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US Navy aircraft violates Venezuela's airspace
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-05-20 10:01 CARACAS - A US Navy jet violated Venezuelan airspace around two small Caribbean islands over the weekend in what the South American country said was a provocation coordinated with neighboring Colombia.
Venezuela and the United States bicker over everything from energy policy to arms sales. The incursion comes amid heightened tensions over accusations that Venezuela helped a guerrilla army fighting the government in US ally Colombia. The Pentagon said a Navy aircraft on a counternarcotics mission had navigation problems that led it to stray into Venezuelan airspace on Saturday. The US ambassador in Caracas was being summoned to explain the incident, Venezuela's foreign minister said. "In the event a US aircraft unintentionally enters into the sovereign airspace of another nation, its crew is required to take swift action to exit the airspace and report the incident to their immediate chain of command, which this aircrew apparently did," said US Navy Cmdr. J.D. Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman. President Hugo Chavez said the flight, which took the jet close to the OPEC member's presidential retreat on the island of La Orchila, was a provocation after Venezuela accused Colombian troops of crossing its border. "This was a conscious action by the US Navy," Defense Minister Gustavo Rangel said at a news conference. "This is just the latest step in a series of provocations." Rangel said such incidents probably had happened in the past, but now Venezuela has equipment to detect airspace violations in the area. Viking S-3 The US warplane penetrated Venezuelan airspace around La Orchila and another island about 80 miles from the country's mainland, Rangel said. Venezuela's air traffic control contacted the aircraft after it entered Venezuela's airspace. The jet identified itself and told the Venezuelan authorities a possible navigation error had occurred, the Pentagon said. |
