Caracas: US wants to provoke Venezuela

Despite US denial of trespassing on Venezuelan airspace, Caracas says Washington wanted to provoke the South American nation into launching an attack.

Venezuelan Vice President Ramon Carrizalez on Monday showed diagrams of US violation on state television.

“We are showing the country and the world that incursions into our airspace are occurring to provoke us, to test our response that would possibly lead to a direct reaction,” Carrizalez said.

Last week, President Hugo Chavez said a US aircraft violated his country’s airspace after taking off from the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao.

Chavez accused Washington of trying to provoke his government by sending an American P-3 plane from Curacao to twice enter Venezuelan airspace on Friday.

The plane was met by Venezuelan F-16s and escorted out of Venezuelan airspace, the Venezuelan president added.

Venezuela also made a diplomatic protest to the US and the Netherlands Monday, presenting a protest letter to John Caulfield, charge d’affaires at the US Embassy in Caracas and to Dutch diplomat J.G. van Vloten Dissevelt.

Caulfield denied the accusation, saying a US military plane has not strayed into Venezuelan airspace since 2008, when the US acknowledged what it called an accidental incident involving a Navy plane.