Lights, camera, action. The protagonist appears and delivers his line in a serious tone: “If someone here were to set off a device, there would be nothing left.” This is Diosdado Cabello Rondón, Minister of Interior Relations, performing in an industrial warehouse in El Tigre, Anzoátegui state, which has been converted into a television set for the event.
There, a raid was staged on August 14. “If everything explodes at once, it would have a lethal wave of 911 meters, almost a kilometer; nothing and no one would survive,” insisted Cabello, who, to enhance the realism and dramatic effect of the scene, went on to describe in great detail the types of explosives found at the site. The cameras followed him in a traveling shot as he moved around the area, accompanied by a retinue of officials from the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB), the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin, political police), and the so-called Strategic Operations Group (GOES). Local governor José Luis Marcano from the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) was also present.
Sticking to the script filled with conjecture and assumptions, the second in command of Chavismo rushed the investigation’s conclusions to target the Venezuelan opposition as instigators of an alleged accumulation of explosives meant for a supposed terrorist campaign. For Cabello, this pointed to traces of a conspiratorial plan against Nicolás Maduro’s regime, which he linked to a plot for a supposed attack that was to take place in Plaza Venezuela, Caracas, but which security forces disrupted in time. “One reviews the connections and realizes that two plus two equals four, and the links aren’t good,” he said to fuel suspicions of a broader conspiracy.
Cabello recounted that the raid was the culmination of a series of investigative actions that had begun days earlier, on August 9, in the neighboring Monagas state, and that “part of this investigation brings us to Anzoátegui state.”
The searches were conducted in the offices of two companies linked to the exploitation of the eastern oil basin in Venezuela, whose names Cabello did not disclose, but which reliable sources identified for Armando.info as Servicios Integrales Leimar C.A. (Silca), with offices in Anzoátegui and Monagas, and Técnica Petrolera WLP, present only in Monagas, owned by a 77-year-old Italian businessman who is now under arrest.
Both companies have a long history of business dealings with the state-owned oil company Pdvsa, as documented in the National Contractors Registry (RNC), which undermines some of Cabello’s assertions. Moreover, it is well known that explosives are essential supplies for various stages of oil prospecting and production. Thus, anticipating the obvious excuse stemming from these considerations, the Minister of the Interior rushed to clarify that “there are explosives not just for the oil industry; if it’s explosive, it’s explosive, and it harms anyone where it explodes.”
However, the caveat that Cabello Rondón preemptively extended to his purported investigation did not cover other inconsistencies that become evident when examining images from the police operation, which were broadcast by state-run Venezuelan Television (VTV), as well as photographs released by the Ministry of Interior Relations itself. For example, a significant portion of the explosives was produced in partnership with the Argentine company Explosivos Tecnológicos Argentinos S.A. (Etasa) by the state-run Venezuelan Military Industries Company (Cavim), controlled by the Ministry of Defense. Another part of the seized materials belongs to products from multinational companies whose import requires permits that only Cavim and the General Directorate of Arms and Explosives (Daex) issue. To make matters worse, many of the explosives found were past their expiration dates.
These are just some details that, when combined, raise not only doubts about the official version but also provide grounds to assert that the alleged conspiracy to commit explosive attacks is a flimsy plot ready to fall apart.
Explosive Doubts
One assertion made by Cabello during the raid on August 14 was that the company in the warehouse had not contracted with Pdvsa for eight years, a circumstance that added flavor to his suspicions. “If you haven’t worked with Pdvsa, why do you have this quantity of explosives here? Why do they have that amount of explosives in Maturín, which are the same companies? What were they going to do with that? Generate chaos in this country? How many deaths were they going to cause?” he questioned.
Both that warehouse and another one raided days earlier in Monagas belong to Servicios Integrales Leimar, or Silca. According to the RNC, this company accumulated 39 contracts with Pdvsa and other subsidiaries of the state oil company, such as Pdvsa Gas, or with mixed companies like Petromonagas or Petropiar, from 2013 to 2020, a history that refutes Cabello’s version.
