The Minister of the Interior, Luis Alberto Heber, detailed on Thursday at a press conference who received information –which he delivered to the Minister of Defense, Javier García– from the Paraguayan government on the Venezuelan-Iranian plane that he intended to land in Uruguay.
Finally, by order of Garcia –and despite the fact that the authorities had authorized the flight plan in the first instance– the aircraft was prevented from landing on Uruguayan soil after taking off from Ezeiza. But that happened, according to Heber, after the Paraguayan government alerted him to the suspicions about the plane and its crew.
“I received the formal information from Paraguayan intelligence and we acted quickly with the defense minister. We were able to prevent the plane from entering Uruguayan airspace,” he said, recalling that a judicial instance is being developed in Argentina for the case.
“For us It was highly inconvenient that this plane arrived without any object and for no reason in our country.. He came to load fuel because they didn’t load him in Argentina. And why didn’t they charge him? That is part of the investigation that will be done in Argentina,” he added.
Heber pointed out that based on the information provided by Paraguay – which reported that the plane was “sanctioned” and with “ties” to the Al Quds force – the government was forced to make a “quick decision.”
“We are calm that we protected our population and our country from the incursion of people who, without any objective and linked to different countries, were not clear about what they had to do in our country as an objective,” he said.
He also took advantage of the opportunity to thank Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benítez and Interior Minister Federico González, who were in charge of delivering the information.
“Here we acted quickly and decisively,” he insisted.
