New diplomatic crisis between US and Venezuela: Maduro regime calls Marco Rubio a thief after aircraft seizure

The regime of Nicolás Maduro lashed out Friday at Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the seizure of a Venezuelan plane that was used to evade U.S. sanctions on human rights violators in the Caribbean country.

"The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela denounces before the world the brazen theft of an aircraft owned by the Venezuelan nation, executed by order of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio," the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"Marco Rubio, from mercenary of hate to airplane thief!" the text added.

Likewise, Venezuela assured that it will allegedly "take all necessary actions to denounce this theft and demand the immediate return of its aircraft."

This is the second aircraft seized by the United States from the Venezuelan dictatorship in less than a year, but the first heavy-handed gesture by the Donald Trump administration, which in its first term unleashed numerous sanctions against regime officials for human rights violations, including an oil embargo.

In Rubio's presence, a Dominican prosecutor and a U.S. law enforcement representative stuck a sign reading "seized" on the Venezuelan-flagged Dassault Falcon 200 aircraft sitting on the military airstrip in Santo Domingo.

"The seizure of this Venezuelan aircraft, used to evade U.S. sanctions and money laundering (control), is a powerful example of our determination to hold the illegitimate Maduro regime accountable for its illegal actions," Rubio said on X at the end of his first five-nation Latin American tour as secretary of state.

According to the State Department, Venezuelan officials used that aircraft to fly to Greece, Turkey, Russia, Nicaragua and Cuba, and had taken it to the Dominican Republic for maintenance.

In September 2024, during the administration of former President Joe Biden, another Venezuelan official aircraft, model Dassault Falcon 900EX, was confiscated in the Dominican Republic and transferred to the state of Florida. U.S. authorities claimed that it had been purchased "illegally" for $13 million through a shell company.

In June 2022, a Venezuelan-Iranian Boeing 747 aircraft was immobilized in Argentina and destroyed in the United States in January 2024, which Caracas also labeled as "theft."