![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-1.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>Documents from the Venezuelan customs authority reveal that in last year\u2019s March and April food for the CLAPs dispatched from Panama by Lido Internacional, Gassan Salama Ibrahim's company, arrived at the port of La Guaira.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-2.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>Documents from the Venezuelan customs authority reveal that in last year\u2019s March and April food for the CLAPs dispatched from Panama by Lido Internacional, Gassan Salama Ibrahim's company, arrived at the port of La Guaira.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-3.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>Documents from the Venezuelan customs authority reveal that in last year\u2019s March and April food for the CLAPs dispatched from Panama by Lido Internacional, Gassan Salama Ibrahim's company, arrived at the port of La Guaira.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\nOn \r\nNovember 17, 2017 alone, Gassan Salama's company received payments from the \r\nGovernment for almost two million euros related to the \"acquisition of food \r\ncombos.\" In January 2018, there was another draft for 1.8 million euros, \r\naccording to sources in Corpovex. The supply for the Claps was not the first \r\nbusiness of Lido Internacional with Maduro. In October 2018, the authorities \r\npaid the Panamanian company another 9.7 million euros as payment for contract \r\n0135, initially signed with Corpovex in 2016 for the sale of raw sugar. \"To be \r\nhonest, I do not have any information about it. I would have to ask the owner, \r\nbut he is not in the country,\" say the Lido Internacional offices in Panama when \r\nasked about the issue.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
A Biased Observer<\/h2>\n\n\n
In \r\nthe social media accounts of this entrepreneur of Arab origin, born in Colombia \r\nand naturalized Panamanian in 2001, there are no signs of his business with Chavismo<\/I>. On the other hand, there are \r\nmany messages of support for Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, Ad\u00e1n Ch\u00e1vez (brother of the deceased \r\npresident), Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, or Fidel Castro, as well as photos in emblematic \r\nplaces of the Cuban and Bolivarian revolutions, of which he declares himself a \r\nfervent defender. There is also evidence of his participation as an \r\ninternational observer in the electoral process of May 20. \r\n<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-5.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>In his social media accounts, Gassan Salama appears as a fervent defender of the Bolivarian and Cuban revolutions. There are plentiful messages of admiration for people like Fidel Castro and Hugo Ch\u00e1vez.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-6.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>In his social media accounts, Gassan Salama appears as a fervent defender of the Bolivarian and Cuban revolutions. There are plentiful messages of admiration for people like Fidel Castro and Hugo Ch\u00e1vez.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-7.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>In his social media accounts, Gassan Salama appears as a fervent defender of the Bolivarian and Cuban revolutions. There are plentiful messages of admiration for people like Fidel Castro and Hugo Ch\u00e1vez.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-8.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>In his social media accounts, Gassan Salama appears as a fervent defender of the Bolivarian and Cuban revolutions. There are plentiful messages of admiration for people like Fidel Castro and Hugo Ch\u00e1vez.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-9.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>In his social media accounts, Gassan Salama appears as a fervent defender of the Bolivarian and Cuban revolutions. There are plentiful messages of admiration for people like Fidel Castro and Hugo Ch\u00e1vez.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-10.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>In his social media accounts, Gassan Salama appears as a fervent defender of the Bolivarian and Cuban revolutions. There are plentiful messages of admiration for people like Fidel Castro and Hugo Ch\u00e1vez.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-11.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>In his social media accounts, Gassan Salama appears as a fervent defender of the Bolivarian and Cuban revolutions. There are plentiful messages of admiration for people like Fidel Castro and Hugo Ch\u00e1vez.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-12.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>In his social media accounts, Gassan Salama appears as a fervent defender of the Bolivarian and Cuban revolutions. There are plentiful messages of admiration for people like Fidel Castro and Hugo Ch\u00e1vez.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-13.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>In his social media accounts, Gassan Salama appears as a fervent defender of the Bolivarian and Cuban revolutions. There are plentiful messages of admiration for people like Fidel Castro and Hugo Ch\u00e1vez.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-14.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>In his social media accounts, Gassan Salama appears as a fervent defender of the Bolivarian and Cuban revolutions. There are plentiful messages of admiration for people like Fidel Castro and Hugo Ch\u00e1vez.