Venezuela Accuses US Of “Brazen Theft” After Plane Seizure

Venezuela called the US seizure of one of its government aircraft “brazen theft” on Friday and called the top diplomat for President Donald Trump “an aircraft thief.”

Venezuela “denounces the brazen theft of a plane belonging to the Venezuelan nation carried out on the order of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio,” the authoritarian leftist government’s foreign ministry said.

“Marco Rubio, from hate mercenary to aircraft thief!” the statement said.

The ministry also vowed to “take all necessary actions to denounce this theft and demand the immediate return of its aircraft.”

On a visit to Santo Domingo on Thursday, Rubio supervised the seizure of the second aircraft belonging to Venezuela’s government in less than a year.

Trump has vowed to clamp down on Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro after unsuccessfully seeking to remove him during his first term in the White House amid widespread rejection of Maduro’s claim for reelection.

On starting his second term last month, Trump quickly stripped roughly 600,000 Venezuelans in the United States of protection from deportation.

In September, the United States, under then-president Joe Biden, announced the seizure of the first Venezuelan government airplane in the Dominican Republic that had been used to transport Maduro on international trips.

AFP