12 detained plane crew arrive in Caracas

Relatives and authorities received on Friday in Caracas 12 crew members of a Venezuelan cargo plane who has been held in Argentina for more than three months for an investigation involving the United States and Iran.

“Excited to be back. Really being here, sharing with our family (…), fills us with emotion”, one of the crew members, Captain Vicente Raga, told the press after the plane that transported them landed at the Maiquetía international airport, about 25 kilometers from Caracas.

“Three months there, imagine! They accused us of unfair things, of terrorists (…), but we are here because we are innocent,” said another, Armando Marcano, upon meeting his son and wife again.

The group traveled on a commercial flight of the Venezuelan state Conviasa with stopover in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
On Tuesday, the Argentine justice authorized the departure of 12 of the 19 crew members of the retained aircraft, of the Emtrasur airline, a subsidiary of Conviasa, sanctioned by the United States.

The Federal Court of Appeals of La Plata validated the decision of Judge Federico Villena, who lifted on August 1 the ban on departure from Argentina that weighed on 11 Venezuelan crew members and one Iranian, according to a sentence released by the press.