BEYOND THE DROPZONE

VENEZUELAN GOVERNMENT REPORTEDLY RECRUITING FOR HEZBOLLAH

Posted by W. Thomas Smith Jr. on 11 June 2008 at 9:56 pm UTC

In a piece for the Caracas, Venezuelan daily El Nuevo País (and subsequently published today on Venezuela’s Noticias24 TV website), journalist Patricia Poleo reports:

“Young Venezuelans are being recruited for training in Lebanon. … The purpose of the training is for preparing the youths for asymmetrical war against the United States.�

[translation by Fausta Wertz, who also is reporting this on her blog]

According to Poleo’s story, Venezuela’s Vice Minister of the Interior, Tarek el-Aissami (reportedly of Syrian descent), and other Venezuelan officials – alleged to be affiliated with both Hezbollah (based in Lebanon) and Syria (which, along with Iran, provides support to Hezbollah) – are recruiting young Venezuelan Arabs and shipping them to Hezbollah terrorist-training camps in south Lebanon.

From Wertz’s unedited translation (bracketed additions are Wertz’s):

“… Once back in Venezuela, the youths are welcomed by two members of the Islamic Center of Venezuela, who were previously involved in illegally bringing Hezbollah Lebanese through the area of Margarita with fake passports. During February 2002, one of these men brought a group of Hezbollah members who came from Brazil, from Margarita, and then sheltered at the Islamic Center in El Paraiso.“Once the Venezuelas return from their training in Lebanon they meet with radical youths from the PSUV affiliated with UNEFA [the university run by the Armed Forces] and the Unversidad Bolivariana de Venezuela [Venezuelan Bolivarian University].

“These groups and individuals are closely affiliated with the Hezbollah Organization in Venezuela, along with al-Qaeda Iraqis currently living in Venezuela. They are also related to the Palestinian Democratic Front, headed by Salid Ahmed Rahman, whose ‘official’ office is located in Caracas’s Central Park.“In the training camps now in Venezuela, they receive training in firearms, explosives and munitions provided by vice-Minister of the Interior Tarek el Ayssami.

“The Venezuelan training camps are located in: Monagas state, Maturin district. Miranda state, Los Teques, at a location called El Jari. Trujillo state, El Paramo. Falcon state, Churuguara, Sierra de San Luis. Yaracuy state, Yumare.

“From the start of President Chavez’s government, terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, Hamas and al-Qaeda have used Venezuela as their bridge to other Latin American countries since Venezuela is an allied government. …” 

 Read Fausta Wertz’s entire translation here.

Thanks to Christopher Holton, national director of the Center for Security Policy’s Divest Terror Initiative, who made us aware of Poleo’s report.

— Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. at uswriter.com.

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