Gold9472
05-30-2005, 05:33 PM
Venezuela warns U.S. over judge's canceled visa
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2005-05-30T202032Z_01_N30613479_RTRIDST_0_POLITICS-VENEZUELA-USA-DC.XML
Mon May 30, 2005 4:20 PM ET
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela may stop allowing visits by American officials after U.S. immigration authorities canceled the tourist visa of the Venezuelan Supreme Court president, the country's vice president said.
Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel's office issued the warning on Monday in a statement criticizing the withdrawal this month of a U.S. visa granted to Venezuela's top magistrate, Omar Mora.
"A lot of Americans come here, officials and senators, and we receive them without problems," Rangel said. "But if this kind of policy continues, which attacks Venezuelan institutions and respectable citizens like the Supreme Court president, we will eventually have to adopt a similar measure."
The visa incident seemed likely to further sour relations between Venezuela and its biggest oil client the United States.
Leftist Chavez is a fierce critic of U.S. policies and accuses Washington of trying to topple or kill him, a charge dismissed as ridiculous by American officials.
Mora last week condemned the cancellation of his visa as an offense against the dignity of his position.
He suggested U.S. authorities had acted out of revenge against Venezuela for demanding the extradition of Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, who is wanted by Caracas for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner in which 73 people were killed.
U.S. Embassy officials said the cancellation of Mora's visa was a purely consular matter. They declined to give more details, but said Mora could apply for another one.
Earlier this month, Chavez warned Washington that he would revise bilateral relations if Posada, a naturalized Venezuelan and former CIA collaborator, was not extradited to Caracas.
The U.S. government Friday rejected as flawed a Venezuelan request for Washington to detain Posada for extradition proceedings. Venezuelan officials said Caracas would present a formal extradition request for Posada on Tuesday.
Chavez and his ally Cuban President Fidel Castro want the 77-year-old Cuban exile tried in Venezuela as a terrorist. Thousands of Chavez supporters marched in Caracas at the weekend to back the extradition request.
Posada, who denies any involvement in the Cuban airliner bombing, escaped from a Venezuelan jail in 1985 while awaiting a prosecutor's appeal against an earlier court martial ruling that acquitted him of the attack.
His case presents the U.S. government with a dilemma of how to reconcile traditional sympathy for influential Cuban exiles with Washington's tough global anti-terrorism stance.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2005-05-30T202032Z_01_N30613479_RTRIDST_0_POLITICS-VENEZUELA-USA-DC.XML
Mon May 30, 2005 4:20 PM ET
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela may stop allowing visits by American officials after U.S. immigration authorities canceled the tourist visa of the Venezuelan Supreme Court president, the country's vice president said.
Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel's office issued the warning on Monday in a statement criticizing the withdrawal this month of a U.S. visa granted to Venezuela's top magistrate, Omar Mora.
"A lot of Americans come here, officials and senators, and we receive them without problems," Rangel said. "But if this kind of policy continues, which attacks Venezuelan institutions and respectable citizens like the Supreme Court president, we will eventually have to adopt a similar measure."
The visa incident seemed likely to further sour relations between Venezuela and its biggest oil client the United States.
Leftist Chavez is a fierce critic of U.S. policies and accuses Washington of trying to topple or kill him, a charge dismissed as ridiculous by American officials.
Mora last week condemned the cancellation of his visa as an offense against the dignity of his position.
He suggested U.S. authorities had acted out of revenge against Venezuela for demanding the extradition of Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, who is wanted by Caracas for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner in which 73 people were killed.
U.S. Embassy officials said the cancellation of Mora's visa was a purely consular matter. They declined to give more details, but said Mora could apply for another one.
Earlier this month, Chavez warned Washington that he would revise bilateral relations if Posada, a naturalized Venezuelan and former CIA collaborator, was not extradited to Caracas.
The U.S. government Friday rejected as flawed a Venezuelan request for Washington to detain Posada for extradition proceedings. Venezuelan officials said Caracas would present a formal extradition request for Posada on Tuesday.
Chavez and his ally Cuban President Fidel Castro want the 77-year-old Cuban exile tried in Venezuela as a terrorist. Thousands of Chavez supporters marched in Caracas at the weekend to back the extradition request.
Posada, who denies any involvement in the Cuban airliner bombing, escaped from a Venezuelan jail in 1985 while awaiting a prosecutor's appeal against an earlier court martial ruling that acquitted him of the attack.
His case presents the U.S. government with a dilemma of how to reconcile traditional sympathy for influential Cuban exiles with Washington's tough global anti-terrorism stance.