The president of the state-owned Emtrasur, a subsidiary of the Venezuelan Consortium of Aeronautical Industries and Air Services (Conviasa), César Pérez, celebrated on Tuesday the release of 12 of the 19 crew members of the Venezuelan-Iranian plane held in Argentina since the beginning of June. He described the fact as “an advance”, waiting for the remaining 7 to be released.
This Tuesday, an appeals chamber in Argentina authorized the departure of 12 flight attendants from the country, which is the object of investigation for possible links with international terrorism.
Pérez expressed, in an interview offered to Telesur, his satisfaction with the decision, but “it is not the final goal”, since he hopes for the prompt release of the entire crew and for the aircraft to be returned.
“We are waiting for the return, in the very short term, of the first 12, of which 11 are Venezuelans and one is of Iranian nationality. We have good expectations, according to what the lawyers tell us, that in the short term the rest of the crew should be returning, “he said.
He added that they will continue to “fight” to recover the plane, owned by Emtrasur, a company sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury.
The plane held in Argentina
For her part, the flight attendants’ lawyer Mariana Barbitta also told Telesur that for the time being 3 other Venezuelans who are part of the group will have to stay in Argentina and wait 10 business days for the Court to resolve their situation.
However, he said that the departure of this first group is a “very important decision” of the appeals chamber.
“We are very happy with this decision and of course we will appeal and discuss the maintenance of three Venezuelans who will have to stay here in Argentina,” he said.
The aircraft under investigation entered Argentina on June 6 from Mexico, with a stopover in Venezuela, and two days later took off to go to Uruguay to refuel, but landed again in the southern nation because the neighboring country did not allow its landing. .
The Argentine oil companies did not load fuel on the plane for fear of US sanctions and later, on June 11, it was reported that the Argentine government had ordered the plane to be grounded.