Iberia cancels Madrid-Caracas flights until next week 'due to delicate situation in Venezuela'

The national airline normally runs a daily flight from Madrid to Caracas, but has called this off, and even the return flight from Caracas to Madrid 'due to the delicate situation in Venezuela and operational and security problems'.

Any affected passenger will be offered 'the best possible alternative travel' on another date, a refund on their ticket, or a place on a flight with another airline where one is running.

They will also be given hotel accommodation.

No further flights are expected to leave Madrid for the Venezuelan capital, Spain's only destination in the country, until Wednesday, August 2.

Customers will be kept informed constantly of changes, Iberia assures.

“We are concerned and willing to recommence our Venezuela operations as soon as possible, but in the meantime, our priority is the safety of our customers, crew, and all employees who attend to our aircraft,” said a spokesperson from the company.

Iberia has been joined in its decision by Air France, which has cancelled flights between Paris and Caracas for tomorrow and Monday.

What's the problem with Venezuela?

The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) has lost major public support since Nicolás Maduro became president after the death of his predecessor Hugo Chávez, and have already managed to alienate more moderate chavistas as well as inflaming the opposition.

Although the PSUV and Maduro claim the constituent assembly – effectively designed to enable the government to rewrite Venezuela's Magna Carta – is to bring permanent and across-the-board peace to the turbulent South American nation, the opposition is highly suspicious and believes it will just allow Maduro to strengthen his power at the expense of democracy, freedom and human rights.

Whilst the idea in itself is viewed as positive by experts in politics, particularly in Latin America, they say that, put into practice, it could be a disaster.

Professor Miguel Tinker Salas from California's Pomona College says 'something positive could come out of' the constituent assembly 'if it is used to reform an economy heavily dependent upon oil and to address violence', but that in the current context, “I just don't see how that might happen.”

Another expert on Venezuelan politics, Professor Julia Buxton, believes that in hindsight, the constituent assembly could become 'the single biggest miscalculation of Maduro's presidency'.

Protests and division in society have become violent, with over 107 civilians already dead and ongoing battles in the streets with riot police, as well as mass opposition in the form of general strikes and an unofficial referendum rejecting the constituent assembly.

Professor Tinker Salas says 'there is no process of negotiation or view of conciliation', meaning the public feels its rights are being violated by a despotic, top-down and anti-democratic approach.

The US has levied sanctions on Venezuela, both under president Barack Obama and now under Donald Trump, effectively putting a brake on the Latin American nation's oil trade – but Professor Tinker Salas says this is not going to do Maduro any harm; instead, it would 'actually hurt the Venezuelan people' by leaving them impoverished.