Venezuela: Military Says It Downed Plane Near Aruba
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Version 0 of 1. Venezuela’s defense minister said Friday that Venezuelan military aircraft had shot down a small plane that crashed a day earlier in the waters near the island of Aruba. Officials in Aruba said Thursday that the plane had gone down after being pursued by Venezuelan jets, but it was not immediately known if they had fired on it. The Venezuelan defense minister, Vladimir Padrino, said that the plane had taken off from the southern state of Apure, which is a regular loading point for drug flights. “Our aircraft intercepted and it did not follow orders and, well, it was disabled,” he said, adding that the encounter took place over Venezuela’s territorial waters. The Aruban authorities said that the craft crashed in waters belonging to the island, which lies just off Venezuela’s coast. Officials in Aruba said that body parts and about 400 packages that appeared to contain drugs were found in the wreckage. A Justice Ministry official in Aruba said Friday that the plane was registered in the United States. |