Venezuelan Cardinal Baltazar Porras Cardozo had his passport confiscated at Simón Bolívar Airport in Maiquetía, Venezuela, as he prepared to travel abroad, according to Spanish-language media reports on December 10, 2025. In addition to Vatican outlets that covered the incident, several voices denounced what they called a “violation of the rights” of a citizen.
The country’s bishops’ conference expressed its “concern” and asked the government for an explanation.
At 81, Cardinal Porras, archbishop emeritus of Caracas, was scheduled to travel to Spain for ecclesial commitments. But as he prepared to board his flight, he was stopped at customs. “The agent told me that there was a problem with my passport and that they couldn’t do anything,” the cardinal reported in a message sent to the Bishops’ Conference.
According to the U.S. outlet The Pillar, the former archbishop of the capital was detained for two hours.
The prelate had to return home without his Venezuelan passport. As a member of the College of Cardinals, he also holds a Vatican passport, considered diplomatic and allowing visa-free travel to 113 countries. “Foreign authorities cannot confiscate that passport, but they can refuse to recognize it,” a Vatican source told I.MEDIA.
Denouncing an “infringement of the rights we have as citizens,” Cardinal Porras lamented that such incidents have become common.
“For a quarter of a century, it’s been almost routine that upon arriving at Immigration, the agent takes the passport and goes off to ‘consult,’ claiming that ‘the system isn’t working,’ that ‘the name doesn’t appear’ … Twice, I was even told that I was listed as deceased,” he said.
Expressing their “concern,” Venezuela’s bishops asked the authorities for clarification on the reported events. Several international voices also protested, among them Colombian president Gustavo Petro, who deplored a lack of democracy and criticized the neighboring government’s “repression.”
Vatican News notes that “this episode comes amid high tensions between Venezuela and the United States,” as the latter has recently reinforced its military presence in the Caribbean Sea off the Venezuelan coast.
Aboard the plane bringing him back from Lebanon on December 2, Pope Leo XIV mentioned the ultimatum issued by President Donald Trump to President Nicolás Maduro to step down, explaining that he was working with the country’s bishops and the apostolic nuncio on the ground “to find ways to calm the situation.”
The goal, he stressed, is “above all to seek the good of the people because, in these situations, it is often the people who suffer, not the authorities.”
“It is better to look for paths of dialogue, perhaps including economic pressure,” he said.
