Tareck El Aissami was Venezuela’s Vice President of the Economy and the country’s Minister of Industries and National Production until March 20, 2023, when he resigned after an anti-corruption operation arrested multiple high-ranking officials in his circle.
He had previously held important positions in the cabinets of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, including the vice president from 2017 to 2018, despite his alleged ties to organized crime.
In February 2017, the US Treasury Department charged him with drug trafficking and imposed sanctions. His was visa revoked, his assets in the United States confiscated, and a ban was placed on all US institutions from having financial or commercial dealings with him.
El Aissami is also accused of helping members of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah to enter Venezuela, according to investigations by the Venezuelan intelligence service revealed by the New York Times.
History
Tareck El Aissami studied Law and Criminology at the Universidad de Los Andes (ULA), where he was involved in leftist political movements.
After obtaining his law degree, El Aissami entered public service, and in 2003, he became the first head of Mission Identity (Misión Identidad), a program created by the former National Identity and Immigration Office (Oficina Nacional de Identidad y Extranjería) in 2003, which helped people in remote areas obtain identification documents.
In 2005, he participated in parliamentary elections and won a seat in the state of Mérida. Two years later, in January 2007, he was named deputy minister of prevention and citizen security.
El Aissami became Minister of Interior and Justice in September 2008, where he remained until October 2012. The modifications made to the penitentiary system during his tenure led to the emergence of a new power figure in Venezuelan prisons: the “pran,” or gang leader, who controlled a prison.
According to the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory, El Aissami relaxed prison visitation rules, which allowed more goods and services to enter these institutions and encouraged the establishment of illegal economies within prisons.
The pranes, interned criminal leaders who controlled the prison grounds and population, began to charge a tax on everything that entered the space. Food businesses, barbershops, and other commercial establishments that arose within the grounds also began to pay a tax to the pran, who added more and more power, until it transcended the prison walls. Children and wives, as well as sex workers, drugs, and alcohol, began to enter the prisons with greater freedom, and the criminal hierarchies established in prison mirrored the gang organizations outside the prisons.
As minister, El Aissami also created the Bolivarian National Police (PNB) in 2009, which took power away from the mayors’ and governors’ offices’ security agencies, especially those of the opposition. Since then, crime has increased in Caracas and other cities.
On December 16, 2012, El Aissami left the ministry to take the governor’s chair in Aragua state. During his term, violence in the state worsened, making it one of the most insecure in the country.
Evidence of his links to organized crime first came to light in 2010, when Venezuelan drug trafficker Walid Makled claimed that a brother of El Aissami was facilitating his illegal businesses, and that the then minister was not only aware of this situation, but also fulfilled Makled’s requests.
Despite the accusations against him, El Aissami rise in the government continued. On January 4, 2017, Nicolás Maduro promoted him to Vice President and put him in charge of 14 presidential functions, among them the control of budgets and the creation of government entities.
Then on February 13, the US Treasury Department accused El Aissami of drug trafficking, canceled his visa, confiscated his properties in the United States, and banned US institutions from any financial or commercial transactions with him. In response, Maduro defended El Aissami and kept him in office until June 2018, when he appointed him minister of the newly created Ministry of Industries and National Production and made him the Vice President of the Economy.
Two years later, in March 2019, the US government again singled out El Aissami and his frontman, Samark López, this time for evading the sanctions imposed in 2017 by moving from Russia to Venezuela using private planes provided by US-based companies.
In April 2020, El Aissami left his post in the Ministry of Industries to assume the Ministry of Petroleum, a position he held until March 10, 2023.
His departure from power occurred amid a major anti-corruption operation by Maduro’s administration against high-ranking officials who, according to the Venezuelan press, were close to El Aissami. According to Maduro, El Aissami’s resignation would facilitate the investigations. As of the end of 2023, no charges have been brought against him.
Criminal Activities
El Aissami’s criminal ties go back years, and his alleged links to organized crime and rising violence have tainted his decisions in political office.
He has been accused multiple times of being a leading figure for the Cartel of the Suns, a fluid network of trafficking cells embedded in Venezuela’s security forces.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) statement says that the former vice president “facilitated, coordinated, and protected” drug trafficking in Venezuela. Specifically, says OFAC, he provided protection to drug traffickers Daniel “El Loco” Barrera Barrera and Hermágoras González Polanco, alias “Gordito González.” He also allegedly did business directly with Walid Makled and coordinated drug shipments for the Mexican drug trafficking group, Los Zetas. According to OFAC, El Aissami oversaw or partially transported more than 1 ton of narcotics to Mexico and the United States.
However, the politician has not been investigated by the US government alone. The New York Times reported in May 2019 that the Venezuelan intelligence agency had inquired into the minister’s illegal business dealings, corroborating his ties to Hezbollah, Makled, and drug trafficking. Several other reports and investigations have linked El Aissami to Hezbollah, among them the Brazilian magazine, Veja, the New York Times, and the former head of military intelligence, Hugo Carvajal. Still, this evidence is not enough to confirm the relationship. El Aissami was also accused of collaborating with the extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC), although it is not known if he currently maintains links with their successors, the ex-FARC mafia.
El Aissami’s time as governor of Aragua also corresponded with the growing strength of the powerful criminal group, Tren de Aragua, which, according to sources consulted by InSight Crime, was no coincidence. As governor, he allegedly blocked local police efforts to dismantle the group. El Aissami also allowed the closure of the police station in the San Vicente neighborhood, which allowed Tren de Aragua to take over the area and implement a center of operations in the neighborhood. A report by Transparencia Venezuela alleges that El Aissami was also involved in the transfer of prisoners from Tocorón prison to Sucre state in 2018, which allowed Tren de Aragua to wrest control of the drug route from local groups.
El Aissami used his position as Minister of Industries to benefit his allies. Operation Metal Hands, which he personally oversaw, targeted certain groups dedicated to illegal mining in Bolívar state that were not aligned with government interests, and to leave groups they considered favorable unpunished.
Geography
According to the US Treasury Department, El Aissami facilitated the shipment of narcotics from Venezuela to Mexico and the United States by controlling planes that departed from a Venezuelan air base and controlling drug routes through ports in his home country.
Allies and Enemies
During his time in government, as well as through his criminal activities, Tareck El Aissami has allegedly forged relationships with various criminal groups.
According to the US government, Hermágoras González Polanco, leader of the Guajira Cartel, is among the drug traffickers El Aissami has protected.
Prospects
El Aissami held one of the highest positions within the Venezuelan government and appears to have woven a web of ties in the criminal underworld that not many in similar positions have achieved. However, his sudden departure from power and public life, in what analysts considered a purge of his faction likely due to internal problems with Maduro, robbed him of much of the power he held.