"Now they intend to steal our plane, as they stole our gold in London, as they stole from us [oil refiner in the United States] Citgo, steal a plane belonging to Venezuela ... We declare our protest that the Venezuelan plane be returned to us," Maduro said on the VTV channel.
The US Department of Justice asked the Argentine authorities to arrest a Boeing 747-300M transport aircraft, which, according to them, was transferred by an Iranian airline to Venezuelan counterparts in violation of US export control regulations.
According to the case file, the plane, which belonged to Iran's Mahan Air, came under the control of Venezuela's Emtrasur, which, in turn, allowed "the re-export of the aircraft between Caracas, Venezuela, Tehran, Iran, and Moscow, Russia, without the permission of the US government."
According to the Venezuelan leader, the aircraft detained in Argentina "played a fundamental role in the humanitarian life of Venezuela." It transported medicines from China, Russia and India, as well as humanitarian aid to the countries of the Caribbean and Africa.
A cargo plane belonging to Venezuelan company Emtrasur arrived in Argentina from Mexico on June 6. There were 19 people on board - Venezuelans and Iranians. On June 8, it took off from Ezeiza airport in the direction of Uruguay, but returned because that country did not approve the landing. Upon return, the aircraft with the crew was detained.
The Argentine authorities, in addition to the aircraft, detained its crew, including five Iranians. The commander of the crew has been identified as a former officer of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a paramilitary structure that is included in the United States on terrorist lists, the US Department of Justice said. Mahan Air and Venezuela's Conviasa, which controls Emtrasur, are under US sanctions.