After an Argentine court supported a request from the United States to confiscate the Boeing 747-300M of EMTRASUR Cargo held in Buenos Aires for almost two years, the Venezuelan government issued a harsh statement yesterday Wednesday (3) expressing its rejection of the decision, which it defined as “servile to imperial interests” to “consummate the theft of the aircraft“, promising diplomatic actions for what they interpret as an “act of hostility“.
The Boeing 747-300M EP-MND was detained at Ezeiza airport on June 8, 2022 after “administrative irregularities” were detected in the manifest and it was decided to investigate the crew, made up of Venezuelan and Iranian citizens, for alleged links to terrorist groups.
“With this illegal decision, the Argentine State submits to the powers of American imperialism and flagrantly violates the Convention on International Civil Aviation, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, the United Nations Charter, the Bilateral Convention between the Argentine Republic and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and other agreements related to International Air Navigation and Human Rights,” reads the government statement.
The administration of Nicolás Maduro claims to have demonstrated “before all international legal and political instances the legal and legitimate possession” of the Boeing 747-300M, and says that “the behavior of pillage, piracy, and vassalage of the Argentine justice and government, transgress their own legislation and turn said nation into a serious violator of international legality in commercial and aeronautical matters“.
The United States, for its part, asserts that the plane was transferred by the Iranian airline Mahan Air to the Venezuelan EMTRASUR, and then to other countries like Russia and back to Iran, violating a law that prohibits dealings with entities suspected of terrorism.
“In 2008, the Department of Commerce issued, and since then has periodically renewed, a Temporary Denial Order that prohibits Mahan Air, among other things, from conducting any transaction related to any merchandise exported from the United States that is subject to the Export Administration Regulations,” the Department of Justice stated in August 2022.
“The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela will take all legal, diplomatic, and political measures to safeguard the rights that assist it“, continues the statement, going further by alerting the international community, but “especially the Latin American countries, that any illegal measure that allows the overflight and support to consummate this theft will be duly interpreted as an act of hostility, in support of the vandalic behavior against a sovereign country“.
The story of EMTRASUR’s “Iranian” 747
The Boeing 747-300M of EMTRASUR was originally delivered to UTA -Union de Transports Aériens- in January 1986, where it operated until the closure of the company in 1992, when it was incorporated into Air France.
It was retired from service in 2006 and sold to Mahan Air in 2007. In March 2008, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury Department sanctioned Mahan Air for “providing support to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) of Iran”
In early 2022, the state-owned company Conviasa announced its plans for international expansion: and for this, a significant increase in the fleet was being prepared. In addition to passenger commercial operations, a new cargo division was created: Emtrasur Cargo. Soon its first aircraft was announced. A Boeing 747-300M, previously operated by Mahan Air. The aircraft was incorporated with the registration EP-MND and named “Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi”.
