If you understood the yields and loads on those flights, you'd realize the, ahem, attractiveness of the routes to Venezuela from the US. You deal with "issues" of the Venezuelan gov't for a piece of the pie. The problem is, the $750M IOU from Venezuela probably got too big to not follow through on their threats (my assumption is they threatened to reduce service). AA doing that is a big deal, and MUCH bigger than any other carriers' move to date. AA is the big dog to Venezuela from the US.