Security Minister of Argentina Patricia Bullrich announced over the weekend that authorities identified a Lebanese man named Hussein Ahmad Karaki as the chief of the Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah in Latin America.
Bullrich held a press conference on Friday in which she described Karaki as the “brain and recruiter” of Hezbollah in the region and accused him of leading several operations in Latin America — including his involvement in Hezbollah’s two terrorist attacks against Israeli targets in Argentina during the 1990s.
The accusation and information revealed by Bullrich, she explained, is the result of a joint investigation by Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. The three countries share a region known as the “tri-border area” where the Iranian proxy terror group is long believed to maintain a presence.
Bullrich explained that Karaki acted under the direct orders of — “without intermediates” — Hassan Nasrallah, the late Hezbollah leader killed in an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) airstrike in Beirut in late September. The minister claimed the announcement of Karaki’s identity had “a magnitude on par” with Nasrallah’s death.
According to the investigation, Karaki is presumed to presently reside in Lebanon, his birthplace. As such, Argentine authorities will request Interpol issue a red notice — a non-binding request to Interpol members to arrest a person.
“Today we put a name, surname, and face to the mastermind and head of Hezbollah in Latin America: Hussein Ahmad Karaki,” Bullrich said on social media. “One of those responsible for the attack on the Israeli embassy in our country and at least three attempted attacks in Peru, Bolivia and Brazil in recent years.”
“Until now he was a ghost, working clandestinely since the 90’s with false names and documents and with the help of dictatorships,” she continued. “We are going to ask for a red alert for this criminal who is in Lebanon.”
Bullrich singled out the alleged Hezbollah chief as the man directly responsible for the purchase of the van that the jihadists used in the March 17, 1992, bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, which left 29 dead and 242 injured. The minister explained that Karaki was present in Buenos Aires on the day of the attack and bought the van using a Colombian passport that identified him as “Alberto León Nain.”
“He left that same day by plane, hours before the explosion. He left from the Jorge Newbery Airport to the [Brazilian] city of Foz do Iguazu,” Bullrich said.
The investigation determined that Karaki speaks Spanish and Portuguese and lived in Brazil and other countries in the region until he had to go “off the radar” sometime after 1994 — the same year Hezbollah bombed the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA), leaving 85 dead and hundreds injured. The AMIA bombing was the deadliest terrorist attack in the Western Hemisphere prior to the September 11, 2001, attacks.
While the investigation found that Karaki had a “decisive role” in the AMIA bombing, there is no evidence to suggest he was in Buenos Aires at the time of the terrorist attack. Karaki “resurfaced” in 2004, using documentation allegedly provided by the Venezuelan socialist regime that identified him as “David Assi,” which allowed him to move freely in the region.
Bullrich presented a copy of a naturalization request form issued by Venezuela’s now-defunct ONIDEX civil registry office in 2004 that Karaki signed under the “David Assi” identity.
The Venezuelan socialist regime reformed ONIDEX into SAIME in 2009. The current iteration of Venezuela’s civil registry and migration authority has been accused throughout the years of selling Venezuelan passports and other identity documents to Hezbollah members under the supervision of Tareck El Aissami, a man believed to maintain close ties with the Shiite jihadist group. El Aissami was purged by socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro in 2023 and charged with treason in 2024.
Bullrich explained that Argentine and Brazilian authorities began uncovering Karaki’s identity as Hezbollah’s Latin American chief in November 2023 through a still-active investigation known as “Operation Trapiche.” In that same month, Brazil, with the help of the Israeli Mossad, arrested two individuals in Sao Paulo linked to Hezbollah accused of plotting terrorist attacks on Jewish community centers.
“Through this international investigation we were able to identify the mastermind behind the operation, who sought to carry out terrorist acts not only in our region, but also in Europe, using members of organized crime groups. That person was identified as Hussein Ahmad Karaki,” Bullrich said.
The Argentine outlet Infobae reported on Friday that it obtained a copy of the report presented by Bullrich, which lists other thwarted attacks against Israeli targets that Hezbollah had plotted in recent years.
One of the thwarted plots reportedly sought to kill two Israeli businessmen in Colombia in 2021 and involved an Iranian operator identified as Rahmat Asadi, who allegedly recruited two Colombians to carry out the operation. In addition, an attack against a former Israeli diplomat in Colombia was prevented.
Similarly, Infobae stated that the report mentions that an Iranian named Azizi was arrested in Peru in March on charges of recruiting former prisoners to attack an Israeli entrepreneur.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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