The contracts corresponded to services such as “profiling for open hole wells,” “integrated electrical cable service,” or “integrated electrical cable service for conventional well perforation,” among others that require expert handling of explosives, like those shown by Cabello on television.
But the relationship between the company and Pdvsa persisted even up to more recent dates, judging by information published on social media. On its Instagram profile, Servicios Integrales Leimar mentioned some meetings held with Pdvsa workers between August and September 2023. In the same social media account, governor José Luis Marcano is seen greeting Silca staff at the Expo Industria Anzoátegui 2023, held in September that year in Lechería, a tourist-commercial city near Barcelona, the state capital.
Sources from the oil industry confirmed that they were aware of services provided by the company to Pdvsa in northern Monagas until at least 2024. “They’re experts in explosives; it’s always been thought that they have good relations with the government due to the number of contracts and the stock of explosives they manage,” highlighted a source who wished to remain anonymous.
The owners of Servicios Integrales Leimar are Óscar José Leiva Castillo and his sons, Jimmy José Leiva Martínez and José Ángel Leiva Martínez. All three are also partners in a namesake company registered in Florida, United States, in 2018. Industry sources indicated that all three were detained following the raids. The company did not respond to any interview requests sent via email by the author of this story.
Why did Diosdado Cabello claim they had not contracted with Pdvsa for eight years? The answer to that question might lie in confusion arising from the company’s own history, which changed names along the way. Servicios Integrales Leimar was established in 2007, but Leiva Castillo had previously founded the Cooperative Cable Petroalca 12 R.L. “Servicios Integrales Leimar C.A was born in 1999 in El Tigre, Anzoátegui, as Cooperative Cable Petroalca 12 R.L. (…) We have a long list of satisfied clients at Pdvsa and the various associated companies,” the company states on its website.
According to the RNC, the pioneering Cooperative Cable Petroalca 12 R.L also had a long career as a contractor for Pdvsa. Between 2006 and 2017, it accumulated up to 24 contracts with the state oil company and several of its subsidiaries in the eastern part of the country. The last contract awarded to its name dates back to 2017, exactly eight years ago, the period of not contracting that Cabello referenced.
Cabello also hinted that the owners maintained close ties with opposition leaders. “When you review who the owners are, who the legal consultant of the company is, the links they have with the extremist sectors of La Sayona [a nickname often referring to Maria Corina Machado, the opposition leader currently in hiding], then everything becomes very clear and is part of this investigation,” he speculated on August 14, during the raid at the industrial hangar in El Tigre.
However, verificable in documents is that two of the partners of Servicios Integrales Leimar, Óscar Leiva Castillo and José Leiva Martínez, are registered in the PSUV.
Cabello elaborated on other connections of the alleged conspiracy, including links “from the legal consultancy.” Between the first raid on August 9 in Monagas and the one on August 14 in Anzoátegui, the minister made a presentation before the National Assembly, where he informed about the arrest of judge Lisbeth Del Valle Rondón and her husband, who serves as a lawyer for Servicios Integrales Leimar. “Immediately a judge called and said: ‘be careful because there are important people involved,’ well, that judge is going to have to answer to justice because someone called her, and she needs to clarify the doubt,” said Cabello.
The pro-government newspaper Últimas Noticias reported later that Judge Rondón was charged with “delay or intentional omission of functions (aggravated), persuasion and inducement to commit a crime, misuse of information or reserved data, and conspiracy,” and that the president of the Monagas Penal Circuit, José Luis Arzolay, was also summoned to testify before National Police agents following the judge’s arrest.
Técnica Petrolera WLP was the other company raided on August 9 in Monagas. It also has a rich history as a contractor for Pdvsa. Founded in 1997, it secured 60 contracts from the state oil company and several of its subsidiaries, especially in the eastern part of the country, between 2000 and 2024, for work such as well perforation with explosives. The company’s owner is Italian businessman Luigi Gasperin, who was detained after the raid on the company’s main office on Ugarte Pelayo Avenue in Maturín, the capital of Monagas state. Sources confirmed that Italian diplomatic authorities are already aware of the case.
