Santo Domingo:
The United States on Thursday seized a second aircraft belonging to the Venezuelan government in less than a year during a visit to the Dominican Republic by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, despite nascent diplomacy with leftist leader Nicolas Maduro.
Rubio traveled to a military airstrip in the capital Santo Domingo where, in front of cameras, a Dominican Republic prosecutor and US law enforcement representative together taped a sign that said “seized” on a Dassault Falcon 200 jet bearing a Venezuelan flag.
Dominican Republic authorities detained the aircraft last year after US authorities said it had violated unilateral US sanctions against Venezuela.
Venezuelan officials used the plane to fly to Greece, Turkey, Russia, Nicaragua and Cuba, and had taken it to the Dominican Republic for maintenance, according to the US State Department.
Maduro’s oil minister also used the plane to attend a meeting of the OPEC oil cartel in the United Arab Emirates in 2019, according to the Treasury Department.
In September, the United States, then led by president Joe Biden, announced the seizure of another Venezuelan government airplane in the Dominican Republic that had been used to transport Maduro on international trips.
President Donald Trump has long vowed a hard line on Venezuela and in his first term unsuccessfully sought to remove Maduro, who has faced wide international questioning on the legitimacy of his election victories.
But an envoy from Trump, Richard Grenell, last week traveled to Caracas to meet with Maduro, securing the release of six US prisoners.
Venezuela said the talks were held with “mutual respect,” but Rubio and other US officials have insisted that there was no backtracking on the US refusal to accept Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate president.
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