This footage was filmed and produced 30 November 2022.

The Argentine Foreign Ministry is preparing a formal protest to the United Nations (UN) over Nicolas Maduro's political determination to ban all Aerolineas Argentinas flights - or those with national registration - from crossing Venezuelan airspace. With this unprecedented measure in the common history of the two countries, Maduro is replicating Javier Milei's decision to accept the confiscation ordered by the United States justice system of the Emtrasur plane linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

The Legal Counsel of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other technical areas are drafting a brief against the arbitrary measures taken by Venezuela, which will be urgently submitted to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). This UN organisation, created in 1944, aims to establish basic rules for air cooperation between all countries in the international system.

The submission to the ICAO will fulfil all diplomatic formalities, but its ultimate meaning is geopolitical. Milei and Maduro exhibit deep ideological differences, and the Aerolineas case accelerates a regional conflict with an uncertain end.

A few weeks ago, Aerolineas Argentinas sent a note to the Foreign Ministry informing it that Maduro's regime prohibited its flights from crossing Venezuelan airspace. The Palacio San Martin then summoned Stella Lugo, the Caracas ambassador in Buenos Aires, to protest against this unilateral decision, which violates all the basic rules of the 1944 Chicago Convention.

Ambassador Lugo, who reports directly to Maduro, listened to the Foreign Ministry officials and left the diplomatic conclave without promising anything. Lugo has always sided with Kirchnerism and considers Milei's government a flaw in Argentina's political system.
On 8 March, the Foreign Ministry sent a note to Ambassador Lugo escalating the diplomatic protest. Lugo forwarded the note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Caracas, and two days later, Maduro's regime responded with a presentation that reveals the political motives behind the decision to ban Aerolineas Argentinas - and other nationally registered aircraft - from flying over Venezuelan airspace.

Some shots in association with Cabin Crew Spotting.

SHOTLIST:
1. various Aerolineas Argentinas planes at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery;
2. various of Nicolas Maduro during a press conference at Miraflores Palace (30 November 2022);
3. various of Nicolas Maduro during a rally in commemoration of the military insurrection of 4 February 1992 (5 February 2024);
4. various of Nicolas Maduro during the speech given on the occasion of the Opening of the Judicial Year 2024, at the headquarters of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) in Caracas (1 February 2024).