US apologizes after Venezuelan FM detained at airport

[link to sg.news.yahoo.com]


Sunday September 24, 11:52 AM
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said he was temporarily detained, threatened and stripped of his travel documents at a New York airport, prompting an apology from the US government.

"I was detained in a room ... for an an hour and 40 minutes" at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Maduro told CNN television in remarks broadcast on Venezuelan television. "Then they handed me to a delegation headed by our UN ambassador (Francisco Arias Cardenas)."

"I denounce before the world the US government. I ask UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that he speak about this case, that investigations be opened. I demand that the US government respect international rights."

Maduro, who attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week, said "the situation got worse" when he identified himself to the security officiers as Venezuela's chief diplomat.

"I told the on-duty officials that I was the foreign minister, and the situation got worse because they started insulting, yelling and brought a police officer ... and they started threatening us," Maduro said.

"Now I have no documents and cannot travel," he said.

At a later news conference, Maduro said: "We were threatened with being beaten."

"They took my passport and plane ticket and only gave them back to me at the end, after I had made a public denouncement" of the incident.

He said he received a phone call from Thomas Shannon, the US top diplomat for Latin America, who expressed surprise at the incident.

When US State Department officials arrived on the scene, and Maduro said he thought the situation would be resolved, "we were told to spread our feet and stretch out our arms so the police could search us."

Maduro said UN chief Annan "had designated a team of lawyers that will immediately start work on the case."

He called the incident "a complex, shameful situation and an attack against international law," and linked it to a speech by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the UN General Assembly this week in which the anti-US leader called his American counterpart George W. Bush the "devil."

The US Homeland Security Department denied Maduro's claims.

"There's no evidence to support any of this," US Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke told AFP by telephone.

"There's no evidence to support the claim that his travel documents were taken away, there's no evidence to support the claim that he was assaulted, there's no evidence to support the claim that he was somehow arrested or taken into custody," he said.

Knocke said Maduro was simply asked to go through a routine, secondary security screening.

The US State Department later confirmed the incident and apologized.

"The State Department can confirm there was an incident with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro at JFK airport in New York," department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said.

"The State Department regrets this incident. The United States government apologized to Foreign Minister Maduro and the Venezuelan government."

According to a State Department official, the airport security services "questioned" the foreign minister and asked the State Department to confirm his diplomatic identity.

"Diplomatic security was sent out to the airport. We understand he was able to board the plane before it took off but he refused and returned to New York City," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, Chavez accused Bush of ordering his assassination for his "devil" remark Wednesday at the UN General Assembly.

"The devil appears very sulphurous, and a few people say that he has given the order to kill me," Chavez said during a speech before scientists in western Venezuela.

"Many concerned friends have called me, (saying) that because I said 'devil' over there (at the UN), they have sentenced me to die. They will not kill me, I have much faith in life," Chavez added.

Chavez said Maduro had been detained for allegedly taking part in a failed coup attempt in Venezuela on February 4, 1992, that Chavez had led against then-president Carlos Andres Perez.

"Apparently he is on a list for February 4," Chavez said on Venezuelan television. "But he was not in the rebellion."