MAIQUETÍA, Venezuela (LifeSiteNews) — Venezuelan migration authorities prevented Cardinal Baltazar Porras from departing their airport after flagging him as dead, causing serious diplomatic repercussions.
On December 10, at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, in the State of Vargas, Venezuela, migration authorities prevented 81-year-old Cardinal Baltazar Porras, archbishop emeritus of Caracas, from boarding a flight that would have stopped in Bogotá before continuing to Madrid and Toledo, where he was expected to be received as the new spiritual protector for Venezuela of the Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus.
“During the inspection I appeared as a deceased person, and even in the bathroom I was followed by the military,” Porras reported in a message addressed to the Venezuelan bishops.
According to statements from the Grand Priory of the Order, the prelate was detained without official explanations and his Venezuelan passport was confiscated and annulled; even presenting his Vatican-issued passport – a document proper to a cardinal’s rank and its associated diplomatic prerogatives – did not convince authorities to allow him to board.
The official notice issued by the Order of Saint Lazarus states that Porras was subjected to a personal search, including the inspection of clothing and belongings with the use of drug-sniffing dogs, while his luggage had already been removed from the aircraft on which he was supposed to travel. According to the same communication, the archbishop emeritus was accompanied by the grand prior, José Antonio Rodríguez, and his wife. While the couple was eventually permitted to board, the prelate was categorically prevented from traveling.
The order maintains that the procedure carried out against the cardinal constitutes a “flagrant violation” of international norms, in particular the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which is explicitly mentioned in the statement released after the incident. The circumstances described include the annulment of the Venezuelan passport and the refusal to recognize the validity of the Vatican passport, a document normally acknowledged by border authorities by virtue of the holder’s status within the ecclesiastical hierarchy.
Following the episode, the Order of Saint Lazarus submitted a formal complaint to the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, requesting an official intervention with the Venezuelan government. The request calls for a diplomatic protest and the “immediate return” of the confiscated documents, as well as a guarantee of free international passage for the cardinal “in accordance with current international regulations.”
In his message to the bishops, Porras added a spiritual reflection tied to the liturgical season: “In this Christmas season, strength lies in the weakness of the Nativity scene, in the fragility of truth that is built in peace, without violence and without abuses. Hope passes through continuous work for the good of all, especially the excluded.”
Porras, a prominent figure of the Church in Venezuela, has for years been at the center of tensions with members of Nicolás Maduro’s government and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. In recent years several government representatives, including Maduro and Diosdado Cabello, have openly criticized the prelate for his public positions.
This latest run-in thus fits into a context of strained relations between part of the Venezuelan Catholic hierarchy and the socialist authorities, a context in which the denunciations of the Order of Saint Lazarus and the request for intervention from the Holy See are now situated.
