking steps to make sure its counter-drug planes don't stray into Venezuelan airspace again — but President Hugo Chavez's government isn't satisfied.
U.S. Ambassador Patrick Duddy acknowledged an S-3 Navy plane flew into Venezuelan airspace during an anti-drug mission over the Caribbean Sea, saying it was an accident due to a navigational error.
But Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro presented Duddy with a protest letter and said after their meeting that he was not satisfied.
"We've received responses from the U.S. ambassador that do not please us," he said, calling the flyover one of many U.S. "provocations."
The incident could heighten long-standing tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela.
The plane was detected by Venezuelan authorities on Saturday near the island of La Orchila, and its crew was questioned over the radio by the Caracas airport control tower.
In the meeting, Duddy said he reiterated the U.S. government's interest in "renewing counter-drug cooperation," which has been scaled back in recent years. He also brought up concerns about alleged links between Venezuela's government and leftist Colombian rebels.
Colombia says files retrieved from the computers of slain rebels show Venezuela sought to finance and arm the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The international police agency Interpol found no evidence of tampering with the files, but Chavez has dismissed the findings as a sham.
Maduro said U.S. officials are committing a "series of errors" and that the computers were not properly safeguarded to prevent meddling with the files.
Personally, I believe claims that the S-3 made a navigational error. (The USN has better aircraft for performing reconnaissance over defended territory, i.e., the F/A-18E/F equipped with the SharedBloomberg.com wrote:Chavez Says U.S. Plane Was Spying on Military Base (Update1)
By Daniel Cancel
May 21 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the U.S. Navy S-3 aircraft that flew into his country's airspace on May 17 was spying on a Venezuelan military base on Orchila Island.
Chavez said the U.S. was testing Venezuela's ability to detect intruders and that the Venezuelan air force was prepared to intercept the plane had it not turned back toward the Caribbean island of Curacao.
"They're spying, they're even testing our reaction capacity,'' Chavez said on state television. "In this case the plane left, but if it hadn't our pilots were starting the engines on the Sukhois to guarantee the sovereignty of our national territory.''
Relations between Venezuela, the U.S. and Colombia, the U.S.'s closest ally in Latin America, have been tense since Colombia accused Chavez of supporting the region's biggest guerrilla group in its 44-year war against the Colombian government.
U.S. ambassador to Caracas Patrick Duddy yesterday reiterated the U.S. military's explanation that the over-flight stemmed from a navigational error by a drug surveillance plane. Duddy said he hoped Venezuela would cooperate in operations to detect narcotics trafficking.
Border Incident
Venezuela's Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro gave Duddy a letter of protest yesterday.
Venezuela also complained of an alleged border incursion by a group of 60 Colombian troops on May 16 in the southwestern state of Apure. The two countries, who share a border of 2,050 kilometers (1,274 miles), said they would resolve the incident diplomatically in the coming days.
Chavez, who spent $4.4 billion in weapons purchases from 2003 to 2006, has denied he provides aid to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, as the rebels are known, and accuses the U.S. of wanting to provoke a war with Venezuela.
``They accuse us of being in an arms race, that's not true, we're simply strengthening our armed forces,'' Chavez said. ``We're being threatened by the Empire. What do they want? That we disarm?''
To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Cancel in Caracas at dcancel@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: May 21, 2008 15:58 EDT
Reconnaissance Pod.) Thoughts?
