Venezuelan authorities "carried out one of the largest explosives seizures in recent Venezuelan history in Maturín, a city in the eastern part of the country," teleSURtv reported recently. "On August 9, Venezuelan security forces, under the coordination of the Minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace, Diosdado Cabello, discovered more than 54,000 hollow charges, accompanied by detonating cords and remote activation equipment," the news network detailed.

The explosive material was packed in 1,137 boxes and what initially appeared to be smuggling of material for the oil industry quickly took on the appearance of a terrorist threat, since "the loads, according to technical and documentary evidence collected by the investigative platform La Tabla, are identical to those used by the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria between 2014 and 2017," reported the HISPANTV portal.

The manufacturer, according to the logos visible on the packaging, is Explosivos Tecnológicos Argentinos, SA (ETASA) , an Argentine company specializing in industrial explosives for oil well drilling. "Although ETASA claims its products are intended exclusively for civilian purposes, the discovery in Venezuela—like the one in Syria—reveals an alarming vulnerability: the dual use of industrial technologies in armed conflicts," teleSURtv reported.

The seized charges belong to the 4-inch TCP HDX model, designed for drilling oil wells. However, this potential also allows it to pierce the armor of military vehicles. In Syria, ISIS captured similar charges from oil fields and adapted them as anti-tank warheads on homemade rockets . In Venezuela, as Diosdado Cabello demonstrated at a press conference, the seized detonators could be activated using mobile phones, a common technique used in terrorist attacks.

According to reports, the volume of confiscated explosives is completely disproportionate for any industrial use in Venezuela. "A study by Argentine geologist Ricardo Lupo indicates that 54,000 units are equivalent to five years' worth of consumption in Vaca Muerta, one of the largest unconventional deposits in the world," teleSURtv highlighted. It also reported that Venezuelan authorities link the discovery to two recently dismantled operations and blamed opposition leader María Corina Machado and the United States government for orchestrating a "criminal alliance" with European drug traffickers and mafias.

It's worth remembering that "in 2017, ETASA cargo legally exported to a Syrian oil company was seized by ISIS after the state collapsed in producing areas. The same thing happened in Libya and Yemen , where industrial materials were converted into asymmetric weapons," laiguanatv reported.

To date, the Argentine government has not issued a direct official statement regarding this seizure of such a large quantity of explosives . This absence of a statement is not a simple oversight, but rather the direct consequence of a diplomatic rupture that Javier Milei 's government initiated at the request of Donald Trump 's administration, which has eliminated formal channels of communication between the two sister nations.

There are also no public statements from ETASA regarding the seizure of explosives in Venezuela. There is no official statement, press release, or mention by the company on the subject. However, contact information on ETASA's website confirms the company's presence in Venezuela, with contact numbers for the "West" and "East" regions, corroborating the company's business relationship with that country.

Argentina, for its part, maintains that its exports comply with all international protocols. However, there is no effective global traceability system for dual-use materials, which facilitates their diversion. Organizations such as the UN have warned since 2020 about the risk of industrial explosives fueling unconventional conflicts.

The situation takes us back to July 2021, when the economic criminal prosecutor, Claudio Navas Rial , charged former President Mauricio Macri , former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich , and former Defense Minister Oscar Aguad in the case investigating the sending of repressive material to Bolivia in November 2019 , when the coup d'état against the legitimate and constitutional government of Evo Morales was taking place .

Recall that , on that occasion , the material made available to the Bolivian coup plotters "would have consisted of at least 40,000 AT 12/70 cartridges; 18 MK-9 tear gas canisters; 5 MK-4 tear gas canisters; 50 CN gas grenades; 10 CS gas grenades; and 52 HC gas grenades ," the daily Ambit reported on its website.

Sources:

teleSURtv.net

HISPANTV Nexo Latino

laiguana.tv

scope ​