A Picture is Worth More Than a Thousand Words
The photographs released by the Ministry of Interior Relations raise more doubts about the supposed plot that Cabello Rondón claimed to have uncovered.
In several of the boxes containing hollow charges, a type of explosive used for perforation work in oil wells, labels indicate they were produced with Cavimeta, a partnership between the Armed Forces’ company, Cavim, and the Argentine company Explosivos Tecnológicos Argentinos S.A. (Etasa).
“Cavim is the only entity that can sell, and Daex [the General Directorate of Arms and Explosives] issues the permits,” explained a source who requested anonymity due to the “sensitivity” of the case.
But during the raids at the warehouses in Anzoátegui and Monagas, Cabello maintained his thesis that “there are explosions not only for oil,” as he asserted on August 14 at Servicios Integrales Leimar’s facilities.
Media outlets affiliated with the government, such as La Tabla, later echoed internationally by the TeleSur network, went further by comparing the discovery in the eastern country’s industrial depots with a case reported by international press, where explosives from Argentine company Etasa ended up in the hands of the terrorist group ISIS in Syria.
“What initially seemed like a stash of material for the oil industry quickly took on the appearance of a terrorist threat: the charges, 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 TeleSur on August 10, following the first raid in Monagas.
Both that supposed investigative revelation and Cabello Rondón overlooked that Etasa is a partner of the Venezuelan Armed Forces through Cavim, and that they were the ones who manufactured the hollow charges specifically to supply oil industry companies like Servicios Integrales Leimar or Técnica Petrolera WLP.
The alliance between the Argentines and Cavim, which is not new but dates back to 2000, was formalized under a legal entity registered in Venezuela, Explosivos Tecnológicos Venezolanos C.A. The joint plant, located in military facilities outside Maracay, the capital of Aragua state, was inaugurated three years later. “Since this moment [2003], we have been producing hollow charges for the domestic market’s satisfaction,” still reads on a website that, in any case, appears outdated.
Etasa’s corporate information also mentions the Venezuela plant as one of the sites where it manufactures explosives for the oil industry and provides the factory’s contact details on its contact information.
However, none of this was taken into consideration by Cabello Rondón while constructing his narrative. On the contrary, he insisted on the danger of the so-called hollow charges if used for purposes other than the oil industry: “What we have here is pure gold for a terrorist (…) This explodes and shatters into a thousand pieces, it’s shrapnel, like a grenade,” he explained during the August 9 raid while holding one of those explosives.
To add drama, the Interior Minister did not rule out the possibility that C4, a plastic explosive often used in bomb attacks due to its power, malleability, and ease of transport, could be found in that industrial building: “We do not rule out that those boxes contain C4, that those boxes contain dynamite, that those boxes contain other explosive elements,” he ventured to say.
An administrative ruling from Daex states that no oil company can keep more than 50 kilograms of explosives stored on their premises, but according to Cabello, the total in the Servicios Integrales Leimar warehouse in El Tigre was 1,500 kilograms of explosives.
In the other photographs released by authorities, products made by multinational companies engaged in the production of industrial explosives, such as Dyno Nobel, Core Laboratories, or Jet Research Center, among others, are visible.
The images also reveal the presence of expired explosives in the warehouses of Servicios Integrales Leimar, both in Anzoátegui and in Monagas. In some cases, the products were manufactured more than ten years ago, as indicated by the labels and packaging.
Following the televised raids commanded by Cabello Rondón, the fate of both Pdvsa contractors remains uncertain. In the case of Servicios Integrales Leimar, workers didn’t even receive the bi-weekly pay they were supposed to get by the end of August, as confirmed by sources to Armando.Info.
