{"id":223813,"date":"2019-07-21T22:43:50","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T02:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=223813"},"modified":"2019-07-22T03:22:19","modified_gmt":"2019-07-22T07:22:19","slug":"us-accuses-venezuela-jet-of-aggressive-action-over-caribbean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/07\/21\/us-accuses-venezuela-jet-of-aggressive-action-over-caribbean\/","title":{"rendered":"US accuses Venezuela jet of aggressive action over Caribbean"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThis latest action also demonstrates Russia’s irresponsible military support to the illegitimate Maduro regime and adds to Maduro’s growing legacy of reckless and negligent behaviour,\u201d U.S. officials said in a statement. (File photo<\/a>: Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CARACAS, Venezuela \u2014 U.S. authorities on Sunday said that a Venezuelan fighter jet \u201caggressively shadowed\u201d an American intelligence plane flying in international airspace over the Caribbean, underscoring rising tensions between the two nations.<\/span><\/p>\n

The U.S. Southern Command said that Venezuela’s action demonstrates reckless behaviour by President Nicolas Maduro, whose government accused the U.S. plane of entering Venezuelan airspace.<\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. authorities said their EP-3 plane was performing a multi-nationally approved mission on Friday and the Venezuelan SU-30 fighter jet closely trailed the plane, which the U.S. says endangered its crew.<\/span><\/p>\n

The response by the Venezuelan fighter jet \u201cundermines int’l rule of law & efforts to counter illicit trafficking,\u201d U.S. authorities tweeted, providing video of what they said was the Russian-made jet.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Trump administration and more than 50 other nations back opposition leader Juan Guaido’s attempt to oust Maduro, whom they accuse of leading the country into a historic crisis. The socialist leader maintains support from countries including Cuba, China and Russia.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis latest action also demonstrates Russia’s irresponsible military support to the illegitimate Maduro regime and adds to Maduro’s growing legacy of reckless and negligent behaviour,\u201d U.S. officials said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Venezuela’s Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said the U.S. plane entered Venezuelan airspace without prior notification, violating international rules. He said the flight also endangered commercial flights from Venezuela’s main airport.<\/span><\/p>\n

Upon identifying the plan as a U.S. electronic intelligence gathering aircraft, the fighter jet escorted it from the region, Venezuelan authorities said, adding that there have been 76 such incidents this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Armed Forces of Venezuela firmly reject this type of provocation on the part of the United States of America,\u201d Padrino Lopez said in a statement. \u201cWe will continually be alert to watching over the tranquility of the Venezuelan people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who is a harsh critic of Maduro, issued a warning to Venezuela while tweeting video images of the fighter jet.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cVenezuela only has 3 fighter jets that can fly,\u201d Rubio said on Twitter. \u201cIf they ever harmed any U.S. aircraft they would soon have zero.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CARACAS, Venezuela \u2014 U.S. authorities on Sunday said that a Venezuelan fighter jet \u201caggressively shadowed\u201d an American intelligence plane flying …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":223814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54365,16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-instagram","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-scott-smith","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223813"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223815,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223813\/revisions\/223815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}