ALBA-TCP (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America) member states have condemned the destruction by the United States of a Boeing 747 aircraft owned by Venezuela.

"We denounce this continued aggression as another consequence of the criminal unilateral coercive measures imposed on a sovereign country," said ALBA-TCP Executive Secretary Jorge Arreaza, former Venezuelan Minister for Communes and Social Movements.

The regional body issued a statement regarding this fact:

VENEZUELAN RESPONSE AND MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil said through X: "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 its guardians from the north."

President Maduro denounced the US imperialists' latest aggression on X: "A crime was committed against a Conviasa Emtrasur Plane that was hijacked, the colors of the flag were removed, the name of Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi was erased and then chopped into pieces. That is the hatred they have for revolutionary and Bolivarian Venezuela... It's outrageous! It is a crime against an airplane that belonged to the entire Venezuelan people..."

He questioned why the previously hijacked plane had the color of the flag and the name erased, and was then chopped into pieces.

He said that this new criminal action makes clear the contempt of the Hegemon for our country. "That is the hatred they have for dignified Venezuela, for Bolivarian Venezuela,” he emphasized.

For his part, the Minister of Transport and president of Conviasa, Ramón Velásquez Araguayán, gave details about this new act of aggression.

"It's a crime because that plane, my Commander-in-Chief, when we brought it to Venezuela it was to bring humanitarian aid to brother countries that needed it, it went to Cuba, it went to humanitarian aid, to Africa, to Suriname, it's the use of a tool of the people of Venezuela, which seeks to bring happiness and tranquility to other people,” he said.

The illicit act began in Argentina in June 2022 with the hijacking of the aircraft at the request of the US government. In this context, Araguayán pointed out that all international agreements were disregarded, with the objective of humiliating the Venezuelan people.

"They have violated all international regulations, bilateral agreements, 14 articles of the international civil aviation agreement, they violated it and apart from that my Commander-in-Chief what they are seeking is to demoralize the people of Venezuela,” he said.

The Minister assured that in the face of this onslaught, companies such as Conviasa, which was also sanctioned by the empire, are growing and continuing to advance.

"Today Conviasa has grown in aircraft, in personnel and above all in will to succeed my Commander-in-Chief, in national routes, in international routes, in motivation.”

LEGAL AND POLITICAL RAMIFICATIONS

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil condemned the “brazen theft,” and denounced “the collusion between the Governments of the United States of North America and the Republic of Argentina, who have artfully violated all the rules that regulate civil aeronautics, as well as the commercial, civil and political rights that assist the aforementioned company, placing aeronautical safety in the region at risk.”

In fact, the seizure was carried out without any criminal investigation, since the Argentine Justice System itself ruled out any connection of the crew or the plane with acts of terrorism.

Instead, Judge Randolph Moss based his decision on an alleged violation of a U.S. Department of Commerce rule: a device manufactured in the United States cannot be transferred from that country without authorization and the 747-300 - a disused aircraft, of very expensive operation - passed from its original buyer, France, to Iran, and from Iran to Venezuela.

But, as the Argentine journalist Raúl Koleman argued, “the US rules do not constitute a crime in Argentina and therefore there was room to reject the confiscation requested by Washington. But the Pink House, obviously, decided to obey the White House."

Argentine journalist Stella Calloni, recently wrote that theft of the aircraft “joins everything that has been stolen from Venezuela, including, in addition to CITGO, the millionaire funds in American banks and in other countries at the behest of the United States, while the British Supreme Court decided in 2020 to keep billions of US dollars in Venezuelan 40 tons of gold put into safekeeping at the Bank of England, when the Maduro government was being strengthened and the supposed self-proclaimed president Juan Guaidó was still circulating.”

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