In a reaction to the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio's seizure of a Dassault Falcon 2000 aircraft used by senior officials of the Venezuelan Government of Nicolás Maduro, the administration of Nicolás Maduro on Friday released a statement accusing the "seizure act" as "shameless theft".
According to a statement issued by the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, the action was carried out on the orders of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio , who was accused of being "a criminal disguised as a politician" who uses his position to "plunder and despoil" the country of its assets.
"His hatred makes him an international criminal, capable of violating any rule in order to harm our country," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement
The administration of Nicolás Maduro on Friday described as "shameless theft" the confiscation of a second Venezuelan government aircraft, which was in the Dominican Republic, carried out by the United States government for alleged violations of the export control laws and sanctions of the North American nation.
"Venezuela denounces before the world the shameless theft of an aircraft owned by the Venezuelan nation, carried out by order of the Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement published on Telegram.
It maintained that this "attack" against Venezuela shows that Rubio "is nothing more than a criminal disguised as a politician, using his position to plunder and despoil" the country of "its assets."
"His hatred makes him an international criminal, capable of violating any rule in order to harm our country," the statement added.
The Foreign Ministry assured that Venezuela will take all "necessary actions" to denounce the "theft" and demand the immediate return of the aircraft.
"Marco Rubio will go down in history as what he is: a thief and declared enemy of our people," it said.
On Thursday, the United States confiscated the plane that was parked in a hangar at an airport in Santo Domingo for alleged violations of the North American nation's export control and sanctions laws, the second aircraft seized in five months.
“The seizure of this Venezuelan plane, used to evade U.S. sanctions and money laundering, is a powerful example of our determination to hold the illegitimate Maduro regime accountable for its illegal actions,” Rubio said in X, at the end of his first tour as Secretary of State through five Latin American countries.
In Rubio’s presence, a Dominican prosecutor and a representative of U.S. law enforcement agencies pasted a sign reading “seized” on the Venezuelan-flagged Dassault Falcon 200 aircraft that was on the military landing strip in Santo Domingo.
Dominican authorities handed over this aircraft to Rubio, who visited the country, at the La Isabela airport, in the province of Santo Domingo, where it had been held since 2024.
Rubio assured, through X, that the Venezuelan aircraft was used to "evade US sanctions and money laundering."
According to the US Department of Justice, it is a Dassault Falcon 2000EX used by the sanctioned state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (Pdvsa).
According to the US investigation, the aircraft was purchased in 2017 by Pdvsa in the United States and exported to Venezuela, it was "inspected and maintained on multiple occasions using US parts," which violates Washington's export control and sanctions laws.
Last September, the United States seized another aircraft allegedly linked to Maduro that was in the Dominican Republic for maintenance.
On that occasion, the aircraft was seized and transferred to Florida (United States) for having been "illegally purchased" for 13 million dollars "through a shell company and smuggled out of the United States for use by Nicolás Maduro and his cronies," as reported by the Attorney General's Office.
In June 2022, a Venezuelan-Iranian Boeing 747 aircraft was grounded in Argentina and destroyed in the United States in January 2024, an incident that Caracas also called “theft.”
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