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    Tuesday, June 3

    Socialist Purge: Venezuela Charges Hezbollah-Linked Former Oil Minister with ‘Treason’

    Updated: Politics No Comments

    Tareck El Aissami, past Venezuelan crude secretary and a defrocked large- standing representative of the nation’s ruling communist regime, resurfaced Tuesday in handcuffs, charged with treason, money laundering, and corruption after having disappeared for a year.

    El Aissami was purged by communist despot Nicolás Maduro in March 2023 as part of a claimed “anti- problem” sensor. During his tenure as oil minister, from 2020 to 2023, the regime’s authorities are accusing him of stealing billions of dollars in oil revenue from the state-owned Petros de Venezuela ( PDVSA ) company.

    El Aissami “resigned” from his position as oil minister in March 2023 to” collaborate” with investigations over the “disappearance” of$ 3 billion in oil revenue from Venezuela’s state coffers. His resignation and Maduro’s removal of El Aissami and his close allies effectively took his party out of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela ( PSUV), which was in charge.

    In addition to El Aissami, his leading singer, business Samark López, and former Finance Minister and near Maduro alliance Simón Zerpa were likewise arrested on Tuesday.

    Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced the detention during a press conference, claiming the three gentlemen had conspired to “destroy Venezuela’s business” and committed” a variety of offences”, for which they would get” an excellent punishment”.

    ” These scoundrels, who at a bad time used their positions that the State gave them to obviously make important advances in the economy, allied themselves with]fake companies ] to seek, in this economic conspiracy, to destroy the economy”, Saab said.

    As El Aissami was accompanied by Venezuelan intelligence officers, Saab showed pictures of him in chained conditions. He likewise showed pictures of López and Zerpa’s confinement. El Aissami was described by the Venezuelan attorney general as “head of the [alleged]Venezuelan legal fief esque system]” of the reported story.

    The original “oil king” is a protégé of late tyrant Hugo Chávez and a senior official in the Maduro regime. He has held a number of positions in the Cuban government, including vice president in 2017 and 2018, as well as vice president. El Aissami has long been, according to reports, closely associated with the Shiite jihadist group Hezbollah, acting as a coach for relations between the Maduro regime and Hezbollah.

    During his career as interior minister, El Aissami admitted to having sold Cuban documents to Hezbollah people in 2017 according to reports released in 2017.

    ( Humberto Matheus/NurPhoto via Getty )

    El Aissami has long been accused by American regulators of being a drug lord. El Aissami was designated as a special-described narcotics trafficker in 2017 and put restrictions on him while under the former chairman of Donald Trump’s administration. Since 2020, the United States has an active$ 10 million reward for any information leading to his arrest and/or judgment. At the moment, it’s not clear how El Aissami’s incarceration in Venezuela will impact that reward.

    El Aissami served as governor of Aragua from 2012 to 2017 as well. The namesake Tren de Aragua, a after regional trade union gang that exploded into a multinational criminal organization with active presences in many Latin American nations and the United States, was born there.

    According to Saab, El Aissami and his associates used their jobs to “reach out illegal fuel businesses” and to assign crude oil supplies “without any kind of administrative control or promises of PDVSA.”

    The attorney general claims that the payments of the alleged illegally assigned oil shipments were never made and were allegedly extorted through the sale of local real estate properties and investments in construction work.

    Saab also claimed that El Aissami and his supporters” sent briefcases abroad filled with cash and oil,” underscoring that the total losses were estimated to be in the “billions” of US dollars.

    Saab also allegedly linked all three men to” a network of prostitution” consisting of young Venezuelans and foreign girls who also allegedly launder money. Saab claimed that Elizabeth Yépez, the preferred “pre-paid” — a regional slang term for a high-class prostitute, had been identified as El Aissami and that Yépez had fled to the United States.

    Saab also made reference to the Maduro regime’s continued silence over El Aissami for more than a year following the March 2023 purge, which prompted local residents and media outlets to ask him for El Aissami’s whereabouts.

    ” For the doubters, now they should stick their tongues where they can fit them”, Saab said. ” This was one of the most difficult plots that covered up responsibilities”.

    El Aissami relyed on constant praise and protection from dictator Nicolás Maduro up until the purge of his entire faction from the ruling socialist regime in March 2023. In a statement released in 2019, Maduro publicly defended El Aissami against allegations that he had ties to Hezbollah in the United States.

    Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s president, right, speaks to Tareck El Aissami, Venezuela’s vice president, during a news conference in Caracas, Venezuela, on Thursday, March 22, 2018. ( Carlos Becerra/Bloomberg via Getty )

    Maduro claimed that the United States attacked El Aissami due to his” Arab family”, describing him as a “brave man”, a” true patriot”, and a “revolutionary, a socialist”.

    SImilarly, late dictator Hugo Chávez defended El Aissami, claiming that he was sure of El Aissami’s “honesty, transparency and revolutionary character”.

    Christian K. Caruzo is a writer from Venezuela who writes about life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter&nbsp, here.

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