El Aissami was born on November 12, 1974[4] and was one of five children.[5] He spent his childhood in El Vigía, Mérida, Venezuela.[6] His father, Zaidan El Amin El Aissami, who is also known as Carlos Zaidan, was a Druze immigrant from Jabal al-Druze in Syria[7] and was an alleged military associate of Saddam Hussein.[8][9] Zaidan, who led a local Ba'athist Party in Venezuela and had connections with leftist political movements in the Middle East, supported Hugo Chávez during the February 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt and was arrested.[10][5] His mother is of Lebanese origin.[11] Tareck El Aissami
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