economic sanctions

The United States has seized the plane of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro after determining that its acquisition violated U.S. sanctions and export control laws, the Justice Department said. CNN, the news channel that broke the news, has broadcast photographs of the plane at Fort Lauderdale Airport (Florida), where it was flown on Monday from the Dominican Republic, where the seizure was carried out, according to official sources.

“This morning, the Department of Justice seized an aircraft that we allege was illegally purchased for $13 million through a shell company and smuggled out of the United States for use by Nicolás Maduro and his cronies,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a statement. “The Department will continue to pursue those who violate our sanctions and export controls to prevent them from using U.S. resources to undermine U.S. national security,” he added.

“Let this seizure send a clear message: aircraft illegally acquired from the United States for the benefit of sanctioned Venezuelan officials cannot fly off into the sunset,” said Under Secretary for Export Control Matthew S. Axelrod of the Commerce Department. “No matter how luxurious the private jet or how powerful the officials, we will work tirelessly with our partners here and around the world to identify and return any aircraft illegally smuggled out of the United States.” The Maduro government has responded to Washington’s move by calling the seizure a “repeated criminal practice” and has announced that it “reserves the right to take any legal action to repair this harm to the nation.”

In August 2019, Donald Trump, as President, issued an Executive Order prohibiting U.S. persons from engaging in transactions with persons who have acted or purported to act directly or indirectly for, or on behalf of, the Government of Venezuela. To protect U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, the Department of Commerce has also imposed export controls on items destined, in whole or in part, for a Venezuelan military or military intelligence end user.

According to the U.S. investigation, in late 2022 and early 2023, Maduro-linked individuals allegedly used a Caribbean-based shell company to conceal their involvement in the illegal purchase of the Dassault Falcon 900EX aircraft (valued at the time at approximately $13 million) from a company based in the Southern District of Florida. The aircraft was then illegally exported from the United States to Venezuela via the Caribbean in April 2023. Since May 2023, the Dassault Falcon, tail number T7-ESPRT, has almost exclusively flown 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.

The plane had been in the Dominican Republic in recent months, CNN reports, which indicates that the opportunity now presented itself to seize the aircraft. Several federal agencies participated in the operation, including Homeland Security Investigations, Commerce agents, the Bureau of Industry and Security and the Department of Justice.

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KEEP READINGThe seized plane, in an image distributed by the Department of Justice.

The seizure comes at a time of renewed tension between Washington and Caracas. Last week, one month after the presidential elections, the United States asked the Maduro government to respect the will of the Venezuelan people who, it said, have given majority support to Edmundo González Urrutia. “Venezuelans have voted, the results are clear and their will must be respected,” the State Department said in a statement.

The United States lifted sanctions on Venezuela in an attempt to facilitate democratic elections, but also in part to ease the economic situation in the country and stem the flow of millions of migrants who have left Venezuela in recent years. Despite this gesture, Venezuelan authorities managed to remove opposition leader Maria Corina Machado from the ballot. In April, the United States reactivated sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and gas sector in response to obstacles to an “inclusive and competitive election,” as it had announced it would do in January.

Even so, with Machado’s support, Edmundo González won broad support and the Venezuelan government was ready to declare Nicolás Maduro’s victory without even providing the voting records. Faced with popular protests, the government has opted for repression to try to impose the fraudulent results, in elections whose lack of transparency has been criticized by various international organizations.

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