WikiLeaks cables have revealed that the crew of an American Airlines jet was detained in Venezuela in 2008 after making a minor joke over the aircraft address system about President Hugo Chavez.
The report says that after American flight 903 to Caracas landed, one crew member announced: "Welcome to Venezuela, local Chavez time is...," a reference to the unique time zone Chavez put the country into in 2007. A friend of a Venezuelan legislator on the flight heard the announcement as "loco Chavez time," and relayed his report to the authorities 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.