Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino on Friday accused the Venezuela authorities of blocking a flight carrying a group of former Latin American presidents hoping to observe this weekend’s elections in that country. The Copa Airlines plane with former Panamanian leader Mireya Moscoso and other ex-presidents on board was not allowed to take off “due to the blockade of Venezuelan airspace,” Mulino said on social media platform X.
Former presidents Miguel Angel Rodriguez of Costa Rica, Jorge Quiroga of Bolivia and Vicente Fox of Mexico were also due to fly together to Venezuela from Panama City. Strong critics of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government, they are also members of the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas, a group that says it aims to promote democracy.
“We wanted to be with you,” Moscoso said on the plane to applause from several Venezuelan passengers, according to videos published on X. “It hurts our soul. We want a free Venezuela,” she said, before the group decided to leave the aircraft so that it was able to take off.
Maduro is seeking a third six-year term at the helm of his crisis-hit South American country. He lags far behind challenger Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia in voter intentions ahead of the vote Sunday, but observers doubt he is ready to give up power.
Diosdado Cabello, vice president of Venezuela’s ruling party, had warned on Wednesday that the former presidents would be expelled if they visited, calling them “enemies of this country.” Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martinez-Acha said that he had summoned Venezuela’s diplomatic envoy to demand an explanation.
The Venezuelan government earlier withdrew an invitation to a European Union team to observe the election. Argentina’s former president Alberto Fernandez said Wednesday that Caracas had also scrapped an invitation for him to monitor the vote.
