The United States has impounded the plane used by Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro on September 2, according to government officials. The reason? The U.S. believes Maduro bought the plane in violation of U.S. sanctions against the South American nation.
Indeed, it is not even clear if socialist Nicolas Maduro is the legitimate president of Venezuela after the country’s hotly disputed presidential elections on July 28. Both the opposition candidate and party and most world leaders believe the Maduro government is lying in claiming victory, and that the overwhelming majority of votes went to opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez. The government has refused to make vote tallies and other information available for inspection, and citizens have taken to the street violently to protest Maduro.
CNN quoted an unnamed U.S. government source as saying that seizing Maduro’s plane “sends a message all the way to the top.” It’s “unheard of” for the U.S. to impound the plane of a head of state over a criminal matter, according to the source, but the U.S. wants to make sure Venezuela knows that it means business.
Maduro’s plane has been described as the Venezuelan equivalent of Air Force One. But the French-made Dassualt three-engine jet is much smaller, coming in at the size of a business jet or small commuter plane. By contrast, Air Force One is one of the last of the worlds’ first jumbo-jet, the Boeing 747. Called the Queen of the Skies, the double-decker jet has four engines and was once the largest passenger plane in the world.
The U.S. seized the plane in the Dominican Republic and flew it to Florida on Septembr 2. Luis Abinader, president of the Dominican Republic, said the plane was not registered to the country of Venezuela, but to “an individual.” Who that might be has not been disclosed.
America has had its eye on the jet since at least May when a court ordered the plane to be “immobilized” so the U.S could search it in connection with alleged fraudulent or criminal activity.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a statement describing the plane as having been bought illegally for $13 million by a “shell company” which “smuggled” it out of the U.S. so it could be used by “Maduro and his cronies.”
The Venezuelan government is furious and describes the seizure as an act of “piracy.” They say the U.S. has no legal right to seize the plane and is acting unilaterally outside the law.
