The United States has seized the plane of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro after determining that its acquisition violated U.S. sanctions and export control laws, the Justice Department said. CNN, which broke the story, released photographs of the plane at Fort Lauderdale Airport, Florida, where it was flown from the Dominican Republic, where it was seized, according to unidentified U.S. officials citing sources.
U.S. authorities allege the aircraft was illegally acquired through a shell company and smuggled out of the United States. The plane, registered in San Marino, was used by Maduro for foreign travel, including a trip earlier this year to Guyana and Cuba.
“This sends a message to the top,” one of the US officials told CNN. “Seizing the plane of a foreign head of state is a milestone in criminal matters. We are sending a clear message that no one is above the law, no one is beyond the reach of US sanctions,” he added.
The plane, a Dassault Falcon 900 estimated to have cost about $13 million according to flight records, had been in the Dominican Republic for the past few months, CNN reported, indicating that the opportunity now presented itself to seize the aircraft. The operation involved several federal agencies, including Homeland Security Investigations, Commerce agents, the Bureau of Industry and Security and the Department of Justice.
The seizure comes at a time of renewed tension between Washington and Caracas. Last week, one month after the presidential elections, the United States asked the government of Caracas to respect the will of the Venezuelan people who, it said, have given majority support to Edmundo González Urrutia. “Venezuelans have voted, the results are clear and their will must be respected,” the State Department said in a statement.
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The United States lifted sanctions on Venezuela in an attempt to facilitate democratic elections, but also in part to ease the economic situation in the country and stem the flow of millions of migrants who have left Venezuela in recent years. Despite this gesture, Venezuelan authorities managed to remove opposition leader Maria Corina Machado from the ballot. In April, the United States reactivated sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and gas sector in response to obstacles to an “inclusive and competitive election,” as it had announced it would do in January.
Even so, with Machado’s support, Edmundo González won broad support and the Venezuelan government was ready to declare Nicolás Maduro’s victory without even providing the voting records. Faced with popular protests, the government has opted for repression to try to impose the fraudulent results, in elections whose lack of transparency has been criticized by various international organizations.
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