The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warned in a video published on Tuesday that Iran has successfully expanded its influence in Venezuela to such a degree that it has planted military assets there that pose a threat to American cities within attack distance, such as Miami, Florida.
The video is part of a series by the IDF called “Iran’s Axis of Terror,” explaining how Tehran uses alliances around the world to undermine global security and enable jihadist terrorism that poses a threat far beyond Israel.
Iran’s Islamist “revolutionary” regime and the socialist gang led by dictator Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela conspicuously flaunt their alliance. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi most recently visited Venezuela – and fellow leftist allies Nicaragua and Cuba – in June, inking deals in Caracas to develop a “technology office” and significant expansions of the presence of Iranian mining, education, agriculture, and other industries in the impoverished socialist country.
“Having common interests, views and enemies has made cooperation deep and strategic,” Raisi declared at a joint press conference with Maduro at the time.
The IDF report focused on Iran’s weapons cooperation with Venezuela, asking, “Why are Iranian weapons on display in military parades in Latin America?”
What's the Iranian regime doing 7,000 miles away in Latin America?
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 5, 2024
Iran's Axis of Terror series, part 4: pic.twitter.com/VvlyYHUp7N
“Iran uses Venezuela as its home base in South America. Iran delivers weapons to Venezuela by air and sea that are very well capable of hitting U.S. territory,” the IDF observed. “For example, the Iranian Mohajer 6 UAV that was displayed during a recent military parade in Venezuela has a flight time of 12 hours and a range of 1,200 miles, placing U.S. cities like Miami well within striking distance.”
“Iranian Zolfagher boats armed with anti-ship missiles currently sit off the coast of northwest Venezuela,” the report continued, noting that the boats are believed to be stationed currently in Zulia state, one of the country’s poorest. “Even though these boats are not meant to go very far into the ocean, the missiles they carry are.”
The IDF also accused Iran of benefitting from the transcontinental illegal drug trade originating in Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, and Mexico, using proxies such as the Hezbollah terrorist organization to connect with cartels in the region. For many years, the Venezuelan regime was believed to work with Hezbollah through former Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami, who was once identified as “one of Hezbollah’s great bagmen” and key to Iran-Venezuela relations. Maduro purged El Aissami in 2023 after years of accusations of corruption, making ties to Iran and its terror proxies more direct.
Maduro himself is facing criminal charges in the United States since 2020, allegedly due to his ties to “narco-terrorism” through the Cartel of the Suns, a cocaine-trafficking operation believed to be run through the Venezuelan military. The United States government is offering a $15 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest.
In November, U.S. Sens. Jim Risch (R-ID) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanding information on what their respective agencies are doing to ensure Maduro’s arrest, given that Maduro is not in hiding.
“We are deeply concerned about the ability of Nicolas Maduro, a fugitive of U.S. justice, to elude arrest and extradition despite numerous international trips since January 2021,” the senators wrote. “We ask that you [Attorney General Garland and Sec. of State Blinken] share with Congress what, if any, legal actions your departments have taken to seek the arrest and extradition of Mr. Maduro since January 2021.”
Maduro’s criminal charges have done little to deter Iran’s pursuit of deep ties.
The IDF warning that Iran’s relationship with Venezuela poses a unique threat to America appears to be a response to leftist American President Joe Biden’s conciliatory stance towards the Maduro regime. Biden’s tenure has been marked by a growing number of concessions to the regime that have more deeply entrenched the widely loathed, two-decade-old socialist regime, including the liberation of Maduro-linked criminals such as alleged top money launderer Alex Saab and Maduro’s “narco-nephews,” Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, convicted of trying to traffic cocaine into New York.
In this Dec. 17, 2015, file courtroom sketch, two nephews of Venezuela’s first lady, Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, second from left, 29, and Franqui Francisco Flores De Freitas, right, 30, appear in Manhattan federal court at their arraignment on cocaine-smuggling charges in New York as their defense attorneys Kafahni Nkrumah, left, and Vincent Southerland, standing, represent them. (Elizabeth Williams via AP, File)
Biden also issued the most expansive sanctions relief to Venezuela since prior to the administration of former President Donald Trump, allowing Venezuela to sell its oil and other wares in America freely. The sanctions relief is due to expire in April 2024 but can be renewed indefinitely.
The Biden administration offered sanctions relief as part of a deal brokered in Barbados in which Maduro accepted a vague promise to schedule a “free and fair” presidential election sometime in 2024. Following the lifting of sanctions, Maduro announced a campaign of violent persecution of dissidents known as “Bolivarian Fury” and declared the opposition party’s primary illegal, preventing the winning candidate, María Corina Machado, from running for office. The Maduro regime finally announced that it would hold a sham presidential election on July 28, the birthday of former dictator Hugo Chávez, this week, but claimed that election would come about as a result of a separate deal with puppet leftist parties and discarding the Barbados deal that included the Biden administration.
Sanctions relief for Venezuela’s oil industry directly benefits Iran, the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism, as Iran has committed to help refurbish Venezuela’s languishing oil refineries and use them to process domestic Iranian oil.
