Miguel Díaz-Canel and Nicolás Maduro fear consequences if they travel to Argentina’s capital to attend the Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) organized by Alberto Fernández’s government.
Specific, Both regimes have demanded guarantees from Buenos Aires that their respective delegations’ planes will not be confiscated when the United States asks that country’s courts to exercise Washington’s sanctions against the Consorcio Venezolano de Industrias Aeronáuticas y Servicios Aéreos (Conviasa) company, as happened last summer to the Venezuelan-Iranian plane detained along with its crew in that country .
According to Argentine newspaper Clarín, Pedro Pablo Prada Quintero, the Cuban Ambassador to Argentina, as well as Caracas Ambassador Stella Lugo, asked Casa Rosada for guarantees that this would not happen.
Nevertheless, Despite the alliance between Alberto Fernández’s government and the regimes of Cuba and Venezuela, Buenos Aires has not provided such guaranteesalthough “a sector of government confirms that all planes arriving with an official delegation enjoy immunities, as do heads of state,” the report said.
However, another sector of the Argentine government points out that independence of power exists in this country. This is in reference to the still current $15 million reward from Washington for whoever extradites Maduro.
In spite of all, Neither Díaz-Canel nor his Venezuelan friend have confirmed that they will attend the summit, which will take place from Monday, January 23.and to which delegations from 33 countries are expected, including twenty heads of state and government.
Clarin pointed this out The Havana ambassador announced that Diaz-Canel wanted to travel to Buenos Aires for the meeting, although “he has a logistical problem”.
As last November, during his trip through Russia, China, Turkey and Algeria, all allies of Havana, the Cuban ruler, in the absence of his own plane, would use the services of the Caracas Company planes. Notably, on that occasion, Díaz-Canel used Conviasa’s Airbus YV3535, which the Chavista regime had bought from Iran’s Mahan Air airline, which was also sanctioned by the US Office of International Assets Control (OFAC).
Conviasa is being sanctioned for being used in the Chavista regime’s alleged corruption schemewhile Mahan Air faces criminal charges for being loaned out by Tehran-backed radical Islamic groups for terrorist activities.
It is not known how much Havana pays to charter these aircraft.
In contrast to this journey of thousands of kilometers, Díaz-Canel uses a small and luxurious Falcon 900EX private jet for his visits to Mexico and allied Caribbean nationsof the two that Hugo Chávez would have given to Raúl Castro.
The Cuban ruler does not travel to countries that are not safe for his regimeespecially after ordering on national television the violent repression of the Cubans demonstrating on 9/11, which provoked widespread international disapproval.
The Emtrasur Boeing 747-300 arrested in Buenos Aires last June for allegedly carrying cargo resulting from shady deals between Caracas and Tehran remains in a hangar at Ezeiza Airport. Its crew, who had been held in Buenos Aires for two months, were released.
According to Clarín, a Conviasa plane carrying six Chavista officials arrived in Buenos Aires in early January. The Argentine government assured that it was a “presidential outpost with diplomatic immunity” and that the plane had “official” protection. Nevertheless, three hours after the incident became known, the plane left the country without even being refueled.