Venezuela
delays sanctions on US flights
AFP
CARACAS
Petroleumworld.com
02 26 06
Venezuela has delayed for a month plans to reduce the number of
flights by US airlines into the country, which it announced last
week citing unequal access for its carriers in the United States.
The reduction was supposed to have taken effect March 1. But Venezuelan
aviation officials said Saturday the sanctions would be delayed
until March 30.
Aviation officials said their decision followed word from the
foreign ministry that the US government was interested in dialogue
on the matter.
On February 24 Venezuela's National Civil Aviation Institute (INAC)
had said in a statement that it "saw a vital need to take
this decision to reduce, as of March 1, 2006, US companies' air
operations between the United States and Venezuela."
The measure apparently was taken in reprisal of a 1995 decision
by the US Federal Aviation Admnistration to downgrade Venezuela
to a category two country because of security concerns, which
ended US-destined Venezuelan flights.
The aviation flap is the latest turbulence between oil-rich Venezuela
and the United States, its biggest oil client. Their governments
have been at loggerheads since populist, leftist Hugo Chavez was
elected Venezuelan president in 1998 and struck up close relations
with communist-ruled Cuba.
AFP
02 26 06
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
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