Nicolas Maduro says U.S. intends to steal Venezuelan plane held in Argentina

Caracas, August 4 (RHC)-- Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro denounced on Wednesday that the U.S. intends to steal a Venezuelan-owned plane held in Argentina since June 6th.

"Now they intend to steal a plane (that is) property of Venezuela (...) By mandate of an imperial court, of a U.S. court in Florida, they intend to steal a modern cargo plane," said the Venezuelan President during a broadcast on the state-owned Venezolana de Televisión channel.

On June 6, the Emtrasur plane landed in Argentinean territory, where it would have delivered a cargo of auto parts of the German company Volkswagen in Argentina.  However, when it was about to leave the Argentine territory on June 6th, no company supplied them with fuel for fear of the sanctions to which the U.S. could resort.

The Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) and the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA) stated in a communiqué that they believe that the retention of the aircraft should be clarified "urgently by the national authorities" because it is an aircraft operated by the "Venezuelan company Emtrasur and linked to the Iranian company Mahan Air, sanctioned by the U.S. for its links with terrorist activities."

The aircraft then headed to Uruguay on June 8, intending to refuel to return to Venezuela.  Still, the authorities rejected the request to land in their territory and the flight had to return to Ezeiza airport in the province of Buenos Aires (east).

In this sense, the president called on the Argentinean people to raise their protest in support of the Venezuelan Government for the recovery of the aircraft.

"Our Venezuela raises its protest and I ask the Argentinean people for all their support to recover that plane that belongs to a Venezuelan company and intends to be stolen, after having it hijacked for almost two months, now they intend to steal it as they stole our gold in London," said Maduro.

The President assured that the Venezuelan airplane retained in Argentina was used for the transport of humanitarian aid to the Caribbean and African countries and affirmed that the aircraft was also used for the transportation of medicines from China, Russia and India to the South American nation.