US Secretary of State John Kerry has reportedly promised his Venezuelan counterpart to close NATO airspace to the country’s flights and stop crucial oil product deliveries if Caracas grants asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden.
Last Friday night, just hours after Venezuela agreed to provide
political asylum to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Kerry
personally called Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua, a
Spanish ABC media outlet cites a source familiar with the
conversation as saying.
Kerry reportedly threatened to ground any Venezuelan aircraft in
America’s or any NATO country’s airspace if there is the
slightest suspicion that Snowden is using the flight to get to
Caracas.
The media outlet's source said that the US’ top diplomat sent a clear signal that Venezuela’s Air Force One is not immune and President Nicolas Maduro could easily face the same fate as his Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales, whose plane was grounded for inspection in Austria earlier this month in violation of all international diplomatic agreements.
“Immunity is for the president, not the plane,” the ABC
source cites Kerry’s personal message to President Maduro as
saying.
Closing all NATO member countries’ aerospace to Venezuelan
flights means avoiding 26 countries in Europe and two in North
America. Under this scenario, it would be safer for Snowden to
fly across the Pacific from Russia’s Far Eastern city of
Vladivostok instead of crossing the Atlantic.
Kerry also reportedly promised to intensify the ongoing process
of revoking US entry visas to Venezuelan officials and
businessmen associated with the deceased President Hugo Chavez.
Washington will also begin prosecuting prominent Venezuelan
politicians on allegations of drug trafficking, money laundering
and other criminal actions, Kerry allegedly said, and
specifically mentioned some names in his conversation with the
Venezuelan FM.
He reportedly also said that Washington is well aware of
Venezuela’s dependence on the US when it comes to refined oil
products. Despite being one of the world’s largest oil producers,
Venezuela requires more petrol and oil products than it can
produce, buying around 500,000 barrels of gasoline every month,
roughly another half million barrels of fuel for power plants,
and some 350,000 barrels of MTBE (Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether) –
the additive used for to increase octane in gasoline.
The source added that the US Secretary of State bluntly warned that fuel supplies would be halted if President Maduro continues to reach out to the fugitive NSA contractor.
Later on Friday US State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf
has denied that Kerry ever touched upon the possible nature of US
response to Venezuela granting asylum to Snowden in his
conversation with Jaua. She dismissed the report that Kerry has
threatened Venezuela as “utterly wrong.”
However, Harf said that there would be “an appropriate
response” from the US, should the South American country help
the NSA leaker.
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry have not so far commented on
ABC’s report.
On July 19 President Maduro sharply criticized a statement by the
Obama administration's nominee for UN envoy, Samantha Powers, who
accused countries like Cuba, Iran, Russia and Venezuela of being
guilty of a “crackdown on civil society”. Maduro called on
Washington to retract the “despicable” statement.
“I want an immediate correction by the US government,”
Maduro said live on state television, as quoted by Reuters.
“Power says she'll fight repression in Venezuela? What
repression? There is repression in the United States, where they
kill African-Americans with impunity, and where they hunt the
youngster Edward Snowden just for telling the truth,” Maduro
fumed.
Former CIA technician and NSA contractor Snowden remains a fugitive without a passport, as he has remained stuck in Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport for nearly a month. Snowden requested temporary asylum from Russia and has not officially accepted Maduro's asylum offer, WikiLeaks says.
If extradited to the US, where Showden is wanted on espionage charges, he fears he could face inhumane treatment and even the death penalty for leaking details of the National Security Agency’s dragnet surveillance programs.