BUENOS AIRES.- Nicolás Maduro’s regime prohibited airplanes with Argentine registration from flying over Venezuelan airspacepublished the press of the southern country.
According to the information, the ban has already affected Aerolíneas Argentinas and even some private flights. Sector sources said that the restriction is for all airlines operating in Argentina and prevents any aircraft with Argentine registration from crossing Venezuelan airspace.
Aerolíneas Argentinas indicated that Venezuela’s measure will affect its flights to Punta Cana, Miami and New York, and specified that the impact in terms of flight times will be minimal. However, they estimate that adapting to the measure will bring an extra expense for the airline company, reported Infobae.
Argentina’s flagship company sent a notification to the country’s foreign ministry, which in turn sent a summons to the Venezuelan ambassador in Buenos Aires, Stella Lugo Betancourt. She revealed that The government of President Javier Milei also sent two notes to the Venezuelan Embassy with a claim for the measure.
Aerolíneas Argentinas explained that the first impact was with a flight to Punta Cana. After a complaint from the company, the Venezuelan authorities lifted the ban. However, a similar incident occurred again with another flight.
“Since that moment, that restriction has not been lifted and we do not know the reasons, but it is obvious that it is related to the case of the Iranian plane,” They said at the airline.
The presidential spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, confirmed this Tuesday morning the prohibition of the use of airspace by Argentine planes and announced that They will take diplomatic actions against Caracas.
“I confirm that Argentina began diplomatic actions against Venezuela, led by (Nicolás) Maduro, after its decision to ban the use of airspace by Argentine aircraft with the damage that this entails for our country. This is part of a retaliation that Venezuela took because Argentina accepted the confiscation order of the Emtrasur plane linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard of Iran. “Argentina is not going to allow itself to be extorted by the friends of terrorism,” Adorni said.
Likewise, the Argentine press reported that the southern country will seek to resolve the conflict through the mediation of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an agency dependent on the United Nations, under the argument that the Venezuelan measure violates the Convention. Chicago, 1944.
In that sense, it was known that The Foreign Ministry prepares a formal protest that will be presented to the ICAO against the arbitrary measures taken by Venezuelareported La Nación.
This Monday, Venezuela ratified the ban which would be linked to what happened with the Emtrasur plane, whose crew is made up of Venezuelan and Iranian citizens and which was detained in Argentina in June 2022. The plane, which was sold by Iran to Venezuela , was sanctioned by the United States, which suspects that it could have been used for actions related to terrorism.
Last February, the plane was transferred to the United States, which had requested its seizure.
Since Javier Milei won the October 2023 elections that made him the president of Argentina, relations between both countries have been affected. Milei, a right-wing economist, has openly criticized Maduro, whom he called an “impoverishing socialist” at the most recent Davos Forum, due to the policies implemented by his regime that ended up collapsing the economy of Venezuela, once one of the countries richest in Latin America.
Maduro, for his part, has questioned Milei’s policies regarding Argentina’s economic problems, dragged on for several years in part by left-wing governments and has called it “a mistake in the history of Argentina and Latin America.” .
Source: EDITORIAL / With information from Infobae / lanacion.com.ar
