Venezuela claims US obstacles to Maduro's UN visit

Venezuela complained Thursday to the United Nations about US "obstacles" preventing President Nicolas Maduro and his delegation from attending the global body's General Assembly summit. On Wednesday, Maduro scrapped his plans to take part in the UN leaders meeting in New York, claiming he had received threats. He had also accused the United States of denying him access to its airspace during a recent flight to China, which the State Department denied. "We're going to put all this before a United Nations committee that deals with matters relating to UN operations. We're going to write up a whole report about this set of obstacles, difficulties," Foreign Minister Elias Jaua told state television from the UN headquarters. Maduro, just back from the visit to China, said late Wednesday that on a layover in Vancouver he received intelligence about two "highly serious provocations," which prompted him to scrap his UN trip. One of the alleged threats "had been planned against my physical integrity" and another could have involved violence in New York, he charged. Jaua, who is due to address the UN on Saturday on behalf of Venezuela, pointed to "a number of factors complicating" Maduro's initially planned visit to the world body, including the alleged "questioning" of Venezuelan delegates. "When we come to New York, we do not come to visit the United States. We come to a multilateral organization to which we belong," the foreign minister said. Jaua claimed the United States was also hindering U.N. delegations from Bolivia, Ecuador and several African countries. The United States has said Maduro had failed to provide timely and proper notice of his request for passage through US airspace on his flight to China, but it was granted anyway. Maduro said the United States denied visas to members of the Venezuelan delegation traveling to the UN, but the US State Department denied this. The Venezuelan leader earlier this month claimed the White House was plotting the "collapse" of his government next month by sabotaging food, electricity and fuel supplies. His predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, also made regular claims about several alleged U.S. plots to kill him. The countries have not had ambassadors in each others' capitals since 2010, though the U.S. remains Venezuela's largest buyer of crude oil. Still, the United States is oil-rich Venezuela's biggest buyer of petroleum.