Asia-Pacific

Chavez says Venezuela jets intercepted US plane

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-01-09 12:54

CARACAS: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday that he had ordered F-16 jets to intercept a US military plane that twice violated Venezuelan airspace earlier in the day.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Chavez said that the US plane, based on the Netherlands' Curacao island in the Caribbean, intruded into Venezuelan airspace twice, the first for 15 minutes and the second 19 minutes.

The F-16s escorted the US plane out, he added.

However, the US military denied that any of its planes entered Venezuelan airspace on Friday.

"As a matter of policy we do not fly over a nation's air space without prior consent and coordination," the US Southern Command, which is in charge of US military activities in the hemisphere, said in a statement. "We operate with the utmost respect for the sovereignty of the nations in our hemisphere.

Last month, Chavez accused the United States of flying an unmanned spy plane into Venezuela's airspace and vowed to shoot down any similar aircraft in the future.

Venezuela suspended diplomatic ties with Colombia in July in response to a US-Colombian military base deal, saying it would pave the way for the United States to invade Venezuela. Both Washington and Bogota denied the allegation.