Venezuela's socialist government plans to seek arrest warrants for Argentine President Javier Milley, his sister and Secretary General of the Presidency Karina Milley, and Security Minister Patricia Bullrich for the alleged “theft” of a state-owned cargo plane with ties to Iran.
Venezuela's Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced the plan on Wednesday night.
The Boeing 747-300, registration YV353, belonged to Emtrasul, a subsidiary of Venezuela's state-run Conviasa Airlines. The plane and its Venezuelan-Iranian crew landed in Argentina in June 2022 and remained there after neighboring Uruguay landed in Argentina. Refused to grant permission to fly over its territory;
Argentine authorities detained the crew Confiscated The plane will arrive in August 2022. request The US Department of Justice determined that the plane originally belonged to Mahan Air, an Iranian airline affiliated with the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a US-designated terrorist organisation.
U.S. authorities also determined that the transfer of aircraft to a Venezuelan state-owned company violated sanctions against Iran.
The plane was seized by court order when Argentina was under the rule of former socialist President Alberto Fernández. After a series of legal proceedings, an Argentine court The verdict was given The country should hand over control of its aircraft to the United States. FebruaryThis will be approximately two months after President Milley takes office in December 2023.
Serve Accused Without offering any evidence, Milley claimed to be a “neo-Nazi fascist” and an “aircraft thief”, and stressed that what happened on the plane “cannot go unpunished”.
The attorney general said Milley was being investigated for “robbery, money laundering, unlawful deprivation of liberty, simulation of punishable acts, unlawful obstruction, disabling an aircraft and criminal conspiracy.”
“[Milei] “We have no moral compass to attack Venezuela's democratic institutions because the country has become a brutal danger to the entire Western Hemisphere,” Saab said. Claimed.
Serve too Announced An investigation has been launched against Milley and Security Minister Bullrich for allegedly committing “crimes against humanity” against violent protesters who rioted against his government, which Saab described as “genocide”.
“We have decided to appoint prosecutors specialising in human rights to carry out the relevant investigations,” Saab said. “They must be accountable to the judiciary. States can exercise universal jurisdiction.”
Argentina's Foreign Ministry has dismissed arrest warrants against Javier Mirei, his sister Karina Mirei, and the Security Ministry's Bullrich. statement A statement released shortly thereafter explained that the plane incident had been resolved judicially, noting that “the judiciary is an independent power and that administrative authorities cannot and should not interfere in any way in the application of international agreements.”
“The Argentine Government reminds the Venezuelan Administration that the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary are a priority in the Argentine Republic, but unfortunately this has not been realized in Venezuela under the regime of Nicolás Maduro,” the statement concluded.
Similarly, Foreign Affairs Minister Diana Mondino said: Through social media posts, she said she “fully supports” Millay, her sister and Bullrich “in the face of the cowardly arrest warrant issued by the Venezuelan dictatorial regime.”
“Maduro has once again shown he is a tyrant and that we are on the right side of history,” the message said. “We are not afraid.”
Argentine presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni ridiculed the declaration in a statement, saying the “level of confusion is astronomical.”
At the time the Emtrasul plane was seized, Argentine authorities suspected the plane's pilot, Gholamreza Ghasemi, of being a member of the IRGC-Quds Force, following reports in IRGC-linked media. Found Ghassemi's mobile phone also contained photos of Mohsen Rezai, one of the men responsible for the 1994 terrorist attacks. bombing The Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) terrorist attack was the deadliest terrorist attack in the Western Hemisphere before the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Ghasemi Denied In a September 2022 interview with Al-Mayadeen, a media outlet affiliated with the Iran-backed Shiite jihadist terrorist organization Hezbollah, he said he had ties to Iranian terrorist forces.
Socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro used expletives over 2022 plane seizure Tantrum With the obligatory television broadcast.
“We are very outraged by what is happening in Argentina. Very outraged, very outraged by the theft of the plane in Argentina!” he exclaimed.
Maduro ordered his regime to launch a widespread “protest” campaign, including forcing civil servants to participate in mandatory workforce participation. Meeting Protesting both Argentina and the United States, Consignment a crudely animated “cartoon” depicting the Venezuelan and Iranian crew as “victims.”
Argentina Outlet Infobae Reported In June 2022, Emtrasur was found to be operating as a “ghost company” with no public presence, website, or public phone number.
Conviasa is Authorized In 2020, under former President Donald Trump, the US Treasury Department shut down the airline after the Maduro regime continued to use it to “fly corrupt regime members around the world to drum up support for its anti-democratic efforts.”
Christian K. Caruso is a Venezuelan author documenting life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter. here.
