Venezuela’s chief lawmaker warns Argentina against transferring seized aircraft to US

The president of Venezuela’s National Assembly has warned Argentina against ‘any spurious action of theft or misappropriation’ after a judge in Buenos Aires reportedly ordered that a confiscated Boeing 747 cargo plane, owned by Venezuela’s Emratsur cargo carrier but wanted by Washington for export control and sanctions violations, be handed over to US authorities.

Jorge Rodriguez said that if the reports from Argentina are true, this would be a breach of agreements signed in October with Caracas on the ‘preservation of the country’s assets abroad’. He warned that Venezuela ‘is attentive to acting if the seizure of the plane were to be carried out,’ the Spanish language Aporrea news website in Caracas reported, 6 January.

In June 2022, the Emtrasur jet landed in Argentina after attempting to land in Uruguay, where it was refused permission due to reports the cargo plane was carrying ‘excessive’ passenger numbers, including Iranian nationals.

According to the US Justice Department, one of the Iranian nationals was suspected of having links to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp Quds Force (‘IRGC-QF’), which was designated by the US State Department as foreign terrorist organization (‘FTO’) in April 2019.

The United States claimed that the sale of the plane from Iran’s Mahan Air to Emratsur violated sanctions against both countries, and its illegal flights after sanctions were declared violated export controls.

According to media reports, on 4 January Federico Villena, a federal judge in Buenos Aires, ordered that the aircraft be returned to the US.