US ambassador to Venezuela William Brownfield Monday reasserted his Government apologies for the detention of Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Nicolás Maduro late Saturday at the New York airport.

"It is our fault and we would like to apologize, but even though he has rights, he (Nicolás Maduro) made some steps that resulted in an (alert) code in the computer," such as buying a one-way ticket to the US in cash, Brownfield explained, as quoted by Efe.

"He bought a one-way ticket, and the normal thing is buying a round-trip ticket. Ninety-nine percent of passengers buy air tickets with credit cards, and he (Maduro) bought his ticket in cash and on the same day he traveled. Even though this is not wrong, such behavior resulted in the computer producing a security code," Brownfield told local news TV network Globovisión.

Brownfield rejected claims that Maduro's detention was a retaliation following President Hugo Chávez' remarks both at the United Nations General Assembly and in a New York neighborhood deriding US President George W. Bush.
  
Brownfield underscored that "we have indications that they (policemen in the airport) had no idea of Foreign Minister Maduro's identity. And once they found out who he was, they offered to take him to the airplane, but he decided not to take his flight and returned to town" to file a complaint on the incident.

Back in Caracas, Maduro claimed that while under "detention," he received several threats both physical and verbal.

"Threats to hit us became worse when we produced our passport and identity documents," Maduro stressed. He labeled the affair as an example of the "Nazi and racist" character of Bush administration, adding it was a retaliation against Chávez' anti-imperialist stance.