Scenes of chaos at the Caracas counter of Panama"™s Copa — one of Latin America"™s best regarded airlines — were visible Friday morning, as the carrier was ordered to stop operating in Venezuela by the embattled administration of Nicolas Maduro, part of a wider tug-of-war between Panama and Venezuela.
Besides the diplomatic confrontation, Venezuelans "“ who have fled the country by the millions since the start of the Bolivarian «Revolution» in 1999 — complained Friday of being more isolated. And with good reason: while there were 23 airlines flying out of Venezuela in 2013, the year Maduro took over from his mentor and predecessor Hugo Chavez, there were only 6 remaining as of Friday.
AeroMeteo, a Twitter account that tracks airline activity in Venezuela, said there were only six flights crisscrossing the oil-rich nation Thursday afternoon, compared with 30 for neighboring Colombia.
Events have been happening at a break neck speed in Caracas and Panama City: In little more than a week, the two countries went from semi-friendly neighbors to having no ambassadors to each other, mutually sanctioning both Presidents and barring all commercial ties.
And it all started, for the most part, only last week.
FIRST LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRY TO SANCTION MADURO
A week ago, Panama became the first Latin American country to sanction the Maduro government, placing 55 officials and former officials and 16 commercial firms in a special "high risk" list for suspected money laundering, financing of terrorism and financing the dissemination of weapons of mass destruction. The barred firms were all connected to Venezuelan First Lady Cilia Flores. Two of Flore"™ nephews, currently serving a drug-trafficking sentence in New York City, also had a taxi company and other business dealings in Panama.
Panama thus joined a growing list on nations sanctioning Venezuela: Only two days before Switzerland had taken similar steps against a group of seven Venezuelans. The European Union had sanctioned also a small band of seven in January, while Canada did the same for a list of 56 in two lists, during 2017, while the US has been at it since 2015, with 57 officials and former officials sanctioned total, including a small batch of four earlier this year.
Thursday, Maduro hit back with sanctions of his own against 22 Panama officials and individuals, including President Juan Carlos Varela as well as 46 Panamanian companies, accusing them of collaborating in money laundering. In the same decree, Maduro said he was severing all commercial and communications ties with Panama.
Only hours after Maduro"™s Thursday announcement, Panama said it was withdrawing its ambassador to Venezuela Thursday night, and asking Caracas to do the same for its Panama City envoy.
Panama"™s Copa was one of the few airlines still flying into Venezuela; now it has been banned from operating here and its last flight — for at least the next 90 days — left Thursday night, Venezuelan civil aviation authorities said in a communique. Sister airline Wingo will also cease operating, Copa said in a press release…
