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The US has seized a private aircraft used by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, citing alleged violations on US export controls and sanctions laws.
In a statement on Monday, the Department of Justice said the Dassault Falcon 900EX plane had been seized in the Dominican Republic and transferred to southern Florida.
“This morning, the justice department seized an aircraft we allege was illegally purchased for $13mn through a shell company and smuggled out of the United States for use by Nicolás Maduro and his cronies,” said Merrick Garland, the US attorney-general.
“The department will continue to pursue those who violate our sanctions and export controls to prevent them from using American resources to undermine the national security of the United States,” he added.
The move by the DoJ comes as Maduro, a revolutionary socialist in power since 2013, has been cracking down on the opposition following allegations his government rigged the count to steal victory in July’s presidential election in the Latin American country.
Maduro was declared the winner of the July 28 election by the National Electoral Council, which is controlled by his allies, but it failed to give any breakdown of voting. Venezuela’s supreme court, which is also controlled by members of Maduro’s ruling socialist party, later confirmed the results.
Opposition leaders have said their candidate, retired diplomat Edmundo González, won, and released thousands of voting tally receipts collected from polling stations as proof. The US has also recognised González as the election winner and said the supreme court’s ruling “lacks all credibility”.
The seizure of the aircraft marks a shift in tactics by the US, which had focused since the election on questioning the official results and calling for the will of the Venezuelan people to be respected. As well as pressing Maduro to release a full accounting of the July election, US secretary of state Antony Blinken has also been urging Venezuela to “end human rights abuses, including arbitrary arrests and indiscriminate detentions”.
The Biden administration has so far been reluctant to impose additional economic sanctions on the country, following the failure of the Trump-era “maximum pressure” campaign to dislodge Maduro from power.
According to the DoJ, the seized aircraft was “illegally exported” from the US to Venezuela through the Caribbean in April 2023. Since May 2023 it has “flown almost exclusively to and from a military base in Venezuela and has been used for the benefit of Maduro and his representatives, including to transport Maduro on visits to other countries”, it said.
“Let this seizure send a clear message: aircraft illegally acquired from the United States for the benefit of sanctioned Venezuelan officials cannot just fly off into the sunset,” said Matthew Axelrod, assistant commerce secretary for export enforcement.
The US state department has offered a $15mn reward for information leading to Maduro’s capture, following criminal charges brought by prosecutors in 2020 related to an alleged narco-terrorism scheme.
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