The ghost of the Iranian Venezuelan Emtrasur plane returns to the scene.
President Nicolás Maduro decided to use the aircraft case to close the airspace from Venezuela to Argentina and escalate diplomatic tensions as an excuse to prevent at
least 150,000 Venezuelans residing in the country from voting in the presidential elections on July 28.
southern
, analysts warn.
The confrontation between the two countries began this week with the suspension of Venezuelan airspace for Argentine aircraft after having delivered the Emtrasur plane to the United States.
The Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Yván Gil, reiterated that
no aircraft coming or going to Argentina will be able to fly over Venezuelan airspace
, this in response to the recent statements by the Casa Rosada, to undertake diplomatic actions against Caracas.
"Venezuela exercises full sovereignty in its airspace, and reiterates that no aircraft, coming from or heading to Argentina, will be able to fly over our territory, until our company is duly compensated for the damages caused, after the illegal actions carried out, only in order to please his guardians from the north," Gil wrote in his X account.
As if that were not enough, the official Gil added: "The neo-Nazi government of Argentina is not only submissive and obedient to its imperial master, but it has a "board-faced" spokesperson: Mr. Manuel Adorni pretends to ignore the consequences of
his actions. of piracy
and theft against Venezuela, which were warned repeatedly before the criminal act committed against EMTRASUR."
For his part, the Argentine presidential spokesman, Manuel Adorni, responded: "Argentina began diplomatic actions against the Government of Venezuela, headed by the dictator Maduro, after its decision to prevent the use of the country's airspace by any Argentine aircraft."
The Argentine Government announced that it would take measures against the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro within the scope of the International Civil Aviation Organization
for “violating the Convention on International Civil Aviation”
, known as the Chicago Convention.
“Argentina is not going to allow itself to be extorted by the friends of terrorism,” Adorni said in his press conference at the Casa Rosada.
The case of Emtrasur
On February 12, the Emtrasur cargo Boeing 747-300M of the Iranian company Mahan Air and the Venezuelan airline Conviasa, both companies sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury (OFAC), flew to the United States
where it was destroyed or dismantled prior to confiscation request.
The image of the Emtrasur plane supposedly destroyed in the United States that was spread by the Nicolás Maduro regime.
The United States claimed the seizure of Emtrasur because it was an Iranian entity sanctioned by the Department of Commerce that transferred the plane - made in the United States - to a third party (Conviasa), something prohibited precisely according to the sanction.
Two years earlier, the Iranian-Venezuelan cargo plane landed on June 6, 2022 with 19 crew members (5 Iranians and 14 Venezuelans) in Buenos Aires where it was detained by the Argentine courts
for alleged financing of terrorist activities
and transportation of weapons.
Previously the aircraft had been in Mexico and Venezuela.
And two days later he left Argentina to refuel in Uruguay but returned to the Ezeiza airport in Buenos Aires because the Uruguayans had not allowed him to load.
Then,
the Argentine Justice ordered the ship to be immobilized
and ordered that the 19 crew members could not leave the country.
As time passed, the crew members were released.
Two weeks after the departure of the sanctioned plane, Maduro accused the United States of
the “vile, criminal, outrageous act” of “dismembering”
the aircraft in Miami (Florida).
Indeed, former Venezuelan security commissioner Iván Simonovis greeted the destruction of the Emtrasur plane with images of its fate on his X account: “What a good photo!!!
This plane will never fly again, so terrorism ends.
Thank you Argentina.”
Voting is in danger
For Elisa Trotta, a human rights defender in Venezuela, it is clear that what happened with the Emtrasur plane (let us not forget that it was requested by the US justice system for being used, among other things, to carry weapons from terrorist groups) is
“a simple excuse to continue polarizing with the government of Javier Milei.”
In his interview with
Clarín
, Trotta points out that Chavismo, like any populist autocracy, needs internal and external enemies, and since December 10, 2023 “they decided that one of the external enemies would be Argentina.”
“They are also using this to prevent Venezuelans, at least 150,000 voters in Argentina
, from being able to register and vote in the presidential elections
, something that we are demanding and working to reverse,” he points out.
Regarding the future of relations between the two countries, Trotta says that “we have to see how far Venezuela is willing to
continue challenging the international system
.”
It is very clear that Argentina is not going to be intimidated by the actions of a criminal dictatorship like Maduro's, but it is also very clear that the international community must once again be tougher against a regime that commits crimes against humanity and threatens other countries".
The human rights defender stated that in a meeting she had with Argentine Foreign Minister Diana Mondino “we ask, for example, that Argentina once again be one of the promoters of the investigation in the International Criminal Court, and from the Argentine Forum for "The Defense of Democracy (FADD) has repeatedly called on democrats around the world to raise their voices against the Venezuelan dictatorship, which this year, when it is an election, has increased persecution, repression and torture."
P.B.