Chavez: U.S. Detained Foreign Minister

Hugo Chavez. President of Venezuela, addresses the 61st session of the U.N. General Assembly at UN headquarters, in this Sept. 20, 2006 file photo. Unlike in years past, Bush's address to the General Assembly did not make waves. It was Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who attracted the rock star treatment and Chavez, who drew applause when he called Bush "the devil. (AP Photo/Ed Betz, File) (Ed Betz - AP)

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela's foreign minister was detained by U.S. authorities at a New York airport for more than hour Saturday as he tried to return to the South American country, President Hugo Chavez said.

U.S. and U.N. officials called the incident regrettable but said Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro had been identified for "secondary screening," a security check that can kick in when a passenger arrives without a ticket.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told Venezuela's state TV broadcaster that U.S. officials alleged that Maduro had links to a failed coup that Chavez led in Venezuela in 1992.

"They have held him accusing him of participating in terrorist acts here," Chavez said in Venezuela. "He didn't even participate in that patriotic rebellion," he said, referring to the uprising he led while still an army officer.

Both Venezuelan politicians were in New York the past week attending the yearly U.N. General Assembly, where Chavez called President Bush "the devil" during his U.N. speech. He later criticized the U.S. leader during a stop in Harlem before returning home.

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said in Washington that Maduro was referred for secondary screening but never reached that section of the airport.

"He began to articulate his frustration with secondary screening right after he went through the magnetometer," Knocke said, referring to the walk-through metal detector. "Port Authority officials confronted him when the situation became a ruckus." Knocke did not elaborate.

A U.N. diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said that Maduro's passage was delayed because he had showed up late without a ticket, prompting the screening.

"We can confirm that a regrettable incident occurred at John F. Kennedy airport for which the U.S. government has apologized to Foreign Minister Maduro and the government of Venezuela," U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.

Maduro told CNN en Espanol that he was confined to a small room and told to remove his clothes. He charged that when he showed his diplomatic passport, he says he was threatened, pushed and yelled at by immigration and police officials.

"They were violating diplomatic conventions," he said.

Knocke denied the allegations, telling the AP that "there's no evidence to substantiate any sort of abnormality in the screening process."