New York Daily News -
http://www.nydailynews.com
Hot-air Hugo rips feds for holding aide
BY PAUL H.B. SHIN and JONATHAN LEMIRE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Sunday, September 24th, 2006
Continuing his recent tirade against the United States, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez yesterday accused American officials of illegally detaining his foreign minister at Kennedy Airport.
Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro was stopped for more than an hour and stripped of his travel documents, Chavez told Venezuelan state television. "This is a provocation from Mr. Devil," said Chavez, repeating his controversial nickname for President Bush. He then charged U.S. officials alleged that Maduro had participated in a failed 1992 coup led by Chavez.
"They have held him accusing him of participating in terrorist acts here," said Chavez, before calling for Bush to resign. "He didn't even participate in that patriotic rebellion."
Maduro, who did not leave New York yesterday, called on UN Secretary General Kofi .Annan to condemn his seizure. "We denounce the U.S. government for violating international law," Maduro said.
Transportation Security Agency officials disputed Maduro's version of events, saying that its personnel at JFK were just following procedures. "He had not been individually selected based on his nationality or identity as foreign minister of Venezuela," said TSA spokesman Norm Brewer. "He never identified himself as a foreign minister prior to screening."
A law enforcement source said Maduro was taken aside for additional screening by American Airlines because he bought his ticket with cash just 30 minutes before takeoff, behavior that often prompts a closer look.
"If he simply said who he was, he could've had a State Department escort and only gone through the standard X-ray," said the source.
Instead of submitting to the screening, a confrontational Maduro then left the airport with the Venezuelan ambassador, Brewer said. "Contrary to the foreign minister's statements, he was never detained or isolated," said Brewer.
A day earlier, Chavez had accused the NYPD of cutting the power during his speech at Harlem's Mount Olivet Baptist Church to disrupt live transmission to his home country. The NYPD denied that. "The New York Police Department did not in any way interfere," Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said.