CARACAS, Venezuela — In the latest diplomatic dispute between the United States and Venezuela, American officials late Thursday gave permission for President Nicolás Maduro to fly over Puerto Rico on his way to a state visit in China and denied angry accusations from Venezuelan officials that the United States had tried to bar Mr. Maduro from its airspace.

But Venezuela’s accusations resonated among some of its leftist allies in the region, who compared the contretemps to the incident in July when President Evo Morales of Bolivia was denied permission to fly over some European countries because, according to Bolivian officials, they wrongly suspected his plane was carrying Edward J. Snowden, the fugitive American intelligence leaker. Leftist leaders at the time accused the United States of being behind that incident, although Washington said it was not involved.

On Thursday, Mr. Maduro and Foreign Minister Elías Jaua accused the United States of barring Mr. Maduro from American airspace, calling it an act of aggression.

But on Friday, Roberta S. Jacobson, the United States assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said that was not true and that the request had never been denied.