The Trump administration plans to take control of a second plane owned by the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, which is currently in the Dominican Republic. According to a State Department document acquired by The Associated Press and a US individual familiar with the situation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to make the announcement Thursday while visiting Santo Domingo, the final destination on his five-nation trip of Central America.

To carry out the seizure, Rubio had to approve a request to waive the foreign aid freeze, allowing over USD 230,000 to be used for storage and maintenance fees. The Department of Justice also had to give their approval. The waiver request, which was submitted earlier last week, has been approved. Rubio is expected to announce it during what the State Department has called a law enforcement engagement. The plane in question is a Dassault Falcon 200, which has been used by Maduro and senior officials, including his vice president and defence minister, for international travel to countries like Greece, Turkey, Russia and Cuba. The administration claims these trips violate U.S. sanctions, according to the document.

The aircraft was seized a week after Richard Grenell, President Donald Trump's special missions envoy, travelled to Caracas and spoke with Maduro to discuss repatriating Venezuelans who had entered the country illegally. Grenell brought back six Americans who had been held captive in Venezuela. In September 2024, the US seized another plane linked to Maduro from the Dominican Republic. The Justice Department explained that in late 2022 and early 2023, people close to Maduro used a shell company based in the Caribbean to hide their involvement in buying a Dassault Falcon 900EX plane, worth USD 13 million, from a company in Florida.

Meanwhile, in connection with Rubio's visit to Panama during his Central American tour, the State Department announced that Panama had agreed to let US warships pass through the Panama Canal without charging a fee. Trump’s key focus on the complaints regarding the canal, was the fee. Trump has already claimed to take back the canal from Panama unless it largely restricts Chinese influence in the region. The U.S. government vessels can now pass through the Panama Canal without paying any fees, which will save the U.S. millions of dollars each year, according to a post from the department on X. A preliminary agreement to remove the fees was made when Rubio visited Panama on Sunday, but it hasn't been finalised yet.