Venezuela warns US about airspace violations

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry has warned the US military against violating its airspace from bases in Aruba and Curacao.

“(Venezuela) again calls on the international community to denounce the US use of the colonies of Aruba and Curacao, for the preparation of military aggression against Venezuela,” the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued on Thursday.

“The subsequent violation of Venezuelan airspace on the part of the US military aircraft … allows us to conclude that the warmongering US government, in league with the government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is preparing an aggression against the territory and people of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”

The statement did not provide details of the alleged incursions.

Earlier this month, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez charged that the US military was using the Dutch islands off his country’s Caribbean coast as a staging area for a possible attack.

He also accused the United States of launching a spy plane from Colombia that he said violated his country’s airspace, and vowed to order the Venezuelan military to shoot down any spy aircraft that enter the country’s airspace in the future.

Last summer, Washington and Bogota struck a deal allowing US forces to use Colombian military bases.

Caracas suspended diplomatic relations with Colombia in July in response to the US-Colombia military base deal, denouncing it as a military threat to the sovereignty of Latin American countries and saying it paved the way for a possible attack against Venezuela.