law, but it did not happen. Defying
the U.S. and the international com-
munity, Maduro annulled the elected
National Assembly and illegally insti-
tuted an all-powerful Constitutional
Assembly. A Cuban-style Congress,
to rewrite the country’s constitution
to consolidate his power as dictator.
NARCO MILITARY STATE
My father was a military man and I
grew up with great respect for the
men who dedicate their lives in de-
fense of the state. The Venezuelan
Constitution established that the
armed forces “are at the exclusive
service of the nation, and in no case
at the service of any person or politi-
cal partisanship.”
Hezbollah.
armed forces’ leadership are involved
in drug trafficking, contraband, and
other illicit activities. Now, the armed
forces primary purpose is to spread
political ideology and serve as “local
resistance before an internal aggres-
sion or invasion of foreign forces.”
STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM
Maduro dictatorship’s newly ap-
pointed vice president, Tareck El
Aissami, was sanctioned by the U.S.
Unfortunately, Chávez and Maduro, Department of Treasury’s Office of
converted the Venezuelan armed Foreign Assets Control as a ‘drug
forces, including the reserves and ter- kingpin’ for playing a significant role
ritorial guards, into their political ap- in international narcotics trafficking
pendage and ensured they serve his and money laundering. El Aissami
interests. Cubans were inserted into has close ties to Iran, Syria, and Leba-
the Venezuelan armed forces to keep non and provides logistic and finan-
an eye out for deflectors. Most of the cial support to the terrorist group
34 iF Magazine | October 2017
Furthermore, El Aissami has been ac-
cused of using information technol-
ogy developed by Cuba to issue Ven-
ezuelan passports and ID’s to Middle
East individuals linked to Hezbollah.
Iran and Venezuela are leveraging this
network to export terrorist cells and
drugs to hubs in the United States
and throughout North America.
PETRO ESTATE
Never in Venezuela’s history has there
been such widespread and shameless
corruption.
Before Chávez took over in 1999,
the Venezuelan state-owned PDVSA
was the world’s second-largest en-
ergy company and one of the leading
foreign suppliers of crude oil and re-
fined petroleum products to the U.S.
Under Maduro’s dictatorship, Ven-
ezuelan oil production is 20% lower
than when Chávez took power.
The dictator has used the ‘poor’ as a