Mexican Plan Shot Down by Venezuelan Air Force: Details Emerge, Mexico Summons Venezuelan Ambassador

A week after the commander-in-chief of Venezuela, Vladimir Padrino, said that Venezuelan Air Force units had shot down a plane with a Mexican registration tag, the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) has once more asked the Venezuelan government for a diplomatic response to clear up the incident, of which details are scarse.

According to CNN, the SRE summoned the Ambassador of Venezuela in Mexico, Hugo José García, to a meeting on Monday so that he could provide more information regarding the events that took place on Nov. 4, when a Mexican plane flew over Venezuelan airspace without permission, and was forced to land by the Venezuelan Air Force.

The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, said last Saturday that the plane was full of drugs and that its crew of seven people, two of them pilots, managed to escape.

"I was surprised that a plane we secured in a clandestine landing strip in the state of Apure... is a plane we found full of drugs, full, and then Mexico is asking for an explanation," Maduro declared, according to Mexican newspaper Milenio.

On Nov. 5, Venezuelan authorities said that a Mexican plane, allegedly linked to drug trafficking, was immobilized by units of the Venezuelan Air Force 7 nautical miles north of Buena Vista del Meta, in the state of Apure.

After this information was released, the Ministry of Foreign Relations of Mexico asked Venezuela through its Embassy in Caracas that the event be explained, in strict adherence to international law, reported CNN.

That same day, Mexico's Minister of the Interior, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, said that the only information provided by Venezuelan authorities was that the plane was forced to land and that they then set the plane on fire.

According to Milenio, Querétaro authorities released the names of the plane's crew: pilot Carlos Alfredo Chávez Padilla, co-pilot Mauricio Pérez Rodríguez and crew Isaac Pérez Dubond, Susana Bernal Rivas, Adriana Gesabel Cruz Méndez, Sergio David Franco Moga and Manuel Eduardo Rodríguez Benítez.

Mexican investigations revealed that the crew presented falsified information when they boarded the plane; however, their current whereabouts are unknown, since Venezuela only reported that they managed to escape after landing the plane. First reports seem to indicate the plane was headed for Honduras.