In the midst of the problems in relations between Colombia and Israel after President Gustavo Petro’s announcement to end diplomatic relations with this country, the possibility of Hezbollah having a presence in the country is once again added.
To understand why this situation is worrying, we must remember that Hezbollah is an Islamist movement that has received support from Iran in the Middle East and has its main base on the border between Israel and Lebanon..
Now you can follow us on our WhatsApp Channel and in Facebook.
It was founded after Israel’s meddling in Lebanon in 1982 and has since promised under its name (The Lebanese Party of God) to counter the Israeli presence and its allies.
In November 2023, The Israeli ambassador to Colombia, Gali Dagan, stated that there was information about the presence of members of this armed group in Colombia.which would be financed by Iran and some type of intervention from Venezuela.
This was again mentioned by the French media Le Pointwhich stated that Hezbollah would have an operations center in a mosque in Bogotá.
For several months these speculations took a backseat in Colombia, but in the last few hours, former Colombian intelligence and counterintelligence analyst Juan Carlos Buitrago told The Informants that there was a presence of the terrorist group in the country and mentioned the profile of these individuals.
“In Colombia we find the presence of Hezbollah cells installed on the Atlantic coast, but also in Bogotá and in some peripheral municipalities of Cundinamarca, with a very low profile and that carry out commercial activities, work in NGOs, in universities and Islamic cultural centers.”
One of the points that caught the most attention in Buitrago’s statements is that he assured that young Colombians have been part of processes in which they have been linked to this group.
“Many young Colombians have come out through NGOs, social organizations, pro-Palestinian and pro-Iranian causes” to belong to these terrorist groups.”.
Regarding the methods with which the entry of Hezbollah members would be registered, Buitrago mentioned the importance of the relationship between Venezuela and Iran, highlighting that this has allowed people with dual nationality to exist.
“They have all the logistics, the possibility and the connections to obtain, for example, passports, in this case Venezuelan ones. Many of them, since the establishment of the Venezuelan regime with the close cooperation, in terms of defense, intelligence, economic, and agricultural, that have been generated between Iran and Venezuela, since this has been a floodgate that has opened for these terrorist groups, particularly Hezbollah and many of them have dual nationality, dual passports,” declared the former analyst.
Regarding the interference in Colombian territory, Buitrago assured that the former Venezuelan prosecutor Tareck El Aissami and the Barranquilla native Alex Saab, who remains in Venezuela despite having open legal processes in Colombia, are important pieces for this to be registered.
“We believe that part of Saab’s money was intended to finance these terrorist groups: the Palestinian cause… We managed to penetrate these operations on the coast, in some of the region, in Panama. Islamic terrorism is very active in money laundering through cryptocurrencies.”
Regarding the mention of cases of this nature in the past, Buitrago recalled that he is not the only one who has revealed the presence of the terrorist group in Colombia, recalling that several international media have mentioned it and no type of intervention or statement by the national government in this regard.
