American law enforcement has seized the private plane of Venezuela’s President Maduro, who is facing pressure at home and abroad to either step aside or provide proof that he actually won the 2024 election there. He has been accused by fellow heads of state, international organizations, and Venezuelan opposition leaders of falsifying the vote count in order to hold on to power for another term.

The plane — which American officials say was illegally purchased through a shell company with Venezuelan government funds — was seized on the tarmac of an airport in the Dominican Republic. The plane, a Dassault Falcon 900EX, is considered the Venezuelan equivalent of Air Force One, and was purchased from a Florida company in 2023 in violation of American sanctions. 

The seizure was first reported by CNN. 

“This sends a message all the way up to the top,” an American official told CNN. “Seizing the foreign head of state’s plane is unheard-of for criminal matters. We’re sending a clear message here that no one is above the law, no one is above the reach of US sanctions.”

Attorney General Garland said in a statement that “the Justice Department seized an aircraft we allege was illegally purchased for $13 million through a shell company and smuggled out of the United States for use by Nicolás Maduro and his cronies.”

The seizure comes as America and other international partners have ramped up pressure on Mr. Maduro to accept the results of the 2024 presidential election in his country, which, according to most international observers, was won by the opposition party. According to a vote tally posted by the opposition from their local vote-counters, they won 67 percent of the vote on August 5 and Mr. Maduro won just 30 percent. 

Multiple left-wing or left-leaning governments in South and Central America, including Mexico, Chile, and Brazil, have all called on Mr. Maduro to release verifiable results of the election. They say the National Electoral Council, which is controlled by Mr. Maduro, ratified the president’s victory despite clear evidence that the opposition had emerged victorious. 

On Thursday, the State Department commemorated the one-month anniversary of the Venezuelan election by calling for Mr. Maduro to recognize the will of the people and step aside for the opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, to take power as president. 

“Instead of responding to the Venezuelan people’s demands for transparency and democracy, Maduro has ratcheted up repression through politically targeted threats, unjust and indiscriminate detentions, and censorship in a desperate attempt to hold onto power by force. Maduro’s actions have exacerbated the Venezuelan crisis and left him increasingly isolated from the international community,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.