By Roberto Morejón

After months of lying in wait, a U.S. judicial body seized a Venezuelan airplane, purchased from Iran, by means of unprecedented procedures.  

The United States seized a Venezuelan Boeing 747-300M cargo plane, held in Argentina since 2022, and flew it to an airport in Florida.

The aircraft was originally owned by the Iranian company Mahan Air, which the United States sanctions, like the Persian country itself, as part of its international coercion based on unilateral arguments.

The aircraft remained immobilized in Argentina with orders plagued with irregularities and no court was able to prove the commission of crimes.

The maneuver of transferring the aircraft, denounced by Caracas for departing from the usual routines when flying over other nations, had the collaboration of the current Argentine authorities.

Venezuela and Iran reacted strongly to the confiscation of the plane belonging to the state-owned company Emtrasur, a subsidiary of Conviasa.

The Venezuelan government and the owner company described the maneuver as a blatant theft, a violation of civil aviation regulations and of commercial and political rights, and an exercise that placed the aeronautical security of the region at risk.

The South American country warned of a direct and proportional response, while an official Iranian spokesman judged the act as an illegal seizure and kidnapping, in addition to announcing support for Venezuela's legal and diplomatic efforts to recover the aircraft.

It is no coincidence that the United States seized an asset belonging to Venezuela, since it has applied more than 900 sanctions to that country for bothering its political course and sovereign decisions.   

The country of the North confiscated the company CITGO, headquartered in the city of Houston, with the argument of passing control to representatives of the Venezuelan extreme right wing, aligned with the White House.The military power is pressuring Venezuela to open the way for an ultra-conservative presidential candidate, disqualified by the local justice bodies.

This is how Washington acts in relation to Venezuela, which is now seizing an aircraft that, remarkably, in its first trips was used to bring aid to Caribbean and Central American countries, victims of serious natural disasters.