Chavez says US spy plane violated Venezuela's airspace, tells military to shoot down others

[ChangoLoa]

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — An unmanned U.S. spy plane recently violated Venezuela's airspace and the military has been ordered to shoot down any such aircraft if it happens again, President Hugo Chavez said Sunday.

Speaking during his weekly television and radio program, Chavez said the aircraft overflew a Venezuelan military base in the western state of Zulia after taking off from neighboring Colombia. He did not elaborate, but suggested the plane was being used for espionage.

"These are the Yankees. They are entering Venezuela," he said.

"I've ordered them to be shot down," Chavez said of the aircraft. "We cannot permit this."

Chavez has accused Colombia of allowing the United States to use its military bases to prepare a possible attack against Venezuela.

Both the U.S. and Colombia have denied such allegations in the past, saying the U.S. military presence is for the sole purpose of combating drug trafficking.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Robin Holzhauer said Sunday that Chavez's administration "has not contacted us about these concerns."

"If the Venezuelan government would like to speak with us about any issue, we would welcome discussions because we seek open dialogue with all nations in the hemisphere," Holzhauer said in a telephone interview.

It is not uncommon for Chavez to accuse other nations, especially the U.S. and its allies, of conspiring against Venezuela.

Last week, the president accused the Netherlands of letting the U.S. military use Dutch islands off Venezuela's Caribbean coast to prepare for a possible military offensive. The former paratroop commander said the U.S. military has sent intelligence agents, warships and spy planes to Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire, which are self-governing Dutch islands.

The Dutch government rejected the allegations and the country's top diplomat, Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen, has asked Venezuela's ambassador to clarify the claims, Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman Bart Rijs said.

Rijs said U.S. soldiers do use civilian air fields on Curacao and Aruba, but only for anti-drug trafficking efforts.

Tensions between Venezuela and neighboring Colombia have been tense for months due to Chavez's accusations of warmongering and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's allegations that Venezuela has allowed Colombian rebel leaders to seek refuge there.

Chavez denied on Sunday that his socialist government is protecting Marxist guerrillas and warned Colombia's military against sending soldiers across the border.

"You'll be sorry," he said. "We are not unarmed."


Link
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-lt-venezuela-us-colombia,0,1989616.story?track=rss

[Downwinder]

1. Do drones have to file flight plans?

[Braulio]

2. Excellent question

I don't know, but it's evident the USA is starting to mobilize their unmaned craft to scout the FARC along the border. It's going to be tough for the FARC from now on.

[Downwinder]

3. I wonder what the applicable ICAO Regs would be for a drone.

The could cone under the same rules as unmanned balloons, but that ignores their speed, maneuverability, and danger to other Aircraft. Also are they in contact with Air Traffic Control?

[EFerrari]

4. So, the goons at State saw how easy it was to capture Honduras

under this administration and now they're moving? Is that what this is?

[Braulio]

5. Capture Honduras? That's kinda funny

Let's see, according to the conventional wisdom amongst Zelaya supporters, he wasn't proposing a constitutional reform to run again. This means, if he had stayed in power, the elections would have been held as planned, and the winner would NOT have been Zelaya or anybody close to Zelaya's camp. So tell us, how did the US "capture" Honduras, when Zelaya was on his way out, and the new President was likely to be somebody very far from Zelaya's line? The coup was opposed by the US government precisely because the Zelaya movement was headed nowhere, and the coup just gave it more legs.

IF there are drones flying along the Colombia-Venezuela border, they are surveying the FARC and other terrorist groups which use the border area as a refuge. Modern technology allows these drones to sense their camps using infrared and other sensors (I hear they even have chemical sniffers able to detect human sweat). Once the FARC bands are pinpointed, if they are inside Colombian territory, they're easy targets for laser guided or other modern weapons. Evidently the deal the US signed with the Colombians is to provide them with this modern sensor capability, which will soon make the FARC rural combatants a has been.

Note that I do not support US policy in general, I think it's a lot more sensible to decriminalize drugs and support Colombia with foreign aid other than weapons, but then I'm not for US imperialism.