Venezuela calls US seizure of government plane ‘brazen theft’ happymamay

Venezuela accused the United States of “rude theft” after the seizure of one of its government aircraft in the Dominican Republic.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio supervised the seizure of the plane on Thursday – the second Venezuelan plane that the United States confiscated in the country of the Caribbean in less than a year.

The American authorities said that there are legal reasons for confiscation, “based on the violations of US sanctions, export and money laundering controls.” The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry described Rubio as a “thief of a plane.”

The United States has long imposed a variety of sanctions on Venezuela in response to what it describes as criminality, corruption and repression under the leader of the South America, Nicholas Maduro.

Recently, that Setting financial penalties on a group of Venezuelan officials In response to the results of the presidential elections last year, which witnessed the re -election of Maduro. The United States has objected, among other things, on the official results, which the opposition says was stored for Maduro.

Rubio, a major figure in the new Trump administration, supervised the confiscation of the Dassault Falcon 200 on a visit to a military air landing in the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo, at the last station of his tour in Latin America.

He told reporters on Thursday: “The message is that when there are sanctions because they violate human rights, they violate a whole series of things, travel to Iran, and help countries that really want to harm the United States.

“These sanctions will be applied and enhanced.”

The authorities of the Dominican Republic detained the plane last year after the United States said it had violated the unilateral US sanctions against Venezuela.

Venezuelan officials used the plane to travel to Greece, Turkey, Russia, Nicaragua and Cuba, and took it to the Dominican Republic of Maintenance, according to the US State Department.

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said it “will take all necessary measures to condemn this theft and demand an immediate return to its plane.”

In September, the United States, at the time of President Joe Biden, seized the first Venezuelan government aircraft in the Dominican Republic that was used to transport President Maduro on international flights.