According to State Department Deputy Press Secretary Vedanta Patel, the United States is considering options to pressure Maduro to return Venezuela to a democratic path.
The United States has seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s plane and diverted it to Florida, CNN reports.
“Washington believes the plane was purchased in violation of US sanctions. He was sent from the Dominican Republic to Florida on Monday. The $13 million Dassault Falcon 900 has been parked in the Dominican Republic for the past few months. Employees of the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Industry and Security, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Commerce participated in the operation,” the report said.
Let us remind you that on July 28, presidential elections were held in Venezuela. According to the results of the vote, Maduro was re-elected as the country’s president (with 51.2 percent of the vote).
According to State Department Deputy Press Secretary Vedanta Patel, the United States is considering options to pressure Maduro to return Venezuela to a democratic path.
In March 2020, the US Department of Justice indicted Maduro, as well as 14 current and former Venezuelan officials, on charges of narco-terrorism, drug trafficking and corruption.
“For more than 20 years, Maduro and his senior officials have been in contact with Colombian leftist guerrillas and have been involved in the transportation of tons of cocaine to the United States,” Attorney General William Barr said at the time.
The US State Department’s Office of International Narcotics Enforcement has offered a $15 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest.
In 2017, a federal court in New York sentenced two nephews of Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, to 18 years in prison for attempting to smuggle 800 kilograms of cocaine into US territory on a private plane; they were later released in a prisoner exchange.
