The Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, supervised on Thursday the seizure of a Venezuelan government plane held by the authorities in the Dominican Republic, According to a Reuters witness.
The authorities had “determined that there is a basis for presenting a civil confiscation action to recover the aircraft, based on violations of US sanctions, export controls and money laundering, “ The State Department said in a statement.
It is the second Venezuelan plane that the United States seizes in recent months and occurs in the midst of uncertainty about the position of the Donald Trump’s government to the Government of Nicolás Maduro.
On Thursday, Rubio – on the last scale of his tour of Latin America this week – observed how an official of the National Security Department placed a court order on the planeseized it formally. The plane had been in maintenance at an airport in Santo Domingo.
The State Department said that high -ranking members of the Government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro had used the Dassault Falcon 200 plane to travel to Greece, Turkey, Russia, Nicaragua and Cuba.
Rubio has said this week that the United States does not recognize Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela.
The Maduro government has always rejected the sanctions of the United States and others, saying that they are illegitimate measures that are equivalent to an “economic war” designed to paralyze Venezuela.