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-15.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>In his social media accounts, Gassan Salama appears as a fervent defender of the Bolivarian and Cuban revolutions. There are plentiful messages of admiration for people like Fidel Castro and Hugo Ch\u00e1vez.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-16.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>In his social media accounts, Gassan Salama appears as a fervent defender of the Bolivarian and Cuban revolutions. There are plentiful messages of admiration for people like Fidel Castro and Hugo Ch\u00e1vez.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\"It \r\nis a pleasure to be invited to Venezuela as an international observer, \r\nespecially when I am being invited as a Palestinian for such a significant \r\ndemocratic act,\" he wrote on Twitter that day. The message is accompanied by a \r\nphoto where he appears wearing a red polo shirt and the brown CNE vest next to \r\nformer president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa. He also published a video taken from \r\nthe platform at the Miraflores Palace, seat of the Government in Caracas, where \r\nNicol\u00e1s Maduro celebrated his disputed victory.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
\"Congratulations \r\nto the Venezuelan people on their elections. I hope the countries of the region \r\nunderstand that four elections took place within ten months in Venezuela. The \r\npeople are sovereign and decided,\" he praised when posting the video on the \r\nmedia. It is not clear if the video was made by Gassan Salama, just a few meters \r\nfrom Maduro and mixed among the ministers and heads of the United Socialist \r\nParty of Venezuela (PSUV). However, there is more evidence of his closeness to \r\nChavismo<\/I> figures. In December 2016, \r\nhe was honored by the then governor of T\u00e1chira \u2013 south-western Venezuelan Andes \r\n-, Jos\u00e9 Gregorio Vielma Mora, also a retired Army officer and former head of the \r\ntax control agency under the presidency of Hugo Ch\u00e1vez. On the same day that \r\nVielma Mora awarded the \"highest order of excellence of the state T\u00e1chira\" to \r\nhis wife and valued the members of the State Coral on its fortieth anniversary, \r\nhe also awarded Gassan Salama the Order of Merit of Work. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-17.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>In spite of his business with the Venezuelan government, Gassan Salama was one of the international observers accredited by the CNE for the disputed electoral process of May 20, 2018, whereby Nicol\u00e1s Maduro was re-elected.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-18.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>In spite of his business with the Venezuelan government, Gassan Salama was one of the international observers accredited by the CNE for the disputed electoral process of May 20, 2018, whereby Nicol\u00e1s Maduro was re-elected.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-19.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>In spite of his business with the Venezuelan government, Gassan Salama was one of the international observers accredited by the CNE for the disputed electoral process of May 20, 2018, whereby Nicol\u00e1s Maduro was re-elected.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-20.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>Although unknown to the Venezuelan public opinion, in December 2016, the then governor of T\u00e1chira state, Jos\u00e9 Vielma Mora, honored Gassan Salama with the order of \"Merit of Work\" of that State.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-21.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>Although unknown to the Venezuelan public opinion, in December 2016, the then governor of T\u00e1chira state, Jos\u00e9 Vielma Mora, honored Gassan Salama with the order of \"Merit of Work\" of that State.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-22.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>Although unknown to the Venezuelan public opinion, in December 2016, the then governor of T\u00e1chira state, Jos\u00e9 Vielma Mora, honored Gassan Salama with the order of \"Merit of Work\" of that State.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\"In \r\nrecognition of his effort and dedication, and his outstanding professional, \r\nlabor, trade, business, academic, cultural and social activities focused on the \r\nservice and benefit of the public and private administration, the municipality, \r\nand also the State of T\u00e1chira and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,\", states \r\nthe award. There is hardly any evidence of his business activity in the \r\nVenezuelan registers. It is a company with the same name of the company used to \r\nsell food for Claps, registered in Caracas in 2005. It only has two employees \r\nand, according to the National Register of Contractors (RNC), there is no \r\nevidence that it has signed agreements with the State or processed preferential \r\ncurrencies in the extinct Currency Administration Commission (Cadivi). The \r\noffice is in a small building in Las Mercedes, a commercial area east of the \r\nVenezuelan capital, where no one answers the doorbell. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-23.