“Being aware of this issue’s inner works, and knowing who the Dominican players involved are, I can say the Government is lying to the Dominican people” said Mejia while summoning his party’s leadership to brief them on the facts.

Through a statement released on MIU’s portal, the leftist leader went on to say that the president cannot deny his knowledge of the aircraft being a property of the Venezuelan government, as the latter had filed a claim process for the jet, grounded at El Higüero airport since last May.

Therefore, he pointed out, “that procedure is in complete disregard of international law and puts into question the Dominican sovereignty”.

“The Government cannot say today that that plane does not belong to Venezuela, regardless of the fact that it was registered under the name of a Venezuelan company”.

“They know that this is a Venezuelan government plane”, he reiterated.

Last Monday, Foreign Minister Roberto Alvarez, dissociated the current administration and the Public Ministry from the investigation undertaken by the US Department of Justice, which ended that day with the seizure in Dominican of an official Venezuelan airplane.

Alvarez told the press the aircraft was here for maintenance purposes.

He added that the Public Prosecutor’s Office agreed with the seizure after receiving a relevant court warrant, responding to a request from the US Department of Justice, which had been requesting since last May for the grounding of the aircraft, “to search it for evidence related to fraud and smuggling activities…’.

In the same meeting with the national press, President Luis Abinader stated that the confiscated airplane was not registered to the Venezuelan Government, but under a private name.

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