In September of last year, during the administration of former President Joe Biden, another official plane from Venezuela, a Dassault Falcon 900EX model, was confiscated in the Dominican Republic and transported to the state of Florida, according to a publication from the RFI site.
The Attorney General of Venezuela, Tarek William Saab, requested this Thursday "international criminal cooperation" from the United States regarding related cases of opposition leaders based in that country, accused of enriching themselves with funds from the U.S. Agency. "They take advantage of issues such as alleged humanitarian aid, human rights, and assistance to migrants to steal billions of dollars," he accused.
Finally, the head of the prosecutor's office reiterated that, in his opinion, "it is time for international criminal cooperation," emphasizing the importance of clarifying facts and delivering justice.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio oversaw the seizure of a second plane belonging to the Venezuelan government that was held in the Dominican Republic, taking a hard line after the diplomatic rapprochement between Washington and Caracas. This is the second plane seized by the United States from Venezuela in less than a year, but the first hardline gesture from the administration of Donald Trump, which during an earlier term imposed a series of sanctions against Venezuela, including an oil embargo, in an attempt to overthrow Nicolás Maduro.
In the presence of Rubio, a Dominican prosecutor and a representative from U.S. law enforcement placed a sign that read "seized" on the Venezuelan-flagged Dassault Falcon 200 that was on the runway of the military airport in Santo Domingo.
"We ask the U.S. authorities, based on bilateral cooperation, to provide us with the findings of this entire investigation that they themselves have conducted on U.S. territory," Saab declared this Thursday on television.
The prosecutor also denounced that several non-governmental organizations, funded by USAID, infamously used the issue of human rights to access tens of millions of dollars. Saab reported that, in 2023, the Public Ministry initiated an investigation into the illegal handling of resources abroad and indicated that right now, "the United States is pointing to other individuals" involved in the alleged embezzlement.
The prosecutor emphasized that there are active arrest warrants against opposition leaders Juan Guaidó and Carlos Vecchio for crimes related to the management of these funds and reiterated the request to Washington for cooperation with Venezuelan justice.
"The seizure of this Venezuelan plane, used to evade U.S. sanctions and money laundering control, is a powerful example of our determination to hold the illegitimate Maduro regime accountable for its illegal actions," Rubio wrote at the end of his first tour as Secretary of State through five Latin American countries. He continued: "With the Dominican Republic and our regional partners, we will continue countering any plans to evade U.S. sanctions."
