Cardinal Baltazar Porras Cardozo had his passport confiscated at Venezuela's main airport, preventing him from undertaking a trip for church commitments: "It violates the rights we have as citizens."
Vatican News released that on December 10, Venezuelan authorities confiscated the passport of Cardinal Baltazar Porras Cardozo, Archbishop Emeritus of Caracas, at Venezuela's main airport, preventing him from traveling to Spain for church-related commitments. "They told me there were problems with the passport and that they couldn't do anything," the cardinal recounted in a message he sent to his fellow bishops of the Venezuelan episcopate to inform them of the incident.“The most common thing in this last quarter of a century is to suffer almost always, with few exceptions, when arriving at Immigration the officer on duty takes the passport and goes out to consult 'because the system is not working', 'it does not appear on the list'..., on two occasions they told me that I appear as deceased,” the cardinal points out about what usually happens.
“This morning, the officer asked me if I had checked my passport because it wasn't up to date and he needed to verify it. He took it and my boarding pass to show, I imagine, to his superior. After a while, that person told me that the passport had problems and that they couldn't do anything,” Cardinal Porras explained about what happened at the Simón Bolívar airport in Maiquetía.
After the impasse, the prelate was informed that he could not travel, so he had to leave the airport without his passport, which they refused to return to him. “It hurts because it violates our rights as citizens,” the cardinal stated, noting that it happened on Human Rights Day.
“We are in the Christmas season. Strength lies in the vulnerability of the manger, in the fragility of the truth that is built in peace, without violence and without abuse. Hope comes from continuous work for the good of all, especially the excluded,” the cardinal said, adding his hope that “this unpleasant incident will not be the daily bread of those who have no face and no patrons.”
The Venezuelan cardinal concluded by recalling “the repeated message of Pope Leo XIV: ‘We are ready to seek a solution and a lasting and just peace.’ This is the task of all of us, and of those of us who have some ethical responsibility, to illuminate the path for all our brothers and sisters,” he said.
This event comes amid tensions between Venezuela and the United States, which is considering an offensive against drug trafficking with a significant military presence in the Caribbean Sea. Meanwhile, in Oslo, Norway, the arrival of María Corina Machado, the main opponent of the Venezuelan government and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is expected to take place at events organized by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Source: Vatican News Es
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