A look inside the mysterious Venezuelan-Iranian gunpowder plant
Plans for the Venezuelan-Iranian plant, obtained by the author. It is located in Moron, a petrochemical hub in central Venezuela.
By CASTO OCANDO
Channel: Latin American Affairs, International Affairs
While Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday concluded his two-day visit to Venezuela, a secret team of technicians and military officials from both countries were putting the final touches on one of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces’ (FABN) most protected military installations, one surrounded by mystery.
The facility is a gunpowder manufacturing plant, whose construction is believed to be already completed and is expected to be operational early this year, according to official sources.
Located in the city of Moron, the petrochemical hub in central Venezuela, and under construction since 2006 with an initial budget of about $14 million, the plant was announced by President Hugo Chávez as part of a series of agreements between Venezuela and Iran signed during an Ahmadinejad visit in September 2006 to Caracas.
“Iran is going to help us set up a gunpowder factory and primers for ammunition that is imported because we’ve been kept in the backlog,” said Chávez, making reference to the US military embargo on Venezuela.
Yet, the true purpose of the Venezuelan-Iranian plant may be a bit more than simple manufacturing of gunpowder for munitions.
According to documents and drawings reviewed by Univision News, the plant was designed by the Iranian firm Parchin Chemical Industries (PCI), a subsidiary of Defense Industries Organization (DIO), the conglomerate controlled by the Iran Defense Ministry. PCI is believed to play a key role in the Iranian nuclear program, currently under heavy sanctions from the international community.
According to the documents, the project was commissioned to PCI by the Venezuelan Company of Military Industries (Cavim), under the code name of Bahman, the eleventh month of the Iranian civil calendar.
The plant’s purpose, according to the documents, is the manufacture of “ball powder,” a type of gunpowder that is used as a trigger for a wide range of weapons, from commercial rifles and pistols to 120 mm mortars and missiles for military use.
According to experts, PCI plays a key role in the Iranian weapons program. The firm was founded in 1939 and produces missiles in a facility located around 20 miles southwest of Tehran. Supervisors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have paid several visits to Parchin to determine whether or not it’s part of the Iranian nuclear program, according to Global Security, a non-government organization based in Alexandria, Virginia.
PCI plays a key role in the Iranian weapons program, experts say. The project’s name, Bahman, references the eleventh month of the Iranian civil calendar.
PCI was included in the June 2005 list of entities designated as “proliferators of weapons of mass destruction” by the United States, under Executive Order 13382, specifically because it “deals in chemicals used in ballistic missile programs.”
It also was included in the list of firms and individuals sanctioned by United Nations resolution 1747 in 2007, due to its links to the Iranian missile program, specifically for the manufacture of chemicals used as “solid propellants for rockets and missiles.”
In 2008, two years after the announcement of the Venezuelan-Iranian cooperation to manufacture ball powder in Moron, Cavim was sanctioned by the State Department, because of the company’s alleged cooperation with the proliferation of weapons and equipment to or from Iran.
In May 2011, Cavim was to be sanctioned again, alongside other companies, by the U.S. government under the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act, because “there was credible information indicating that they had transferred to or acquired from Iran, North Korea, or Syria equipment and technology listed on multilateral export control lists (Australia Group, Chemical Weapons Convention, Missile Technology Control Regime, Nuclear Suppliers Group, Wassenaar Arrangement) or otherwise having the potential to make a material contribution to WMD or cruise or ballistic missile systems.”
Several questions linger on the subject. For instance, has PCI shared advanced missile technology that would enable Hugo Chávez’s regime to produce and operate long-range missiles? It’s been confirmed that among the agreements with Chávez, Ahmadinedad has transferred technology to Cavim for the manufacturing of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.
There’s little doubt the sanctions imposed by the U.S. and U.N. against Cavim were triggered, in part, by its relationship with PCI, whose most important details are unknown to the public.
According to experts in Venezuela, the military cooperation between Caracas and Tehran, has always been marked by secrecy.
“The military relationship between Iran and Venezuela has been completely opaque,” said Rocio San Miguel, an expert who chairs Control Ciudadano, a civil organization that monitors the military sector in Venezuela.
“The military agreements are kept secret, and the public parts of those agreements are very general, and do not say much of what’s being agreed upon,” said San Miguel in an interview with Univision News.
