The United States Will Confiscate A Second Plane Belonging To The Maduro Regime In The Dominican Republic

(MENAFN- Newsroom Panama) The administration of US President Donald trump plans to seize a second plane linked to the government of Nicolás Maduro, which is in the Dominican Republic, according to documents. In order to carry out the seizure, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed a request for a waiver of the foreign aid freeze in order to allocate more than $230,000 to pay for storage and maintenance fees for the plane. According to Dominican media outlet Listín Diario, the plane, a Dassault Falcon 200, had been used by Maduro and senior officials in his government, such as Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, to travel to countries such as Greece, Turkey, Russia and Cuba, according to the State Department document.

For Washington, these movements violate the sanctions imposed against the Venezuelan regime. The seizure comes a week after Trump's special envoy, Richard Grenell, visited Caracas and met with Maduro to discuss the repatriation of Venezuelans who entered the US illegally. A Dassault Falcon 900EX, valued at $13 million, had already been seized in September 2024, also in the Dominican Republic. At the time, the U.S. Justice Department said that in late 2022 and early 2023, Maduro associates used a Caribbean-based front company to conceal their involvement in purchasing the plane from a company in Florida.

President George W. Bush welcomes María Corina Machado into the Oval Office of the White House in 2005.

President George W. Bush welcomes Maria Corina Machado, the Founder and Executive Director of Sumate in the Oval Office May 31, 2005

María Corina Machado Parisca (Caracas, October 7, 1967) is a Venezuelan politician, industrial engineer and professor, founder and national coordinator of the political movement Vente Venezuela, co-founder of the Venezuelan civil association Súmate and member, together with Antonio Ledezma and Diego Arria, of the citizen platform Soy Venezuela. She was elected deputy of the National Assembly of Venezuela for the state of Miranda, beginning her term in January 2011, becoming the candidate with the most votes in the history of the National Assembly of Venezuela. On March 21, 2014, she accepted the position of“alternate representative” of Panama to the Organization of American States.

Three days later, the president of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, notified that Machado had automatically lost her status as deputy due to an interpretation of violation of articles 149 and 191 of the Constitution. This action was ratified by the Venezuelan judicial authorities. She was a presidential candidate in the 2012 opposition primaries, reaching third place with 3.81% of the votes. She was a presidential candidate for Vente Venezuela in the 2023 Unitary Platform primary elections. On June 30, 2023 she was presumed politically disqualified for 15 years.

Machado won the primaries with more than 90% of the votes, becoming the Unitary Platform candidate in the 2024 presidential elections, as well as the leader of the opposition to Chavismo, being the best result for a woman in an election in Venezuelan history. Prevented from participating in the election in January 2024, she first supported Corina Yoris, who also failed to register, and then Edmundo González pictured below, who became the Unitary Platform candidate. From an economic point of view, and in tune with several of the ideas of Javier Milei, Argentine president, one of her most significant proposals has been the privatization of the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).

She also advocates returning to their original owners the companies that were expropriated during the Chavista government. In addition, Machado seeks deregulation, the fight against corruption and the promotion of a general amnesty for political prisoners in Venezuela. Her persistent criticism of Chavismo and his approach to government have earned her support and notoriety in different sectors of Venezuelan society. She is considered the leader of the opposition to Chavismo. Chavismo (from Spanish: chavismo), also known in English as Chavism or Chavezism, is a left-wing populist political ideology based on the ideas, programs and government style associated with the Venezuelan President between 1999 and 2013 Hugo Chávez that combines elements of democratic socialism, socialist patriotism, Bolivarianism, and Latin American integration. People who supported Hugo Chávez and Chavismo are known as Chavistas.

MENAFN07022025000218011062ID1109181429