One of the planes operated by Venezuela’s state-owned oil company. Similar aircraft have been used to transport senior members of the Nicolas Maduro regime. (U.S. Department of the Treasury)
The Venezuelan Supreme Court ordered on Monday the arrest of Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, along with other members of his government for alleged crimes related to the seizure in 2022 of a Venezuelan cargo plane belonging to the Caracas socialist regime.
The court, an entity tightly controlled by the Nicolas Maduro regime, also ordered the arrests of Karina Milei, the sister of the president who serves as secretary general of the presidency, and of Security Minister Patricia Bullrich.
The order was issued a week after the Venezuelan regime’s attorney general, Tarek William Saab, charged Milei with money laundering, unlawful deprivation of liberty and unlawful Interference in the operational safety of civil aviation, among other crimes.
The Venezuelan Supreme Court has repeatedly been accused by international organizations of acting more as an instrument of political persecution than as an independent entity dedicated to the administration of justice.
The aircraft in question, a Boeing 747-300M, was initially detained in Argentina in June 2022, with Venezuelan and Iranian crew members suspected of being involved in espionage. Weeks later the U.S. government moved to take possession of it. After months of diplomatic wrangling, the Boeing 747 was finally flown from Buenos Aires International Airport to South Florida on Feb. 12 of this year.
The aircraft was owned by the Iranian company Mahan Air and was sold to Emtrasur Cargo, a subsidiary of the Venezuelan state-owned Conviasa, companies that are under sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department.
Mahan Air has been targeted by the U.S. government for its support of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, according to U.S. officials. The force, a branch of the Iranian military, has been designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization.
A few days after the plane was seized by U.S. officials in February, Maduro flew into a rage, claiming the plane had been destroyed in Miami out of spite by Washington while insisting that his government would issue a strong response.
“Last night we were informed of a vile, criminal, outrageous act at an airport in Miami, Florida. The vengeful, perverse gringo empire with all its evil proceeded to dismember the Emtrasur plane, the Conviasa plane that was hijacked from us,” Maduro said at an event broadcast on national television.
While it is not clear if the plane was actually destroyed as Maduro claimed, law enforcement sources said that usually property confiscated by the U.S. government is eventually sold if it cannot be used by government agencies. They added that destroying a Boeing 747 would cost money and it would make much more sense for authorities to sell it.
After learning last week that the Venezuelan attorney general had requested an arrest order against Milei, a spokesman for the government of Argentina said the president was not concerned.
Describing the order as a “pavada,” — a silly thing — presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni added: “What a dictatorial government such as the one in Venezuela says does not concern us in the least.”
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