EU-sanctioned company Synesis helps Maduro regime in Venezuela

Synesis, a company sanctioned by the EU for helping the Lukashenka regime in its crackdown on civil society, is now cooperating with the Maduro regime in Venezuela, the organization of former Belarusian law-enforcement officers opposing Lukashenka BELPOL reports.

Synesis developed the KIPOD tracking and identification system used by the Lukashenka regime to count the number of participants in street protests. The company and its head, Aliaksandr Shatrou, have been blacklisted by the EU.

In November 2023, Admiral Juan Carlos Oti Paituvi, Director General of the Command, Control and Telecommunications Centers of the Ministry of People's Power for Internal Affairs, Justice and Peace of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, came to Minsk on an official visit. He liked the Belarusian road monitoring system, and it was decided that it would be implemented in Venezuela.

BELPOL states that the Belarusian company is creating a centralized tracking and identification system in Venezuela under its brand KIPOD — "an operator-level cloud platform for smart city and public safety monitoring using artificial intelligence technologies."

This system will have the following capabilities:

- Facial recognition system
- License plate recognition
- Detection of a person with a firearm / edged weapon
- Abandoned object detection
- Smoke detection
- Group detection in urban areas
- Perimeter security monitoring and detection of objects in the area
- Audio analysis of sound data
- Monitoring of vehicle movements and compliance with traffic regulations.

Synesis has also offered to use its Frisbee messenger to communicate with employees of government agencies and several companies in Venezuela. The company claims it "replaces Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber, Skype and other workplace messengers."

But, as BELPOL says, the most important thing is not said: this messenger will be controlled by Synesis and the Venezuelan authorities. Thus, the subscribers' messages will be accessible to the local intelligence services.

In addition, Synesis is actively trying to introduce its electronic software in Venezuela to carry out "state-run online lotteries that will work for the country's economy."