Iran Deepens Its Presence Inside Latin America
by Majid Rafizadeh • January 7, 2023 at 5:00 am
"Initially, my colleagues and I thought these were embassy employees, though we noticed their car number plates didn't belong to any embassy. We don't know what they are transferring... Because they won't let us examine closely. We just know that in past weeks, every day there are three to four flights to Venezuela." — Unnamed source at Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport, quoted by Iran International, December 7, 2022.
Latin American countries are opportune places for Iranian covert intelligence operations, especially against the US.
"One confidential intelligence document obtained by CNN links Venezuela's new Vice President Tareck El Aissami to 173 Venezuelan passports and ID's that were issued to individuals from the Middle East, including people connected to the terrorist group Hezbollah." — CNN, February 14, 2017.
"We're concerned that [Venezuelan President] Maduro has extended safe harbor to a number of terrorist groups... [including] supporters and sympathizers of Hezbollah." — Nathan Sales, former coordinator for counterterrorism at the US State Department, Small Wars Journal, January 20, 2020.
While the Biden administration continues to appease the Iranian regime, called by the US Department of State the "world's worst state sponsor of terrorism," the Iranian mullahs are creating their single "umma" (nation) on the doorstep of the US: Latin America. The Iranian regime's takeover of Latin America -- the creation of terror cells, the access to Latin American passports, the rise of Iranian-trained imams and militants in Latin America, the increasing recruitment of radicals -- is a potential existential threat to the United States.
One of the critical threats to the US national peace and security is that the Iranian regime, while using Latin America as a sanctuary, has been increasing its presence and terror cells there.
As protests continue in Iran, the Iranian regime's officials are in the process of obtaining passports and asylum from Latin American countries, particularly from Venezuela, at the doorstep of the United States.
According to a recent report:
"Western diplomatic sources told Iran International that the Islamic Republic has started negotiations with its Venezuelan allies to ensure they'd offer asylum to regime officials and their families should the situation worsen, and the possibility of a regime change increases.... a delegation of four high-ranking regime officials visited Venezuela in mid-October for negotiations to ensure that the Caracas government would grant asylum to high-ranking officials and their families in case 'the unfortunate incident' happens."