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>In 2005, Gassan Salama registered Lido Internacional Grupo Salama in Caracas. At the office located in a commercial area east of the Venezuelan capital, nobody answers the doorbell.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-24.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>n 2005, Gassan Salama registered Lido Internacional Grupo Salama in Caracas. At the office located in a commercial area east of the Venezuelan capital, nobody answers the doorbell.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-25.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>n 2005, Gassan Salama registered Lido Internacional Grupo Salama in Caracas. At the office located in a commercial area east of the Venezuelan capital, nobody answers the doorbell.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-4.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div>n 2005, Gassan Salama registered Lido Internacional Grupo Salama in Caracas. At the office located in a commercial area east of the Venezuelan capital, nobody answers the doorbell.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\nStill, \r\nthe recognition by Vielma Mora, who in his youth participated in the coup \r\nattempt of 1992 led by Hugo Ch\u00e1vez and until months ago was a minister of \r\nNicol\u00e1s Maduro, does not seem unplanned. Vielma Mora was a key player in the \r\nbirth of the Clap as a massive program. In late 2016, Cobiserta, a company \r\nattached to the state government of T\u00e1chira, signed a first contract with Group \r\nGrand Limited, a company registered in Hong Kong and managed by Colombian \r\nentrepreneurs Alex Saab Mor\u00e1n and \u00c1lvaro Pulido Vargas, for the purchase of \r\nten million Clap combos. In the end, the duo of the Colombian entrepreneurs, now \r\ninvestigated in countries like Colombia and Mexico, became the main importer \r\nfor the state program, being awarded at least two contracts for nearly 800 \r\nmillion dollars.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
That \r\nwas the beginning of a program that was planned to produce food locally, as \r\nsmall partisan cells, but led to massive imports through intermediaries \r\nhandpicked by the Government. Until 2017, they bought the food combos mainly in \r\nMexico and then resold them to Venezuela at prices ranging from 34 to 39 dollars \r\nfor each Clap box. But since last year, companies from Turkey began to gain \r\nground through these intermediaries, while the authorities of Caracas narrowed \r\ntheir political and commercial relationship with the regime of Recep Tayyip \r\nErdogan, who has become one of their main global allies. Even Lido Internacional \r\nhas purchased food from Mexican and Turkish manufacturers, according to \r\npanjiva.com, a database specialized in international \r\ntrade.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
The \r\nfew official figures indicate that the Clap is a business that has continued to \r\ngrow. In 2018, the Government distributed 114 million Clap boxes, in addition to \r\nthe 91 million distributed in 2017, which would be equal to spending 6,000 to \r\n8,000 million dollars in just two years. \"114 million Clap combos were \r\ndistributed nationwide, groceries at your door. The slogan should be \u2018The Clap \r\narrived!\u2019 The revolution brings the groceries right to your door!\" said Maduro \r\nrecently.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Now \r\nit is known that Lido Internacional, the company of Gassan Salama, had a portion \r\nof that juicy pie. His company, like FB Foods LLC and Wellsford Trading Corp, \r\ntwo other Panamanian Clap suppliers, escaped the commercial veto imposed by \r\nthe Venezuelan Government in last year\u2019s April against almost one hundred \r\ncompanies of the isthmus, after Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela \r\nsanctioned 55 Venezuelan officials. \"Back in 2016, Panama promoted the sale of \r\nfood to the sister nation of the Republic of Venezuela. Now, strangely, you want \r\nto discredit the food supply that Panamanian companies are developing,\" Salama \r\ncriticized through a tweet posted on July 14, 2018, with a photo where former \r\nminister Miguel P\u00e9rez Abad and former president of Corpovex Giuseppe Yoffreda \r\nagreed with Panamanian authorities to purchase food for the \r\nClap.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/27012019-26.JPG\")
<\/figure>\n\n\nThe Treasure Hunter<\/h2>\n\n\n
While \r\nGassan Salama is virtually unknown to the general public in Venezuela, that is \r\nnot the case in Panama. For years, he has moved between politics and the \r\nbusiness world. After being president of the Chamber of Commerce, Agriculture \r\nand Industry of Colon - the Caribbean port of Panama that hosts a prosperous \r\nduty-free zone - from 2000 to 2002, he became governor of that province in 2003. \r\n\"As former Governor of the province of Colon, Panama, and as son of the \r\nPalestinian Revolution, I reiterate our deepest affection to you, Commander \r\nFidel, and the Cuban people,\" Salama wrote in 2004 on the Granma, the official \r\nCuban newspaper.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Besides \r\nLido Internacional, Gassan Salama is related to eight additional companies, \r\nalmost all registered in Colon. The \"Palestinian cause\" is another of its \r\nbanners and it powers a number of organizations that promote Palestinian ties \r\nwith Latin America. In addition to Venezuela, he has taken his business to Cuba \r\nand Bolivia. \"His links with these countries are as political as they are \r\ncommercial,\" explain Panamanian sources.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n