COP27 Invited an Accused Narco-Terrorist – John Kerry Shook His Hand

Essay by Eric Worrall

Shame on COP27 for inviting such a person. In an earlier story, I mentioned John Kerry shook hands with accused terrorist Nicholas Maduro – a plausible facilitator of the next mass casualty attack on the USA.

Bring him in, John! Awkward moment John Kerry SHAKES HANDS with Venezuela’s ex-president Nicolas Maduro at COP27 Summit in Egypt – despite US having $15million bounty out on the narco-terrorist

Joe Biden’s climate change envoy John Kerry was in the Egyptian resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh on Tuesday, and was caught on camera shaking Maduro’s hand

The Venezuelan leader, one of 90 world leaders attending the conference, has been indicted by the United States for drug trafficking

In March 2020 the Justice Department issued a $15 million reward for ‘information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Maduro’

The State Department tried to downplay Kerry’s encounter with Maduro, insisting that it was not ‘planned or substantive in any way’

The State Department still officially recognizes Maduro’s rival Juan Guaido as the legitimate president, but is increasingly warming to Venezuela amid the oil crisis

Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves, but has been blocked by decades of U.S. sanctions 

By HARRIET ALEXANDER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 12:37 AEDT, 9 November 2022 | UPDATED: 16:10 AEDT, 9 November 2022

Joe Biden‘s climate change envoy John Kerry had an uncomfortable encounter with Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday – a man with a $15million Justice Department bounty on his head.

The Venezuelan leader was charged by the DoJ in March 2020 with nacro-terrorism, corruption and drug trafficking, and the U.S. offered a $15 million reward for ‘information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Maduro’.

Kerry, who was Secretary of State under Barack Obama, from 2013 to 2017, was in the Egyptian resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh for the COP27 climate change conference.

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Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11405869/Awkward-moment-John-Kerry-shakes-hands-Venezuelas-Nicolas-Maduro.html

Maduro is a serious player in the world of terrorism, if the accusations against him are correct.

In 2020, Maduro was accused of maintaining high level links with Iran backed Middle Eastern terror group Hezbollah.

The Maduro-Hezbollah Nexus: How Iran-backed Networks Prop up the Venezuelan Regime

By Joseph M. Humire
October 7, 2020

• Too often, Hezbollah in Venezuela is characterized as only a potential terrorist threat. In reality, the Lebanese terrorist group has helped to turn Venezuela into a hub for the convergence of transnational organized crime and international terrorism.
• Hezbollah’s crime-terror network in Venezuela has facilitated Iran’s cooperation with the Maduro regime.
• The United States, allies, and international institutions must ramp up regional counterterrorism collaboration, crack down on illicit financial networks, and build stronger ties with Lebanese and other Arab communities in Latin America.

Introduction

In the face of another fated sham election in Venezuela, countries throughout the Americas and Europe are focusing on the many illicit tactics Nicolás Maduro uses to hold on to power. Top among them: the far-reaching illicit networks that prop up the Maduro regime. This includes armed groups that control vast swaths of territory, establishing a parallel state structure that conjoins the Maduro regime to international terrorism and transnational organized crime. In this environment, US policy shifted from “incrementalism” to “maximum pressure” in 2019, in an effort to constrain Nicolás Maduro’s grip on power in Venezuela.

This approach led to a March 2020 US Department of Justice (DOJ) announcement of multiple narcoterrorism indictments against the Maduro regime, including charges against Nicolás Maduro himself. Two months later, the DOJ indicted a former member of Venezuela’s National Assembly, the Syrian-Venezuelan dual national Adel El Zebayar, for allegedly working with Maduro and several top regime leaders in Venezuela on a narcoterrorism conspiracy that involved dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), drug cartels in Mexico, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Syria, and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.

These actions by the DOJ highlight a debate in the United States and Europe about the presence and role of Hezbollah in Venezuela and Latin America overall. Too often this debate is characterized by simplistic views that see Hezbollah in Venezuela as only a potential terrorist threat. Equally, other views diminish the role and relationship between Hezbollah and the Maduro regime altogether. Neither position captures the nuance of how Hezbollah operates in Venezuela and neighboring countries, nor does it establish a baseline for understanding how Hezbollah fits into the larger strategic picture of the illicit networks propping up the Maduro regime, and its relationship with Iran.

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Read more: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/issue-brief/the-maduro-hezbollah-nexus-how-iran-backed-networks-prop-up-the-venezuelan-regime/

Maduro has also been accused of maintaining links with South American far left FARC revolutionaries, though lately this relationship may have deteriorated.

Maduro Is Playing a Dangerous Game on the Colombian Border

Tensions and lawlessness could spiral into armed conflict. 

By José R. Cárdenas

OCTOBER 7, 2019, 3:21 PM

The United States and its Latin American allies launched last month a renewed diplomatic offensive against the regime of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, which more than 50 democracies around the world deem illegitimate. It began on Sept. 23 with a meeting between the United States and more than a dozen Latin American parties to the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, during which they agreed to investigate and arrest Maduro regime officials and others suspected of drug trafficking, money laundering, and financing terrorism. It escalated that Friday when a score of diplomats walked out in protest during Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly.

But the most concerning moment for the future direction of the Venezuela crisis came when Colombian President Iván Duque took to the U.N. podium to denounce the Maduro regime for providing support to illegal armed groups from Colombia. “My government has irrefutable and conclusive proof that corroborates the support of the dictatorship for criminal and narcoterrorist groups that operate in Venezuela to try and attack Colombia,” he said, holding up a copy of a 128-page dossier. He pledged to turn over the evidence to the secretary-general of the U.N.

Maduro is playing a dangerous game on the Colombian border. His actions could provoke armed conflict—or allow an unplanned confrontation to spiral out of control.

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Read more: https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/07/maduro-is-playing-a-dangerous-game-on-the-colombian-border/

If the accusations against Maduro are true, we’re talking about Kerry shaking hands with and chatting to someone who might one day use his vast smuggling network to help his alleged Iranian terror friends conduct a mass casualty attack against the United States of America.

Maybe even a nuclear attack, if Iran succeeds in enriching enough Uranium to build an atom bomb.

I hope Kerry does his duty and lets DEA agents know the location of a wanted accused narco-terrorist, so they can neutralise this terrifying alleged threat to the wellbeing of the American people.

The USA has enough influence over Egypt through the USA’s massive ongoing military and economic assistance, so they would likely allow Maduro to be arrested, if the US State Department pushed.