[News] Lawfare as an Imperialist Weapon: The Case of the Venezuelan Plane

[Anti-Imperialist News]

orinocotribune.com
<https://orinocotribune.com/lawfare-as-an-imperialist-weapon-the-case-of-the-venezuelan-plane/>
Lawfare
as an Imperialist Weapon: The Case of the Venezuelan Plane
------------------------------
[image: Venezuelan EMTRASUR Boeing 747, the cargo plane seized in Argentina
under US pressure. File photo.]

Venezuelan EMTRASUR Boeing 747, the cargo plane seized in Argentina under
US pressure. File photo.

By Atilio Borón – Aug 16, 2022

The subject relayed in the title is becoming more and more complicated. The
Argentine “justice” system, through the actions of the federal judge of
Lomas de Zamora, Federico Villena, and Federal Attorney Cecilia Incardona,
is determined to retain the EMTRASUR plane and its crew in Argentina even
at the price of violating the fundamentals of law (such as the presumption
of innocence) to comply with the seizure order issued by US authorities. In
this situation, the Argentine government can do very little now—I insist on
now. If it had acted more quickly, as soon as the plane arrived in this
country, perhaps this infamous operation could not have been staged. But it
did not act, either because it did not know, did not want to, or could not.
However, beyond that, no one can overlook the fact that this maneuver will
go down as one more episode in the US blockade of the Bolivarian Republic
of Venezuela and of the harassment that Washington and Tel Aviv have
exerted for decades against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

This offensive has the enthusiastic support of powerful regional allies
eager to demonstrate their absolute loyalty to the decrees of the empire
and impatient to liquidate the *Frente de Todos* government [of Argentina]
as soon as possible, or at least prevent it from being a competitive option
in the presidential elections of next year. Standing out in this swarm are
the chaotic forces of the political right, the media scoundrels, the
judiciary and, of course, the so-called civil society groups and
organizations that maintain solid ties with various agencies and NGOs in
the United States. This unstable conglomerate is unified in the common
vocation to turn Argentina into a US colony.

Furthermore, there is every reason to conjecture that this machination
around the Venezuelan plane may also be, at least in part, a retaliation
for President Alberto Fernández’s speech at the Summit of the Americas in
Los Angeles when, speaking as pro tempore president of the CELAC, he told
Joe Biden what no Latin American leader ever told a US president in his own
home. Washington will not forgive him for that, and will do everything
possible so that his government is defeated in the next election. The
incident we are discussing is part of that strategy.

It is not a minor fact that the initial actors in this mess were officials
of low administrative rank: (a) a telephone call from who knows who from
Paraguay warning about alleged irregularities in the registration of the
plane and the background of the Iranian crew; (b) some officials of modest
rank in Ezeiza—civilians as well as police officers—who suspiciously
exceeded their duties and raised all sorts of obstacles to prevent the
refueling and return of the plane; and (c) lastly and most significant, the
Montevideo airport authorities that prevented the plane—already in full
flight to that city—from refueling at the Carrasco airport, putting the
safety of the aircraft and its crew at risk.

The subsequent appearance on the scene of the Lomas de Zamora court—with
Judge Villena and Attorney Incardona at the head—turned what was cheap,
ill-intentioned gossip and lacking in legal substance into a monstrous
violation of all national and international laws, which reflects very bady
on our country and especially on the national government. There was no
arrest or seizure warrant for the EMTRASUR plane or any of the crew
members. The aircraft was “clean” and was not “wanted” by any international
commercial air travel control agency. It had been owned by Air France
before being legally sold to an Iranian company that resold it to the
Venezuelan company Conviasa, and it was transporting supplies for a car
factory based in Argentina. Despite this, it was detained, and days later,
in an act of unforgivable submission to US mandates, the FBI was allowed to
inspect the plane, a task that had already been carried out repeatedly by
Argentine authorities without yielding any suspicious results. At the same
time, the judge ordered that the passports of the crew members be withheld
so that they could not leave the country.

This outrageous event has been going on for more than two months and is a
serious violation of the principle of the presumption of innocence since
there is no duly proven accusation of any crime against any of the crew
members. Finally, the coup de grâce arrived: the United States now argues
that the sale of the Boeing 747 that the Iranian company Mahan Air did to
the Venezuelan government was not duly registered with the US authorities,
for which it asks Argentina to proceed to seize the airplane. The empire
acts with its usual arrogance and intends to impose the extraterritoriality
of its laws and regulations. It is actually a pretext to apply its policy
of submission, devoid of any legitimacy. If the Argentine “justice” system
(yes, in quotation marks) allows such an abuse to take place, it would deal
a blow—if not deadly, at least very serious—to our democratic system, since
it would no longer make sense to waste time and money of the state in
electing deputies and senators to promulgate our laws, since it would be
sufficient to apply those enacted by the US Congress or the administrative
resolutions of the White House. Why vote, then, if laws are made “over
there” and applied here? And it is not just that. By complying with the US
demand, our country and its government would become accomplices in another
robbery of Venezuelan assets. There is a history of this: Washington seized
the huge CITGO company created by the PDVSA (three refineries and 5,000
service stations in the United States); its British servant did the same
with the gold deposited in the Bank of England (31 tons!), and now it is
trying to repeat its looting by appropriating the EMTRASUR plane. Summary:
The empire loots and steals, that is in its DNA, and nothing and no one
will be able to change it.

