MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

ICAO agrees to review Venezuela's claim against Argentina regarding the Emtrasur freighter

The Boeing 747-300 was handed over to the US and subsequently scrapped

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has agreed to review Venezuela's complaint against Argentina for seizing the Boeing 747-300 freighter belonging to Conviasa's cargo subsidiary Emtrasur and later handing it over to US authorities for scrapping. The aircraft was wanted by Washington because it had belonged to Iran's carrier Mahan Air and was said to be involved in logistics operations assisting terrorist attacks.

ICAO Council Chairman Juan Carlos Salazar Gómez sent Caracas a note explaining that ”the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (the plaintiff), claims that, since June 8, 2022, the Argentine Republic (the defendant) has committed violations of several articles of the Chicago Convention (namely: articles 3 bis, 4, 12, 13, 15, 16, 22, 22, 27, 28, 28, 32, 33, 44 and 82).“ President Nicolás Maduro's regime claims that these violations were consummated ”through the application of illegal unilateral restrictive measures of a discriminatory nature against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,“ according to ICAO.

”The plaintiff alleges that such violations occurred in the context of the inconveniences suffered by the non-scheduled flights identified with the numbers ESU 9217 and 9218, carried out with the Boeing 747-300 aircraft registration YV 3531 belonging to Consorcio Conviasa and leased by it to Empresa de Transporte Aereocargo del Sur S. A. Emtrasur, whose ICAO code is ESU078,” the document also stated.

When an Argentine judge ordered the seizing of the aircraft, her mixed crew of 14 Venezuelans and 5 Iranians remained in Buenos Aires for quite a spell before being released as no proof of any wrongdoing could be found.

The four-engined jet had been grounded at Buenos Aires' Ezeiza airport after being denied refueling services in fear of retaliation from the United States where any organization or person helping a unit listed as wanted automatically becomes ineligible to serve any US business, which meant that whoever supplied the fuel to the Emtrasur freighter would lose United, American, and Delta as regular customers, as well as any other US-flagged cargo service.

The Boeing 747-300 arrived in Argentina on June 6, 2022, from Mexico carrying auto parts for a local Volkswagen factory. After being denied refueling at Ezeiza, she tried to make a stopover in Montevideo but to no avail and therefore flew back to Argentina.

A US court in the District of Columbia ordered in October 2022 the seizing of the Venezuelan-Iranian aircraft transferred from Iran to the Venezuelan firm in October 2021, without US authorization in violation of a 2008 order issued by the Department of Commerce. Conviasa is reached by sanctions from the US Treasury Department.

”The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela categorically rejects the blatant theft of the Boeing 747-300 aircraft, acronym YV 3531, belonging to Empresa de Transporte Aerocargos del Sur (EMTRASUR S.A.), consummated today after the collusion between the governments of the United States of America and the Republic of Argentina,“ Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil wrote on X back then.

The Bolivarian government accused Argentina and the United States of having violated ”in an artful manner (...) all the norms that regulate civil aeronautics“ and of having put ”at risk aeronautical security in the region.“

”Free and sovereign Venezuela will give a forceful, direct, and proportionate response to this attack, for which it will use all available resources within the framework of the national Constitution, diplomacy, and International Law,“ the Bolivarian regime also warned.

”No empire, nor its lackey satellites, will be able to bend the will of the Venezuelan people, who have decided to follow the path of true independence,“ Caracas insisted.

The aircraft made her last flight from Ezeiza to the United States on Feb. 11 this year. ”The seized US-built aircraft was transferred by a sanctioned Iranian airline in a transaction that violated U.S. export control laws and directly benefited the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is a designated terrorist organization,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department's National Security Division explained.