The new Venezuelan president is extremely touchy in his relations with the U.S. This became quite evident when for some reason that appears to have been a mistake, Maduro´s plane was temporarily denied permission to enter U.S. space. The U.S. later let the plane pass through.

The incident originated a tirade of insults from president Maduro and his entourage that ended when the situation was dealt with.

I was waiting for him to appear at the UN wearing his trademark headgear, something like a hair net or maybe as a friendly gesture he could wear Mickey Mouse ears.

He often converses with birds and doesn't want the CIA to recognize him too easily when they try and kill him again.

The US actually went out of its way to approve it even though it was submitted with one days notice when the requirement is three days.

It was done that way because of the France cocaine bust, they needed something to distract from it.

maybe he would be arrested for drug trafficking? or it simply might not be a good idea to have him speak publicly in such a forum.

He could've stood there bloviating about imperialism but he would've looked fucking stupid as fuck. Obama came out as a pure diplomat, even admitting CIA meddling in Iran, and Iran's President even came out conciliatory about it and even admitted that the holocaust happened. It was a good fucking day for US-Iran relations. Mad Maduro simply had nothing, his prepared speech was probably a joke and he was advised to fuck off. So he scurried back to Venezuela to weep at the Presidential Palace wondering what the fuck he was going to do about Venezuela's precipitous decline into chaos.

He definitely was told to not attend due to the embarrassment. Puerto Rico will be a US state soon enough.

They just voted for statehood by majority. However, the US congress has no interest in granting statehood to the island. On the otherhand, independence isn't happening either. Only about 4% of puertorican population favors independence. If there were a true vote on only statehood and independence, statehood would win 80% +. The problem is the Commonwealth party who keeps stating that PR is NOT a territory and that its actually a sovereign nation that has delegated certain power to the US. A bunch of bull, but to them its the practical way to rationalize their status without giving up US citizenship and US benefits. They are approximately 50% of the population. However, if they had to vote on it, and they absolutely do not want to have to make that decision, the majority of Commonwealthers would vote statehood.

Conversely, the Falklands voted 99% to remain British yet ALBA believes they should be given to Argentina.

But that will change soon enough. The commonwealth party doesn't represent the majority view of PR's IMO, and the US congress, in time, say, 2016 and beyond, will vote to allow their belonging to the US as a state. After that a whole bunch of other territories will follow suit. I expect even the Philippine US state movement to gain traction by then.

This is fucking priceless, it's like that time when the supreme court said that Chavez was absent only if he said he was absent (as he laid on life support literally rotting away in Cuba).