The Minister of Internal Administration, Eduardo Cabrita, received on Saturday the IGAI report on security procedures for a flight to Caracas that led the Government of Venezuela to accuse TAP of violating “international standards” by allowing the transport of explosives and for hiding the identity of the opposition leader, Juan Guaidó.
“The preliminary results that I just received from this report are very clear when indicating that, at the airport of Lisbon, in the performance of both the airport authorities and the airline TAP, there was no violation of security rules”, said Eduardo Cabrita to the station of RTP television.
The minister stated that, after the first statements by the Venezuelan authorities, he ordered the IGAI on February 14 “to initiate a summary investigation into a possible security breach at Lisbon airport” and “access to that flight”.
After accusing the Portuguese airline of violating “international standards”, for allegedly allowing the transport of explosives and for hiding the identity of the Venezuelan opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, on a flight to Caracas, the Venezuelan Government decided to suspend for 90 days TAP flights to Venezuela.
“Due to the serious irregularities committed on flight TP173, and in accordance with national civil aviation regulations, the operations of the airline TAP are suspended for 90 days,” said Venezuela’s Minister of Transport, Hipólito Abreu.
According to the Venezuelan Government, Juan Marquez, Guaidó’s uncle who accompanied his nephew on that flight, carried “tactical pocket lanterns” that hid “explosive chemicals in the battery compartment”.
Thus, Venezuelan authorities consider that TAP, on that flight between Lisbon and Caracas, violated international security standards, allowing explosives, and also concealed the identity of Venezuela’s self-proclaimed interim President, Juan Guaidó, in the passenger list, although airport security is not the responsibility of the transport companies.
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