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<h1 class="reader-title">US Company that Smuggled Weapons Into
Venezuela Linked to CIA Renditions</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">by Whitney Webb - February
13th, 2019</div>
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<p><b><span>G</span>REENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA – </b><span>Two
executives at the company that chartered the U.S.
plane that was caught smuggling weapons into Venezuela
last week have been tied to an air cargo company that
aided the CIA in the rendition of alleged terrorists
to “black site” centers for interrogation. The
troubling revelation comes as Venezuelan President
Nicolás Maduro has rejected a U.S. “humanitarian aid”
convoy over concerns that it could contain weapons
meant to arm the country’s U.S.-backed opposition.</span></p>
<p><span>Last Tuesday, Venezuelan authorities </span><a
href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/venezuela-authorities-discover-cache-of-us-made-guns-amid-uss-slow-rolling-coup/254698/"><span>announced</span></a><span>
that 19 rifles, 118 ammo magazines, 90 radios and six
iPhones had been smuggled into the country via a U.S.
plane that had originated in Miami. The authorities
blamed the United States government for the illicit
cargo, accusing it of seeking to arm U.S.-funded
opposition groups in the country in order to topple
the current Maduro-led government.</span></p>
<p><span>A </span><a
href="https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/latin-america/article225949200.html"
target="_blank"><span>subsequent investigation</span></a><span>
into the plane responsible for the weapons caché
conducted by </span><i><span>McClatchyDC</span></i><span>
received very little media attention despite the fact
that it uncovered information clearly showing that the
plane responsible for the shipment had been making an
unusually high number of trips to Venezuela and
neighboring Colombia over the past few weeks.</span></p>
<p><span>Steffan Watkins, an Ottawa-based analyst, told </span><i><span>McClatchy
</span></i><span>in a telephone interview that the
plane, which is operated by U.S. air cargo company </span><a
href="http://21air.us/about-us/" target="_blank"><span>21
Air</span></a><span>, had been “flying between
Philadelphia and Miami and all over the place, but all
continental U.S.” during all of last year. However,
Watkins noted that “all of a sudden in January, things
changed” when the plane began making trips to Colombia
and Venezuela on a daily basis, sometimes multiple
times a day. </span></p>
<p><span>According to Watkins’ analysis, this single plane
had conducted 40 round-trip flights from Miami
International Airport to Caracas and Valencia — where
the smuggled weapons had been discovered — in
Venezuela, as well as to Bogota and Medellin in
Colombia in just the past month. </span></p>
<p><a
href="https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/n881yv#1f69aaff"
target="_blank"><span>Publicly available flight radar
information</span></a><span> shows that the plane,
although it has not returned to Venezuela since the
discovery of its illicit cargo, has continued to
travel to Medellin, Colombia, as recently as this past
Monday.</span></p>
<h2><span>Multiple CIA ties</span></h2>
<p><span>In addition to the dramatic and abrupt change in
flight patterns that occurred just weeks before U.S.
Vice President Mike Pence prompted Venezuelan
opposition member Juan Guaidó to declare himself
“interim president,” a subsequent </span><i><span>McClatchy</span></i>
<a
href="https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article226011940.html"
target="_blank"><span>follow-up investigation</span></a><span>
also uncovered the fact that two top executives at the
company that owns the plane in question had previously
worked with a company connected to controversial CIA
“black sites.”</span></p>
<p><span>Indeed, the chairman and majority owner of 21
Air, Adolfo Moreno, and 21 Air’s director of quality
control, Michael Steinke, both have “either
coincidental or direct ties” to Gemini Air Cargo, a
company previously </span><a
href="https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/72000/amr510512006en.pdf"
target="_blank"><span>named by</span></a><span>
Amnesty International as one of the air charter
services involved in a CIA rendition program. In this
CIA program, individuals suspected of terrorism were
abducted by the intelligence agency and then taken
abroad to third-country secret “black sites” where
torture, officially termed “enhanced interrogation,”
was regularly performed.</span></p>
<p><span>Steinke worked for Gemini Air Cargo from 1996 to
1997, according to a 2016 Department of Transportation
document cited by </span><i><span>McClatchy</span></i><span>.
