SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — The Trump administration plans to grab a second aircraft belonging to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s authorities that’s at present within the Dominican Republic.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio intends to announce the seizure on Thursday throughout a go to to Santo Domingo, the final cease of his 5 nation tour of Central America, in line with a US official acquainted with the matter and a State Division doc obtained by the Related Press.
Finishing up the seizure required that Rubio log off on a international assist freeze waiver request to pay greater than $230,000 in storage and upkeep charges. It additionally required approval by the Division of Justice.
That waiver request, submitted early final week, has been authorized and Rubio is predicted to make the announcement at what the State Division has described publicly as solely a “regulation enforcement engagement.”
The aircraft is a Dassault Falcon 200 that has been utilized by Maduro and high aides, together with his vice chairman and protection minister to journey the world, together with Greece, Turkey, Russia and Cuba, in what the administration says are violations of US sanctions, in line with the doc.
The seizure of the aircraft comes only a week after President Donald Trump’s envoy for particular missions, Richard Grenell, visited Caracas and met with Maduro to debate the repatriation of Venezuelan nationals who illegally entered the US. Grenell returned with six Individuals who had been detained in Venezuela.
The US seized one other of Maduro’s planes from the Dominican Republic in September 2024.
On the time, the Justice Division stated Maduro associates in late 2022 and early 2023 used a Caribbean-based shell firm to cover their involvement within the buy of the aircraft — a Dassault Falcon 900EX valued at $13 million — from an organization in Florida.
In a improvement associated to Rubio’s first cease on the Central American tour, Panama, the State Division introduced Thursday that the Panamanians had agreed to permit US warships to transit the Panama Canal with out cost.
These charges had been one focus of President Donald Trump’s complaints concerning the canal, which he has stated the US will retake from Panama until it severely limits Chinese language affect within the space.
“U.S. authorities vessels can now transit the Panama Canal with out cost charges, saving the U.S. authorities hundreds of thousands of {dollars} a yr,” the division stated in a publish on X.
An settlement in precept to drop the charges had been reached when Rubio visited Panama on Sunday, however it had not been finalized.
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