Caracas [Venenzuela], July 28: A plane carrying four former Latin American presidents planning to observe Sunday's presidential election in Venezuela has not been allowed to take off, authorities in Panama said on Friday.
Former Panamanian president Mireya Moscoso, former Mexican president Vicente Fox, former Costa Rican president Miguel Ángel Rodríguez and former Bolivian president Jorge Quiroga as well as a former Columbian vice president were due to fly to Caracas but forced to leave their aircraft before departure from Panama City, Panamanian President Jose Raúl Mulino wrote on social media platform X.
According to Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha, Venezuela had closed its airspace to Panamanian carrier Copa Airlines for several hours.
Venezuela rejected allegations that it had prevented the former leaders from entering the country, with the country's aviation authority saying there were no disruptions to flight operations.
The plane carrying the group of ex-presidents was not allowed to take off until the politicians disembarked, while another flight bound for Panama was not allowed to take off from Caracas, Martínez-Acha wrote on X.
"We have just been told that we have to get off, otherwise the flight cannot take off," former Panamanian president Mireya Moscoso told other passengers on the plane, as can be seen in a video posted on social media. "We are sorry, because we want a free Venezuela." Former Mexican president Fox described the incident as "a bad sign" for Sunday's election.
Venezuelan long-term President Nicolas Maduro is looking to garner a third term in a vote that observers believe will be neither free nor fair.
A number of opposition politicians have been arrested in the lead-up to the election and several anti-government candidates have not been admitted.
Former diplomat Gonzalez Urrutia running for the opposition alliance Plataforma Unitaria Democratica is seen as having the best chance of beating Maduro.
Source: Qatar Tribune