Moreno, although he did not work for Gemini,
registered two separate business at a Miami address
that was later registered to Gemini Air Cargo while
the CIA rendition program was active. </span><i><span>McClatchy</span></i><span>
noted that the first business Moreno registered at the
location was incorporated in 1987 while the second was
created in 2001. Gemini Cargo Logistics, a subsidiary
of Gemini Air Cargo, was subsequently registered at
that same location in 2005.</span></p>
<p><span>21 Air has denied any responsibility for the
weapons shipment discovered onboard the plane it
operates, instead blaming a contractor known as
GPS-Air for the illicit cargo. A GPS-Air manager,
Cesar Meneses, told </span><i><span>McClatchy</span></i><span>
that the weapons shipment had been “fabricated” by the
Maduro-led government to paint his government as the
victim. Meneses also stated that “the cargo doesn’t
belong to 21 Air and it doesn’t belong to GPS-Air” and
that it had been provided by third parties, whose
identities Meneses declined to disclose.</span></p>
<h2><span>Contras redux?</span></h2>
<p><span>The revelation that the company that operates the
plane caught smuggling weapons into Venezuela has
connections to past controversial CIA programs is
unlikely to surprise many observers, given the CIA’s
decades-long history of funneling weapons to
U.S.-backed opposition fighters in </span><a
href="https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00965r000302540004-7"
target="_blank"><span>Latin America</span></a><span>,
</span><a
href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/cia-assisted-plot-to-overthrow-laos-foiled/5890"
target="_blank"><span>Southeast Asia</span></a><span>
and </span><a
href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/10218288/CIA-running-arms-smuggling-team-in-Benghazi-when-consulate-was-attacked.html"
target="_blank"><span>other conflict areas</span></a><span>
around the globe.</span></p>
<p><span>One of the best-known examples of the CIA using
airliners to smuggle weapons to a U.S.-backed
paramilitary group occurred during the 1980s in what
became known as the Iran-Contra scandal, in which the
Reagan administration delivered weapons to the Contra
rebels in order to topple the left-leaning Sandinista
movement. Many of those weapons </span><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/17/world/abrams-denies-wrongdoing-in-shipping-arms-to-contras.html"
target="_blank"><span>had been hidden</span></a><span>
on flights claiming to be carrying “humanitarian aid”
into Nicaragua.</span></p>
<p><span>The parallels between aspects of the Contra
scandal and the current situation in Venezuela are
striking, particularly given </span><a
href="https://fair.org/home/western-media-fall-in-lockstep-for-cheap-trump-rubio-venezuela-aid-pr-stunt/"
target="_blank"><span>the recent “outrage”</span></a><span>
voiced by mainstream media and prominent U.S.
politicians over Maduro’s refusal to allow U.S.
“humanitarian aid” into the country. Maduro had
explained his rejection of the aid as partially
stemming from the concern that it could contain
weapons or other supplies aimed at creating an armed
opposition force, like the “rebel” force that was </span><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/27/world/middleeast/cia-arms-for-syrian-rebels-supplied-black-market-officials-say.html"
target="_blank"><span>armed by the CIA</span></a><span>
in Syria in 2011.</span></p>
<p><span>Though the media has written off Maduro’s concern
as unfounded, that is </span><a
href="https://fair.org/home/western-media-fall-in-lockstep-for-cheap-trump-rubio-venezuela-aid-pr-stunt/"
target="_blank"><span>hardly the case</span></a><span>
in light of the fact that the Trump administration’s
recently named special envoy in charge of the
administration’s Venezuela policy, Elliott Abrams, had
been instrumental in delivering weapons to the
Nicaraguan Contras, including hiding those weapons in
“humanitarian aid” shipments. In subsequent testimony
after the scandal broke in the 1980s, Abrams </span><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/17/world/abrams-denies-wrongdoing-in-shipping-arms-to-contras.html"
target="_blank"><span>himself admitted</span></a><span>
to funneling weapons to the Contras in exactly this
way.</span></p>
<p><span>With the recently uncovered illicit weapons
shipment from the U.S. to Venezuela now linked to
companies that have previously worked with the CIA in
covert operations, Maduro’s response to the
“humanitarian aid” controversy is even more justified.
Unfortunately for him, the U.S.-backed “interim
president,” Juan Guaidó, </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/jguaido/status/1095049572748050432"
target="_blank"><span>announced on Monday</span></a><span>
that his parallel government had received the first
“external” source of “humanitarian aid” into the
country, but would not disclose its source, its
specific contents, nor how it had entered the country.</span></p>
<blockquote data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p dir="ltr" lang="es">Esta entrega representa 20
raciones para cada beneficiario, y corresponde a la
primera fase de atención a las poblaciones más
vulnerables como consecuencia de la crisis humanitaria
que estamos enfrentando. <a
href="https://t.co/nwSRsK6gA2" target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/nwSRsK6gA2</a></p>
<p>— Juan Guaidó (@jguaido) <a
href="https://twitter.com/jguaido/status/1095049572748050432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"
target="_blank">February 11, 2019</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><em><strong>Whitney Webb</strong> is a staff writer for
MintPress News and has contributed to several other
independent, alternative outlets. Her work has
appeared on sites such as Global Research, the Ron
Paul Institute, and 21st Century Wire among others.
She also makes guest appearances to discuss politics
on radio and television. She currently lives with her
family in southern Chile.</em></p>
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