As we watch what happens in Ukraine with a potential Russian attack, let's not ignore the danger in our own backyard.
by Maibort Petit
Freedom Voice Reports
Venezuela Politica
Hezbollah, a terrorist group, has cells within Venezuela. They are present in the area of the Orinoco Mining Arc (AMO). Located south of the Orinoco River, in the northern part of the Bolívar state. According to the testimony of Lieutenant Daniel Archer Chirinos, a deserter, the groups act in compromise with members of the Colombian armed forces and guerrillas.
Here is part of his testimony.
In an extensive conversation I had with the former soldier, who fled Venezuela and is hiding somewhere in Colombia, he told us how mafias work in the Mining Arc.
Front companies
In relation to the smuggling of minerals by groups allied to the government and the Bolivarian National Armed Force or FANB, Archer said that they created fictitious companies “like the Mining Arc to negotiate with terrorist cells like Hezbollah.” He argued that “they sell coltan and all kinds of strategic minerals.”
The official commented that these associations have locations in Amazonas, in San Juan de Manapiare, a town located in the south of that state and in Atabapo, “where they extract the amount of minerals that they want.”
I saw it. Nobody told me. When I was with the security commander of the Yapacana Territorial Base, I witnessed a clash that the guerrillas had with a group of Venezuelans who were extracting Coltan. One of the Venezuelan miners disappeared, and another was expelled from that territory, said the soldier who declared himself in favor of the interim presidency of Juan Guaidó.
Archer Chirinos said there is an association between the Venezuelan Army and Colombian guerrilla groups that normally allow mining to be carried out irregularly, especially with the gold that is the most commercialized in the area.
He went on to say that in the Amazonas state everything is marketed in gold including the payment of bribes to public officials.
He further said that supposedly there is uranium extraction regularly for which “they have taken machinery in large ships and have made facilities there, to extract the minerals that only they exploit, you can imagine what they use it for,” he said.
In addition, he related how the economy of Puerto Ayacucho -for example- moves based on gold. “If a criminal is arrested for the murder of five people, the prosecutor demands a payment of 300 grams of gold and then the murderer goes free.”
He said that among those who participate in the mafia are officials of the CICPC, the Seniat [who handles a roadblock before reaching the town of San Fernando de Atabapo], the same happens at the checkpoint of the National Guard in the area. It ensures that the whole organization “eat from there because they are all part of that system”.
Governor of Amazonas and “the gold mafia”
Archer Chirinos affirmed that the governor of Amazonas and the vice president of the PSUV, Miguel L. Rodríguez, “uses state resources to buy machinery in Colombia and takes it to the Amazon to get gold.”
He says that “there is a thousand and one ways of executing contraband activities and all the politicians who have a position in the government use their investiture and their uniform to acquire goods to exploit and exercise illegal mining.”
The military said that countries like China and Arab nations support and participate in these businesses.
“The governments that support the Maduro regime include China, Russia and Cuba” are part of this irregular system.
Hezbollah in the Mining Arc
In relation to Hezbollah and Islamic terrorism groups that supposedly operate in the area, Archer says that “they are a little more closed, they only have relations with certain important officials of the high government. As far as possible they execute their activities in a legal manner, but they still use the resources in the way that everyone knows they use them. “