Venezuela calls US seizure of plane 'brazen theft'
Venezuela has accused the US of "brazen theft" after seizing one of its government aircraft in the Dominican Republic.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio oversaw the seizure of the plane on Thursday - the second Venezuelan plane the US has confiscated in the Caribbean country in less than a year.
US authorities said there were legal grounds for the seizure, "based on violations of US sanctions, export controls, and money laundering". The Venezuelan foreign ministry called Rubio "an aircraft thief".
The US has long imposed a variety of sanctions on Venezuela in response to what it describes as criminality, corruption and repression under the South American nation's leader, Nicolás Maduro.
Most recently, it placed financial sanctions on a raft of Venezuelan officials in response to the outcome of a presidential election last year, which saw Maduro re-elected. The US, among others, has contested the official results, which the opposition says were doctored in Maduro's favour.
Rubio, a key figure in the new Trump administration, supervised the confiscation of the Dassault Falcon 200 jet on a visit to a military airstrip in the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo, on the last stop of his Latin American tour.
He told reporters on Thursday: "The message is that when there are sanctions because they are violating human rights, they are violating a whole series of things, travelling to Iran, helping countries that really wish harm to the United States.
"These sanctions are going to be applied and reinforced."
Dominican Republic authorities detained the aircraft last year after the US said it had violated unilateral US sanctions against Venezuela.
Venezuelan officials had 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.
The Venezuelan foreign ministry said it would "take all necessary actions to denounce this theft and demand the immediate return of its aircraft".
In September, the US under then-president Joe Biden, seized the first Venezuelan government plane in the Dominican Republic that had been used to transport President Maduro on international trips.
US seizes Venezuelan President Maduro's plane
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