Why did the US confiscate Nicolás Maduro’s official plane?

International

Why did the US confiscate Nicolás Maduro’s official plane?

US authorities have seized a plane used by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from the Dominican Republic and flown it to South Florida.

The seized aircraft is a Dassault Falcon 900EX model. (Photo Prensa Libre: BBC)

The United States seized the plane used by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, after determining that its acquisition violated US sanctions

The Justice Department said the aircraft was seized, due to “violations of the North American country’s export control laws and sanctions.”

“The aircraft was seized for being illegally acquired by US$13 million through a shell company and was smuggled out of the United States for use by Nicolás Maduro and his cronies,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

In response, the Venezuelan foreign minister, Yvan Gil, accused the United States in a statement of committing “a repeat criminal practice, which cannot be described as anything other than piracy.”

Venezuela “reserves the right to take any legal action to repair this damage to the nationas well as all the other damages caused by the “criminal policy” of the United States, the Maduro government added in the statement.

The seizure occurs one month and 6 days after the July 28 elections, in which the National Electoral Council proclaimed Maduro as the winnerbut without publishing the detailed information of the voting records that support the announced results.

The Venezuelan opposition claims that the winner of the election was candidate Edmundo González Urrutia and they published on social media that it was with more than 80% of the minutes in which it would not only be proven that he won but that he did so with a wide margin of advantage.