Venezuela accuses U.S. of violating its airspace

The Venezuelan Minister of Defense, Vladimir López, announced on September 20 that the United States violated its airspace during a Non-Aligned Movement summit it recently hosted. In his speech, López explained that the plane came within 130 nautical miles of the island of Margarita, the location of the summit, and called on the U.S. government to respect international maritime law, which grants nations an exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles from their coasts. He accused the U.S. of “flagrantly violating international norms” by failing to announce itself to Venezuelan flight authorities. “[The aircraft] gathered information, carrying out intelligence operations on the summit… [Venezuelan] fighter jets, commanded by the president, flew out, intercepted the aircraft and informed [its crew] of the violation it was committing. The aircraft agreed to return to its base,” on the island of Curacao, the minister added.

The United States denied the accusation the following day and indicated that the plane was carrying out counter-narcotic monitoring operations in international airspace. The Southern Command asserted that all claims regarding the incident are “unfounded” and sustained that U.S. counter-narcotic activities are carried out with the “utmost respect for the sovereignty of nations.”

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro condemned

what he claimed were acts by the United States against his country and announced that Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez would denounce the case before the UN General Assembly.

In recent years, the tension between Venezuela and the United States has resulted in strained diplomatic relations under the mandates of former President Hugo Chavez and current President Maduro. After the two countries reduced their diplomatic relations by removing their ambassadors in 2010, repeated conflict has arisen, and Maduro frequently accuses the U.S. of supporting coup plots against his government.