Venezuela calls US seizure of presidency airplane ‘brazen theft’
Venezuela has accused the US of “brazen theft” after seizing certainly one of its authorities plane within the Dominican Republic.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio oversaw the seizure of the airplane on Thursday – the second Venezuelan airplane the US has confiscated within the Caribbean nation in lower than a yr.
US authorities stated there have been authorized grounds for the seizure, “primarily based on violations of US sanctions, export controls, and cash laundering”. The Venezuelan international ministry known as Rubio “an plane thief”.
The US has lengthy imposed a wide range of sanctions on Venezuela in response to what it describes as criminality, corruption and repression below the South American nation’s chief, Nicolás Maduro.
Most just lately, it positioned monetary sanctions on a raft of Venezuelan officers in response to the end result of a presidential election final yr, which noticed Maduro re-elected. The US, amongst others, has contested the official outcomes, which the opposition says had been doctored in Maduro’s favour.
Rubio, a key determine within the new Trump administration, supervised the confiscation of the Dassault Falcon 200 jet on a go to to a army airstrip within the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo, on the final cease of his Latin American tour.
He advised reporters on Thursday: “The message is that when there are sanctions as a result of they’re violating human rights, they’re violating a complete sequence of issues, travelling to Iran, serving to international locations that actually want hurt to america.
“These sanctions are going to be utilized and bolstered.”
Dominican Republic authorities detained the plane final yr after the US stated it had violated unilateral US sanctions in opposition to Venezuela.
Venezuelan officers had used the airplane to fly to Greece, Turkey, Russia, Nicaragua and Cuba, and had taken it to the Dominican Republic for upkeep, in response to the US state division.
The Venezuelan international ministry stated it will “take all mandatory actions to denounce this theft and demand the fast return of its plane”.
In September, the US below then-president Joe Biden, seized the primary Venezuelan authorities airplane within the Dominican Republic that had been used to move President Maduro on worldwide journeys.
