The United States Department of Justice transmitted to its Argentine counterpart, that is, the local Ministry of Justice, the order of the justice of that country to proceed with the seizure of the Venezuelan plane of Emtrasur, which has been held in Ezeiza for almost a year.
As Clarín learned from high-ranking government sources, the decision now to proceed or contradict the US government was left in the hands of Deputy Justice Minister Martin Mena, a leader close to Vice President Cristina Kirchner.
It happens that it is he who has the power to forward the confiscation order to the federal judge of Lomas de Zamora, Federico Villena. And since the aircraft is in the custody of U.S. agents from the first hour, with fuel loaded and all its maintenance done, it could fly as soon as the judicial procedures are fulfilled.
Days ago, as anticipated by Clarín, the federal judge of the United States Randolph Moss, who carries the request for the seizure of the aircraft, was the one who ordered the definitive seizure of it.
On Monday night, the Federal Court of La Plata confirmed the rulings of Judge Villena in relation to the crew of the Boeing 747 (14 Venezuelans and five Iranians), who after months of being investigated at the request of the DAIA, if they had links with groups considered terrorist by the United States – the forces of Al Quds and Hezbollah – were dismissed. in some things, or favored by lack of merit. Everyone left around the end of the year.
The pilot of Emtrasur's plane Gholamreza Ghasemi before leaving the country for Venezuela with the other crew members in October last year.
At the same time, the Federal Chamber of La Plata ruled on the aircraft, because it considered that the proposal of nullity on the hijacking of the same requested by the lawyers representing the Chavista regime -the team of Maximiliano Rusconi-, became "abstract". He therefore opened the door to his confiscation.
The defense of Emtrasur, that is, Rusconi's team did not appear at the trial that was taking place in the United States.
The Venezuelan Iranian plane and its crew detained for months generated the ire of the regime of Nicolás Maduro, who campaigned in the streets of Caracas for the aircraft and its crew, and whose officials at the time came to call Alberto Fernández a "puppet" of the United States. They also quarreled with the Paraguayan government, because an investigation had also been launched there.
But the process went ahead. The aircraft of Iranian origin claimed by Maduro, which was adapted from a passenger plane into a cargo plane, has been under the care of U.S. marshals from the first hour. They do the maintenance and guard it in Ezeiza so that it does not deteriorate. And this is also because the fielder Mena complied from the beginning with the requests of the Justice and the US government, by virtue of the existence of bilateral treaties.
Specifically, on August 2 of last year, the United States asked Argentina – and so did Mena – to seize Emtrasur's Boeing 747. I transmitted the request made earlier by a judge of the district of Colombia who issued a seizure order considering that US export laws had been violated in the sale of the plane in question by Mahan Air to Emtrasur, in turn associated with the state CONVIASA. For the United States, behind the Iranian airline is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a terrorist group for U.S. consideration.
See also
