Dec 10 (Reuters) – Venezuelan Cardinal Baltazar Porras said on Wednesday his passport was confiscated and he was barred from traveling abroad, a move that comes amid heightened political tensions in the South American country.
Porras, one of the Catholic Church’s top figures in Venezuela, wrote on X that immigration officials at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, near Caracas, told him his passport was “not up to date,” preventing him from boarding his flight.
“After an hour and a half, a soldier came and told me I could not travel. I asked him to return my passport so I could claim my luggage. Even to go to the bathroom, the official followed me closely, asking why I was going there,” Porras said, adding that he is now back home.
Porras said he had planned to attend church-related events in Madrid this weekend and next, returning on Dec. 21.
The Communications Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The incident came just as Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was due to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts fighting dictatorship in the country. Machado, who lives in hiding, on Wednesday was still traveling to Oslo in defiance of a decade-long travel ban.
Relations between Venezuela’s government and the Catholic Church have long been strained. During the canonization of Venezuelan doctor Jose Gregorio Hernandez at the Vatican in October, church leaders urged authorities to respect human rights and release political prisoners.
The government has accused the church of conspiring against it.
In October, President Nicolas Maduro said Porras “dedicated his whole life to conspiring against Jose Gregorio Hernandez, but has been defeated by God and by the people,” adding that the canonization had finally been achieved.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Sarah Kinosian; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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