So remember when the Venezuelan government claimed the World Cup was to blame for flight cutbacks?

[Marksman_91]

Just to refresh your memory

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/venezuela-blames-world-cup-airline-cutbacks

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Blame it on the World Cup. That's what Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is doing to explain why airlines are slashing flights to the crisis-plagued South American nation.

Alitalia and Panama's Copa Airlines this month became the latest carriers to cut flights to Caracas over the socialist government's refusal to allow them to repatriate proceeds from ticket sales inside Venezuela. Foreign airlines say they have the equivalent of $4 billion trapped in the country when sales are converted at the official exchange rate of 6.3 bolivars per U.S. dollar.

Maduro, who previously has threatened to punish airlines that leave the country, said Thursday that "bourgeois" news media opposed to his government are spreading lies about airlines' reasons for suspending flights.

Well, the World Cup's been over now for a few days, but it seems some airlines, such as United, are still cutting flights:

http://www.travelpulse.com/news/airlines/now-united-cuts-flights-to-venezuela.html

I know it's perhaps still too early to tell, but if in the coming months this trend continues and flights to Venezuela don't increase, wouldn't that make Maduro and co. blatant liars and/or utterly incompetent in paying their bills? (not that they aren't any of those things already, anyway)

[delrem]

1. Do you think "sanctions" are enough for this perfidy?

Or are you still going for a violent coup?

Myself, I prefer eating fresh peaches and cream on the beach.

[Marksman_91]

2. What sanctions are we talking about again?

And I never said I'm vying for a violent coup. Tell me again where I said that verbatim.

Please stop trying to change the subject. Tell me again, in your own words, why are airlines cutting back flights to Venezuela when it's not happening in any other country of the region?

[delrem]

3. Don't get upset.

I didn't say anything threatening. I mentioned the fact that when I think about you and your posts, I think about peaches and cream, fresh and still chilled, on a beach. This being summer time.

That's because it's where I'm at, today.
OK? Simple.

Now, to keep things fresh and copasetic, unthreatening, I too will choose to reinvent the past, exactly as you choose. That's how favourably I look on you, Marksman_91.

[MADem]

5. Apparently "sanctions" is a code word that means "We didn't pay our bills" too.... nt

[MADem]

4. Only if "World Cup" is a code phrase for "We Didn't Pay Our Bills!!!"

The airlines won't give you a pillow and a blanket for free anymore--why does Maduro expect them to flly in and out of his dysfunctional country without being PAID?

[Bacchus4.0]

6. You mean they haven't resumed flights that were diverted due to the WC?

Where is Peaches?

[Al Carroll]

7. It's called negotiation...

More airlines have made agreements with the Ven govt, or are still negotiating, than have cut back.

I join the others in asking you to relax before you give yourself a cardiac getting worked up over your ideological hatred.

It's really amusing to think of someone getting so apoplectic over an imaginary debt of a foreign govt.

-----
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-11/united-airlines-joins-peers-cutting-flights-to-venezuela.html
....More than a dozen airlines have trimmed capacity, sales or service in protest over strict currency controls that require government authorization to repatriate earnings from tickets sold there.

....Venezuela has reached initial agreements on foreign-currency liquidations with eight airlines, while discussions were continuing with 14 carriers, Sea and Transport Minister Luis Graterol said in a July 8 interview on state television.

The government is under no obligation to exchange airlines’ bolivars for dollars, Graterol said, suggesting that the carriers’ only way to get money out of the country would be to negotiate.

“We don’t have any debts with the airlines -- they’ve been paid for their services,” Graterol said. “Whoever cuts flights cannot expect to be given the same conditions as when we were sitting down in talks.”

[Marksman_91]

8. So what's your opinion about the government's claims that the World Cup was to blame for cutbacks?

[Bacchus4.0]

9. Has normal service resumed yet? n/t