ATHENS – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has denied that Washington asked the Netherlands or any other country to prevent Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado from returning to Venezuela, following questions over why an aircraft carrying her was reportedly denied permission to land in Aruba or Curaçao.
Rubio described the allegation as untrue during a visit to Athens on Wednesday.
“We have never asked anyone not to let someone else in,” Rubio said. “Anywhere in the world. I have said that repeatedly.”
Machado reportedly planned two weeks ago to fly to either Aruba or Curaçao and then continue by boat to neighboring Venezuela. However, the aircraft did not receive permission to land. It remains unclear which authority made the decision.
According to Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant, the Aruban representation indicated last week that decisions concerning Machado’s admission fall under the responsibility of the Dutch government rather than the islands themselves.
The controversy comes amid a dramatically changed political situation in Venezuela. The United States has been dealing with the government that succeeded Nicolás Maduro, while Machado has so far remained outside the country’s new political arrangements.
Machado fled Venezuela last year via Curaçao to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She has since said she intends to return home and participate in elections that she believes should be called later this year.
Although Rubio denied that Washington asked other governments to prevent Machado from traveling, Reuters previously reported that U.S. officials had urged her not to return to Venezuela yet.
The Dutch government has declined to say whether it played a role in preventing Machado’s planned journey through the Dutch Caribbean.
Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten said he would not discuss the matter publicly because doing so could damage cooperation with the Venezuelan opposition.
Jetten has also said that the United States is currently placing greater emphasis on trade with Venezuela and less emphasis on the country’s democratization.
The unanswered question is therefore who prevented Machado’s aircraft from landing in Aruba or Curaçao and on what grounds. Rubio’s statement rules out, according to the U.S. government, a direct American request to the Netherlands to block her entry, but Dutch authorities have so far provided no public explanation for what happened.