Fausta translated an article detailing the Chavez government’s program to build a Latin American Hezbollah wing controlled by the radical Socialist PSUV. The goal is to produce a group with the ability to wage an asymmetrical campaign against the U.S. and perhaps Columbia similar to Hezbollah’s campaign against Israel. To that end Chavez is sending Venezuelans to Southern Lebanon to train with Hezbollah.

From Fausta’s translation Patricia Poleo:

Tarek el Ayssami, Venezuela’s vice-Minister of the Interior, along with others affiliated with Hezbollah, such as Lebanon-born Gahzi Nasserddine currently the Business Liaison at the Venezuelan embassy in Damascus, along with [his brother by surname] Ghasan Atef Salameh Nasserddine (a) Abu Ali, are in charge of recruiting young Venezuelan Arabs affiliated to the PSUV [Chavez’s own Venezuelan Socialist Party], to be sent to South Lebanon for combat training in Hezbollah camps.

The purpose of the training is for preparing the youths for asymmetrical war against the United States.

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.

Read the rest of the report, which also accuses Chavez of harboring Al-Qaeda. This is not the first time we’ve heard about a Chavez/Hezbollah connection. I wonder how the Chavez worshiping left in this country will react when a Chavez funded Hezbollah is launching Katyusha rockets into San Diego and Tuscon?

I’m sure they’ll cheer.