On Thursday, the Trump administration seized a Dassault Falcon 200 business jet that Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and members of his government had been using to fly around Latin America. The plane was parked in the Dominican Republic when American agents affixed a seizure warrant to the aircraft, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Justice Department signed off on it:
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The Trump administration on Thursday seized a second plane belonging to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government that is currently in the Dominican Republic.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio watched as American officials affixed the seizure warrant to the plane during a visit to Santo Domingo, the last stop of his five-nation tour of Latin America.
Carrying out the seizure required that Rubio sign off on a waiver to a freeze that President Donald Trump imposed on foreign aid to pay more than $230,000 in storage and maintenance fees, according to a State Department document obtained by The Associated Press. It also required approval by the U.S. Department of Justice.
This isn’t the first time the United States has temporarily set El Presidente Maduro afoot.
The U.S. seized another of Maduro’s planes from the Dominican Republic in September 2024.
At the time, the U.S. Justice Department said Maduro associates in late 2022 and early 2023 used a Caribbean-based shell company to hide their involvement in the purchase of the plane — a Dassault Falcon 900EX valued at $13 million — from a company in Florida.
See Related: Trump Sanctions Allow US to Seize Venezuela Dictator Maduro’s Presidential Plane, Transport It to Florida
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Why was this new action taken on Thursday? It seems that turning the Venezuelan dictator into a temporary pedestrian was done, as Maduro’s use of it to jet around the world is a violation of U.S. sanctions. The AP story, linked above, reported:
The plane is a Dassault Falcon 200 that has been used by Maduro and top aides, including his vice president and defense minister, to travel the world, including visits to Greece, Turkey, Russia and Cuba, in what Washington says are violations of U.S. sanctions, the State Department said.
Maduro, we might note, earlier this week not only released six American prisoners to accompany President Trump’s envoy Ric Grenell back to the United States but also caved to the president’s demand that Venezuela accept repatriation of its people who were caught in the United States as illegal aliens – including many members of the notorious Tren de Aragua prison gang. So far, the Maduro government has not reacted to the seizure of the aircraft or indicated any change in plan regarding repatriation of their people.
See Related: Taking Care of Business: Trump Sends Envoy to Venezuela, He Promptly Returns With Freed Hostages
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Venezuela, along with the rest of Latin America, is learning that the United States has a lot of weight to throw around – although, in the interest of accuracy, we would note that the first seizure, of the Falcon 900EX, was done under the Biden administration.
The latest seizure took place on the last stop of Secretary of State Rubio’s five-nation tour of Latin America. It’s a safe bet that this trip won’t be his last. Progress in Central and South America has been considerable in a very short time, with every demand of the Trump administration (so far) having, in the end, been agreed to.
