A court in the Dominican Republic then authorized the immobilization of the ship and a new court order was issued that allowed the delivery of the plane to the “requirer” country, in this case to the United States.
Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, called the president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, “thief” and “banded” for the seizure by the United States of the Venezuelan presidential plane in the Caribbean country, although the country’s authorities have denied any direct responsibility.
“They left me without a plane. The thief of the President of the Dominican Republic, Abinader, who is a bandit, a thief. The people of the Dominican Republic will tell you in due course. I didn’t get a face of me, I didn’t go. I have talked to him quite a lot, quite often we talked, quite a bit, face to face,” Maduro said during the Plenary of the Federal Governing Council.
The president made these statements when he joked about traveling to the United States to see the debate held Tuesday night between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
“I’m very aware of tonight’s debate. I’m almost going over there. If I hadn’t been robbed of the plane in the Dominican Republic, I’d go over there. So I can’t go to the debate,” he added.
The plane, a Dassault Falcon 900EX, was in Dominican territory due to maintenance needs. A court in the Dominican Republic then authorized the immobilization of the ship and a new court order was issued that allowed the delivery of the plane to the “requirer” country, in this case to the United States.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo