Venezuela: Terrorist links at the Immigration Department
By Veneconomy
President Hugo Chávez’ administration has been linked to guerrilla
movements and terrorist activities, mainly radical Arab groups in the Middle
East. The most recent accusation comes from an investigative report conducted
for the Miami Herald by Phil Gunson, president of the Foreign Press Association
in Venezuela.
The starting point of the investigation was the appointments of Hugo Cabezas,
aged 38, and Tarek el-Aissami, 28, as director and assistant director of the
DIEX (Identification and Immigration Office) two months ago. According to Gunson,
the appointments came as a surprise precisely because of the ties that both
officers have with radical guerrilla movements at Universidad de Los Andes (ULA)
and el-Aisammi’s possible ties with radical movements in the Middle East.
It is said that both Cabezas and el-Aissami have fostered the presence of urban
guerrillas in cahoots with the governor of Mérida, Florencio Porras,
for whom Cabezas worked as secretary until last July. Cabezas was a founder
member of Utopia, an armed group that has connections with the Bolivarian Liberation
Front.
El-Aissami, a Venezuelan whose father is Syrian, was president of the ULA’s
students union for two years up until July this year, when he failed to get
reelected. Apparently, he had managed to get members of the guerilla installed
in the student residences during this time. According to Gunson, of the 1,122
people living in one of the ULA’s residences, only 387 are active students
and more than 600 have nothing to do with the university.
El-Aissami had political control of the residences, which were used to hide
stolen vehicles and conduct drug deals. In addition, the people living there
would use balaclavas to commit crimes on the streets.
As though that were not enough, el-Aissami’s father is the head of the
Venezuelan branch of the Iraqi political party Baath, while his great-uncle
Shibli el-Aissami was a prominent ideologist and assistant to the party’s
secretary general in Baghdad during the Saddam Hussein administration. Guson
points out that Tarek el-Aissami was unwilling to give a statement to the Miami
Herald.
The DIEX, the agency in charge of issuing identity cards and passports, has
been put into the hands of radicals with terrorist connections precisely at
a time when Venezuela is at the gates of a revocatory referendum against President
Chávez and a number of deputies. It seems quite clear that the government
intends to commit fraud in order to derail the referendum initiative.