Hugo Chavez Joke Gets Airline Crew Detained In Venezuela

Jalopnik ^ | 12/14/10 | Justin Hyde

[KingOfVagabonds]

WikiLeaks cables reveal the crew of an American Airlines jet was detained in Venezuela in 2008 after making a minor joke over the plane's PA about President Hugo Chavez, forcing American to fly the plane empty to get them home.

[a fool in paradise]

So what was the joke?

[massgopguy]

Can’t wait to hear from Sean Penn.

[Slings and Arrows]

So what was the joke?

Hugo Chavez.

[justlurking]

So what was the joke?

RTFA.

Upon landing, the pilot announced the "local Chavez time", referring to Venezuela's unique timezone (GMT - 4 hours and 30 minutes, and no, that's not a typo).

A friend of a Venezuelan legislator on the flight heard the announcement as "loco Chavez time," and relayed his report to the lawmaker, who was waiting to meet him. By the time the report made its way to Venezuelan Vice President Ramon Carrizales, the crew member had supposedly said the time was "the hour of the crazy Chavez and his women."

[a fool in paradise]

I don’t jump hops to sniped articles. Blog pimping is so out.

[fungoking]

Having flown in and out of Venezuela several times I can tell you that most of the people on the flight that didn't take off and were thus greatly inconvenienced were....Venezuelan. Of course if you are a Venezuelan that can afford an airline ticket you probably are not a fan of Loco Hugo.

I do remember Hugo's plan to move Venezuela’s clocks ahead 15 or 30 minutes...a really sane idea. I wonder which official drew the short straw and had to explain to Hugo what a bad idea it was?

[JoeProBono]

[justlurking]

I don’t jump hops to sniped articles.

Then you shouldn't be asking people to read it for you.

A suggestion: use Firefox, with the AdBlock Plus plug-in. Blog pimping is worthless with that -- your browser won't ever request the embedded ads, and no one gets paid.

Anyway, here's the original article:

http://nycaviation.com/2010/12/american-airlines-crew-detained-in-venezuela-after-making-hugo-chavez-joke-over-pa/

FWIW, the source is a US Embassy report, courtesy of WikiLeaks.

[a fool in paradise]

There was no reason to not include the most relevant detail in the “news” item.

It’s a tease. Like when the news station says “are you sitting on a timebomb?!! tune it at 10pm to find out!”.

I will make the hop to read the rest of an EXCERPTED article, this was just a come on and does not deserve the extra “clicks”.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Totalitarians never have a sense of humor. Notice that liberals don’t have one either.

[KingOfVagabonds]

I’m not comfortable posting an entire article from most sites given the increasing number of off-limits posting. Jalopnik is a major automotive site, and often offers a humorous take on a news story. I have no personal or financial interest in Jalopnik, and also do not consider it a “blog” at all, let alone a blog that is in need of “pimping” from Freepers. We can all link bland AP news stories all day long, but it’s much easier to have an AP feed to your computer.

[The Comedian]

So what was the joke?

Q. If you cut off a Marxist pig's nose, how does he smell?

A. Terrible!

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.