Iran proxy Hezb’Allah planned to murder Israeli in Colombia to avenge Soleimani – report

The El Tiempo newspaper said the Israeli targeted by the Lebanese terror group was a former intelligence officer who had been stationed in the city as a member of the diplomatic corps, then opened a company involved in the import and sale of surveillance cameras and technology.

The report, citing unnamed sources in Colombia’s military intelligence services, said Israel’s Mossad security service discovered that the businessman had been spied on at a number of locations.

The Colombian daily said an intelligence dossier on the matter, including information provided by Mossad, indicated that in addition to the Israeli, members of a US delegation in the city were also under surveillance by the terror group.

The report said Colombian authorities were notified that evidence indicated that the Israeli was going to be assassinated, and that the group was additionally spying on other foreigners in the Colombian capital.

The newspaper said the Israeli national was quickly whisked out of Bogata, back to Tel Aviv.

The report said that three senior officials from Mossad recently visited the Latin American country amid growing concerns about it being used as a base for terror operations. Until now, it had been thought that Hezbollah was only using Colombia for financial operations.

The report came as Colombia said Sunday that it is monitoring Hezbollah’s activities, and accused the terror group of having conducted “criminal” activities in the country.

“Two months ago we had to deal with a situation where we had to organize an operation to capture and expel two criminals commissioned by Hezbollah with the intention of committing a criminal act in Colombia,” Defense Minister Diego Molano said in an interview with the same newspaper, without providing any details on the operation, which the report implied was related to the assassination plot.

Colombia has a sizable Lebanese community and Hezbollah has a presence in neighboring Venezuela as well as other Latin American countries. In addition, Hezbollah and Iran, its patron, have long been linked to the 1994 bombing that killed 85 people and injured hundreds at a Jewish center in Buenos Aires.