Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello at the Simón Bolívar University in La Guaira, July 6, 2026. Photo: VTV/screenshot.
Venezuela’s minister for the interior, citizen security, and peace, Diosdado Cabello, repudiated the statements of the mayor of the Panama District, Mayer Mizrachi, regarding the humanitarian aid destined for Venezuela after the June 24 earthquakes.
“We repudiate the vulgar, miserable statements of the mayor of Panama City, who put a GPS on the humanitarian aid, which is miserable, to check where it is. Well, every thief dreams that they are being robbed,” Cabello said during a tour of the premises of the Simón Bolívar University in La Guaira on Monday, July 6.
The mayor of Panama City, Mayer Mizrachi, sent humanitarian aid to Venezuela, but he secretly placed AirTag devices in it without notifying anyone. Then, on July 5, he posted videos on social media claiming that one of the AirTags was in the state of Monagas, 400 kilometers east of La Guaira, and questioned the Venezuelan government’s handling of humanitarian aid.
AirTags are small tracking devices manufactured by Apple, the size of a coin, that let their owner to know their approximate location, irrespective of where in the world they may be. AirTags are used with luggage, keys, backpacks, or pets, for example, to determine their location in case they are lost.
Hours after the statements by the mayor of Panama District, the Telesur outlet reported that the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) located the AirTag in Maturín, Monagas state, in the possession of a victim of the June 24 earthquakes, a survivor who was in La Guaira at the time of the earthquakes and subsequently moved, with food and personal hygiene that had been received as aid, to Maturín. The investigation confirmed that the assistance was received directly by the affected person, thus dismissing Mizrachi’s insinuations of alleged theft of humanitarian aid.
Mizrachi was imprisoned for embezzlement and reported for fraud
Cabello specified that Mizrachi has a long record of crimes, highlighting that “he was imprisoned for embezzlement and was also reported for fraud. That mayor of Panama then thinks that we are going to steal the aid that belongs to the people. For God’s sake! How miserable!”
“The miserable plot of this mayor of Panama City has become very clear,” Cabello remarked. “Let the world verify who he is. He was detained in Colombia for six months for fraud. The people of Panama City elected him as mayor, and that is an internal matter for them, but the mayor is of the kind of people who believe that they have the moral authority to come and speak ill of the people of Venezuela.”
Cabello also questioned the establishment of a tracking system for the aid sent to Venezuela and stated that international aid is being distributed to assist the affected families.
He commented that “the haters of Venezuela” are behind these campaigns against the country, “who do not respect human suffering, they only seek political gain. But in the midst of disaster, there is no room for political gain, there is only room for solidarity, love, camaraderie, fraternal embrace, helping each other and not continuing to attack our country.”
Therefore, he called for an end to the media campaigns against Venezuela.
Cabello criticized those who promote these campaigns, alleging that many of them have not set foot in the country to help: “They do not know how many people have been affected, how many dead have been found, how many people were rescued alive thanks to the extraordinary work of the people, the national government, and the international aid that arrived in time to do it.”
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/SL
