Information released this Wednesday (15) by local media states that the Chilean authorities, mainly the country’s Public Ministry, are currently conducting a secret investigation into possible financial movements in the north of the country that may be related to Hezbollah, the terrorist group that operates in Lebanon.
According to the information, the investigation focuses on the activities of companies allegedly associated with Hatem Ahmad Barakat and his family, which are said to be operating in the Free Trade Zone of Iquique, a city located in northern Chile. Barakat is an individual sanctioned by the US government for being considered a financier of Hezbollah.
According to what was revealed, members of Barakat’s family, especially his children, who have Paraguayan-Lebanese ancestry, would have settled in Iquique in 2003, creating “front” companies to finance the terrorist group that is currently attacking the northern Israel.
At the end of April, Argentina’s Security Minister, Patricia Bullrich, shared a confidential report with Chile’s Interior Minister, Carolina Tohá, warning about alleged Hezbollah activities in Chile. Before that, Bullrich had apologized to the country for openly saying that there were Hezbollah cells in Iquique.
Bullrich’s report reportedly details that Barakat traveled to Chile to raise funds for Hezbollah and that, in 2003, he was named as one of the main shareholders of at least two companies located in Iquique. The document also points out that Barakat’s son, Alí Hatem Barakat, had legal residence in Chile and owned two companies until 2015, when he sold them. Through these connections, it was possible to identify, according to the report, a network of contacts sympathetic to Hezbollah.
According to information from the Argentine website Infobae, the Chilean secret investigation is analyzing alleged financial movements in the Iquique Free Zone related to the Barakat family and two other families. Furthermore, Chile’s Internal Tax Service (SII) has reportedly detected suspicious financial transactions that require investigation.
This Wednesday, the Chilean government said it was not aware of the alleged ongoing investigation.
“It will have to be the authorities themselves [envolvidas] to provide details about this [a investigação]. For now, we have no knowledge of this,” said Gabriel Boric’s government spokeswoman, Camila Vallejo.
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