Attorney General Merrick Garland explained that the plane was “illegally purchased by a front company for $13 million and smuggled out of the United States for use by Nicolás Maduro and his cronies.” This circumvented US sanctions imposed on Maduro.
The left-wing politician Maduro has been in power in Venezuela since 2013, but is not recognized by Washington as the legitimate head of state. After the presidential election on July 28, he was officially declared the winner, despite international criticism and accusations of fraud by the opposition.
This was followed by mass protests in the oil-rich South American country, in which, according to the judiciary, 27 people were killed and 2,400 demonstrators arrested. In the days following the vote, several countries, including the USA, Peru and Argentina, officially recognised the opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia as the legitimate winner of the election.
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