Venezuela Condemns US Theft of Another Airplane in Collusion With Dominican Authorities

Venezuela condemned the United States government’s blatant theft of an aircraft owned by the Venezuelan State, which was in the Dominican Republic.

Through a statement issued on Friday, February 7, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said this hostile act was “executed by order of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.”

The statement underlined that Rubio’s hatred “towards Venezuela now leads him to openly commit a crime, illegally confiscating a PDVSA [state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela] airplane with the complicity of the vassal government of the Dominican Republic.”

Rubio, who visited the Dominican Republic on Thursday, witnessed the moment when the Dassault Falcon 2000EX aircraft, which had been retained in a hangar at an airport in the capital Santo Domingo since 2024, was “officially” seized by the US.

US To Seize 2nd Venezuelan Plane Held in Dominican Republic for Maintenance

This is the second Venezuelan aircraft to be stolen by the US on Dominican soil. In September 2024, Washington stole another aircraft which was in the Dominican Republic for maintenance, an act strongly repudiated by leftist and Venezuela solidarity organizations in the country.

At the beginning of 2024, in full complicity with Javier Milei’s government in Argentina, the US stole another Venezuelan aircraft operated by the state cargo airline Emtrasur, transferring it to US territory and dismantling it.

At that time, Venezuela decried that the hijacked Boeing 747-300 aircraft was used in humanitarian aid missions, so its theft would also affect nations that Caracas was assisting in emergency situations. The hijacking of the aircraft was absolutely arbitrary and violated numerous international conventions.

(Telesur)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/SC/SF