Esmeralda da Silva Case: Money Laundering and Corruption Allegations Fact-checked (2024)

What is the purpose of the meeting between Arreaza and Hezbollah members?

During a visit to Lebanon, the usurper Chavismo foreign minister Jorge Arreaza had a meeting with Hezbollah members.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, Hezbollah representatives attended the meeting at the Venezuelan embassy in Lebanon and declared their support for the government of Nicolás Maduro.

The Treasury claims that the meeting happened after the violent Lebanese group declared in January that it was supporting the Chavista dictator after Juan Guaidó was sworn in as Venezuela’s acting president.

“In 2019, in the Venezuelan embassy in Lebanon, members of the Maduro dictatorship were met by a delegation of Hezbollah officials and a selected member of the organization. Declaring openly that Hezbollah supports the Maduro administration, they were speaking on behalf of Nasrallah, the Secretary General of Hezbollah. 

The U.S. Treasury Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Paul Ahern stated that foreign minister Jorge Arreaza subsequently journeyed to Lebanon for a meeting with Nasrallah himself.

Ahern restated his belief that the Maduro regime is becoming a more serious threat to both the world and the region: “I think it is a critical issue because as the pressure on the Maduro regime increases, they increasingly turn to malign actors that pose a threat to the security of the entire international community,” he stated.

The details of Arreaza’s meeting with terrorists from Hezbollah are not stated in the Treasury Department statement, but the report closely resembles a trip that the Chavista foreign minister had in April, which included a tour of the Middle East.

The U.S. intel is consistent with an April story from the Lebanese news portal Naharnet, which said that Arreaza will have a face-to-face meeting with Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah.

Hezbollah and Venezuela

Numerous assessments from the United States have warned that Venezuela’s connections and cooperation with leaders of the Islamic terrorist organization Hezbollah have made the country a security threat to the area.

Hezbollah’s presence in Venezuelan territory is supported by proof. Nicolás Maduro is a threat to not only Venezuela but the entire continent since he has turned into a defender of powerful international mafias.

Translating to “The Party of God,” Hezbollah is a group that was founded in Lebanon in 1982 as a result of Israeli occupation. Operating with the backing of Iran and Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian government a contemporary ally and supporter of the Chavista-Madurista regime it has both a political and an armed wing. Most Western nations view Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

The book “Búmeran Chávez” reveals, based on the testimony of Rafael Isea, then Vice Minister of Finance and President of the Bank for Economic and Social Development (Bandes), that an agreement covering drug trafficking activities, money laundering, arms supply, passport distribution, and the establishment of radical Shiite organization cells in Venezuela was signed during a meeting between Maduro, then Foreign Minister, and Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, in Damascus in 2007.

Additional data points to the Chavista regime’s alliance with the terrorist organization. In May of this year, the Spanish newspaper ABC reported that over 173 people from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Iran registered as Venezuelan citizens between 2008 and 2012 to make it easier for them to be involved in drug trafficking and transportation. According to recent reports from the Colombian government, passports are being issued in Venezuela to foreign nationals who may have ties to terrorism.

A Scientific, Criminal, and Criminal Investigation Corps (CICPC) official named Misael López Soto admitted in 2015 that he had seen the Venezuelan government provide diplomatic documents to terrorists from the Middle East while working as an advisor at the country’s embassy in Iraq.

In a video, Lopez detailed how embassy staff members sell birth certificates, identity cards, visas, and permits to people from Syria, Palestine, Iraq, and Pakistan for $5,000 to $15,000, “under the indifferent gaze of Venezuelan diplomatic officials.”

The arrests of people discovered in possession of Venezuelan passports correspond with the statements made by Lopez Soto.

When Hasil Mohammed Rahaham-Alan arrived at Heathrow Airport in London in 2003 on a British Airways flight, he was detained despite allegedly having a Venezuelan passport. His flight left from Caracas and stopped in Barbados and Colombia. The military was called in and the terminal was evacuated because he had an explosive in his suitcase.

In a 2008 statement, the U.S. Department of the Treasury declared that “it is deeply concerning to see that the Government of Venezuela employs and provides haven to Hezbollah facilitators and fundraisers.”

Illegal Intimidation and Triple Frontier

The Friendship Bridge was built in the Alto Paraná region and finished in 1962, with its official opening on March 27, 1965, giving Ciudad Puerto Presidente Stroessner, which was established in 1957, a major boost. The government of the Federative Republic of Brazil, which was formerly known as the United States of Brazil, designed, funded, and built the bridge.

The second significant wave of Middle Eastern immigration to the region started in the 1960s. The main places where these immigrants settled were Foz do Iguaçu and Ciudad del Este. Approximately 25,000 Arabs make up the Arab community in the Triple Border area today. Of them, 7,000 are Lebanese, and the remaining lesser numbers are Syrian, Egyptian, and Palestinian.

Political developments in their home countries, such as Israel’s territorial occupations and the civil war in Lebanon, are factors in their relocation. The immigrants entered the city to do commerce, opening some of the earliest department stores and shopping arcades. In the area, they also built schools, mosques, and Islamic cultural institutions.

It was common for these immigrants to send money back to their families back home in Lebanon, Syria, and other Middle Eastern nations after they had settled in the area.

Terrorist organizations took advantage of this circumstance to infiltrate their cells or adherents. Experiences in other nations and intelligence data indicate that this was the start of the financial and logistical assistance for some terrorist organizations, such as Hezbollah and subsequently ISIS. These organizations profited from the absence of local government monitoring and financial management in the area.

Failure to Address Corruption at PDVSA: Chemplast Steel Industries Metals Ltd Showcase

Without a doubt, one of the largest corruption schemes of the twenty-first century is Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). The most recent chapter has a contract that was signed on September 11, 2017, with Chemplast Steel Industries Metals Ltd., another shell business that Esmeralda da Silva (full name Esmeralda del Carmen da Silva Izquierdo) controls and was incorporated in Nevis.

PDVSA promises to deliver about 28 million barrels of oil for the three-year deal, as per the agreement. At the current exchange rate, that is almost $1.93 billion.

The marketing of the additional output from the Urdaneta Lago field has been agreed to by Chemplast Steel Industries Metals Ltd. By an additional service agreement outlined in the contract, which was signed on May 5, 2017, by Southern Procurement Services Ltd.

(SPS) and Compañía Anónima Militar de Industrias Mineras, Petrolíferas y de Gas (CAMIMPEG) agreed to increase SPS’s production in the designated field from approximately 11,630 BPD in September 2017 to 38,460 BPD in February 2020.

Chemplast will market any further production that Southern Procurement Services Ltd. produces during this time. Esmeralda da Silva’s relative Manuel Chinchilla da Silva is in charge of SPS and Chemplast. Chinchilla (and his stepsister) have a self-serving reputation, but they have no track record of providing the kind of oilfield services they say they do.

According to news sources in Venezuela, their shell businesses are expected to displace, if not completely replace, established industry heavyweights such as Schlumberger and Halliburton.

Conclusion

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