Argentine Ambassador to Venezuela Criticizes Plane Seizure

On Tuesday, the Argentine ambassador in Caracas, Óscar Laborde, criticized the judicial order to seize the Venezuelan airplane held in his country, considering it a 'kidnapping.' "Objectively, it is seized because the judge has determined it."

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On August 12, the Argentine justice system accepted the U.S. request to seize the Venezuelan airplane held in Buenos Aires since June 6. On the same day, Venezuelan lawmakers went to the Argentine embassy in Caracas to demand the plane's return.

"There is a feeling of injustice among the Venezuelan people. [...] There is still a long way to go regarding the hijacked plane. The process must be carried out intelligently because there are many interests that seek to make this a fight," the Argentine ambassador stressed.

He also said that this issue had not damaged the bilateral relationship between Argentina and Venezuela.

Argentine Ambassador in Venezuela Oscar Laborde confirms that Emtrasur's Venezuelan plane is "effectively hijacked" by the justice system in Argentina. "Crew members (Iranians and Venezuelans) are being held without anything to blame them for."

A Boeing 747-300 aircraft, loaded with parts for automotive companies and covering the route Ezeiza (Argentina)-Montevideo (Uruguay)-Caracas (Venezuela), entered Argentina on June 6 from Mexico and two days later took off for Uruguay, but landed again at the Argentine airport of Ezeiza (Buenos Aires) because the neighboring country did not authorize its landing, while no company supplied it with fuel for fear of the sanctions that the U.S. could resort to.

A few days later, a judge ordered to withhold the crew's passports -five Iranians and 14 Venezuelans- from the plane, preventing them from leaving the country because of a baseless accusation of possible links with international terrorism.

At the beginning of this month, the Argentine Justice annulled the prohibition on leaving the country and authorized the departure of 12 of the 19 crew members of the plane; however, it decided to retain four Iranians and three Venezuelans still, considering that there are still elements to investigate, which has provoked the anger of the Venezuelans.