All this mess leaves the Argentine government, which holds the pro tempore
presidency of the CELAC, and its head, Alberto Fernández, in a very bad
light, who repeatedly condemned the blockades and also invited, within the
institutional framework of CELAC, a meeting of heads of the Americas,
including Biden, in Buenos Aires towards the end of the year. If, due to
the scandalous behavior of its judiciary, Argentina submits to the orders
of a US court, President Fernández’s credibility would be undermined, since
he would in fact validate a practice that he denounced at the Summit of the
Americas, making him appear as an essential participant in a robbery of the
only international means of transport available to a country that has been
very generous with Argentina. The president will pay the consequences
despite the fact that the prevailing “judicial dictatorship” in our country
makes it impossible for him to reverse the shameful conduct of the judge
and the attorney involved in the case.

There is more serious component of this unfortunate situation: the
International Diabetes Federation reported in 2018 that there are 130,000
patients with type 1 diabetes in Venezuela, which makes them
insulin-dependent. This was even communicated to the OAS Secretary General
Luis Almagro, who did not take any action or issue any kind of
communication in this regard. The EMTRASUR plane had, among several other
missions, to carry and bring different types of supplies necessary for a
cruelly blockaded country like Venezuela, including insulin (which is not
produced in that country), various medications for cancer patients, spare
parts for oil industry and many other goods. In addition, it was fulfilling
valuable humanitarian tasks, such as the aid it provided after the
devastating tropical storm that hit Suriname a few months ago. This being
the case, the Argentine government only has one option left, because even
when the judicial process concludes by dismissing all the false accusations
against the aircraft and its crew, the procedural process will take a long
time. The only concrete alternative to repair, at least in part, the damage
that is being done to Venezuela is for the Argentine government to
temporarily loan a cargo plane—from our armed forces or from any agency of
the state—so that it can be used by the Bolivarian government while the
trial continues. In this way, it will be possible to guarantee the
Venezuelans access to essential goods, like insulin and cancer medications,
required to save the lives of the people suffering from diabetes and
various types of cancer. A loan that will end only after the Venezuelan
plane of the EMTRASUR company is returned to its legitimate owners. If the
Argentinian government, and perhaps the president himself, does not do so,
they could even be accused in international courts of not having done what
was necessary to prevent the death of many patients who could not receive
the drugs that would have saved their lives because the plane that
transported those medicines was immobilized in this country. It would be a
limited usufruct until the judicial issue is resolved in accordance with
Argentine legislation.

RELATED CONTENT: Argentine Judge Orders The Theft of Venezuela’s EMTRASUR
Plane at US Request
<https://orinocotribune.com/argentine-judge-orders-the-theft-of-venezuelas-emtrasur-plane-at-us-request/>

In our opinion, it is the only alternative left to us. It is obvious that
the right wing and the agents of imperialism will viciously criticize the
government if it makes that decision. But, the question is, will it be
anything more than what they criticize daily with their fake news, media
deployments, post-truths and all kinds of political operations? On the
other hand, there will be many more people in this country who would see
such a gesture as an appropriate reaffirmation of national
sovereignty—people who do not want to adopt as their own the laws of the
United States; as a noble act of humanitarian aid and solidarity and,
finally, in coherence with the proclaimed rejection of the blockade
policies.

Argentina does not have to interfere—or be forced to interfere—in matters
that are not our concern; in this case the conflict of the United States
and Israel with Iran, as a result of which this diplomatic, political and
commercial war has moved to our country, just as the conflict between the
US/NATO and Russia unfolds on European territory.

Washington has always been very adept at making sure that its fights and
clashes take place far from home, not producing a mess “at home” but as far
away as possible, earlier in Ukraine, now in Argentina. We need to learn
this lesson. And along with the loan of the Argentine plane, it would be
strictly fair for the judge to order the immediate release of the crew for
lack of merit [of the terrorism charges against them]. They must be
released immediately because they have not been proven to have committed
any crime. Another legal monstrosity of the Argentine “justice” system,
which needs more than ever to be subjected to a profound reform that
definitively purges it of so many crooks who nest in its courts and so many
practices at odds with the rule of law.

(atilioboron.com.ar
<https://atilioboron.com.ar/el-lawfare-como-arma-imperial-el-caso-del-avion-venezolano/>
)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

Atilio Boron

Atilio A. Boron is a Harvard Graduate professor of political theory at the
University of Buenos Aires and was executive secretary of the Latin
American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO). He has published widely in
several languages a variety of books and articles on political theory and
philosophy, social theory, and comparative studies on the capitalist
development in the periphery. He is an international analyst, writer and
journalist and profoundly Latinoamerican.
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