Sky's the Limit: Chavez Swipes at U.S.-based Airlines

Political tensions between Venezuela and the U.S. have been running high for years but now theyve gone sky-high. Late Thursday, the government of left-wing President Hugo Chavez announced it would slash the number of flights to and from Venezuela offered by U.S. airlines—significantly trimming flights by American Airlines and banning those by Delta and Continental entirely. The policy goes into effect on March 30th.

The move is a belated retaliation for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administrations refusal to upgrade Venezuelas air safety ranking, which was downgraded by the FAA a decade ago and prevents Venezuelan airlines from expanding their own number of flights to and from the U.S. Venezuela says it has exhausted "all conciliatory avenues" with the FAA. Its National Civil Aviation Institute insists it has completed internationally-certified improvements that warrant the U.S. upgrade and claims the Bush Administration is ignoring an international air accord, signed by both countries, that guarantees "principals of equality" in air service. But the FAA says that Venezuela has yet to meet the standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency based in Montreal. The State Department, meanwhile, warned it might consider an "appropriate response."

But it's difficult to decipher where the technical merits of each sides argument end and the raw political motives begin. The Bush Administration considers Chavez a threat to stability in the region, while Chavez is a loudly outspoken U.S. critic who calls Bush "the greatest terrorist in the world" and says that the U.S. is poised to either assassinate him or invade Venezuela for its oil reserves.

The latest tit-for-tat spat appears to be the aviation equivalent of diplomatic expulsions. As Chavezs cult of personality grows inside Venezuela and Latin America, the Bush Administration is increasingly trying to paint him as a region-destabilizing dictator. This month, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. needs to form a "united front" against Chavez as he seeks re-election later this year. Statements like this one have given Venezuela even more impetus to regard the FAAs continued stance as political. And this latest fiasco may just be indicative of larger conflicts ahead.