By Rafael Castillo
August 20, 2014 | 11:40 am
A Colombian civilian pilot who went missing in Mexico City may have been shot down by Venezuelan armed forces in a well-known drug-smuggling air corridor.
None of the countries potentially involved in the case of 38-year-old Mario Nocove — Colombia, Mexico, or Venezuela — has made any statement on the matter or would confirm any details after repeated requests from VICE News.
Nocove last spoke with loved ones in Colombia on May 26. That day, the pilot told his eight-year-old daughter that he was in Mexico for a job and would be flying a plane that was located about three hours outside of Mexico City, his ex-wife told VICE News.
"[He told us] that he was in Mexico, and would be back in the first days of June," said the woman when reached in Bogotá last week.
The case drew public attention after Nocove's father contacted the Mexican newspaper El Universal. The paper then linked a series of apparently unrelated incidents that may lead to a scenario explaining his fate.
On May 25, a Beechcraft King Air plane was reportedly stolen in the state of Puebla, Mexico. The next day, Nocove contacted his family for the last time, telling them he was in a hotel in Mexico City and about to go on a job. On May 28, the Venezuelan air force reported that they shot down a King Air 300 near the city of Bruzual, close to the border with Colombia in Apure state.
According to Nocove's family, a stranger called his father, Gonzalo Nocove, and told him that the pilot's plane had crashed in Venezuela. "Don Gonzalo, this is tough — Mario is dead," the man reportedly said. When Gonzalo Nocove insisted for help in locating his son, the stranger told him to start his search in Bruzual.
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| Mario Nocove |
