New air link evidence of Iran's growing influence in Venezuela

Venezuela and Iran have joint military ventures including the manufacture of munitions and surveillance drones, according to Venezuela’s ex-defense minister Raul Baduel. Opposition sources say Iran has also negotiated mining concessions to tap Venezuelan uranium deposits and that some samples were flown from Caracas to Teheran by way of Damascus in 2010.

The administration of President George W. Bush formed a special unit to investigate Iran’s activities in Venezuela, according to it’s director David Asher, who told the U.S. Congress that President Barack Obama disbanded his team for fear that its findings could jeopardize negotiations to curtail Iran’s nuclear program.

According to U.S. intelligence agencies, top officials of Maduro’s regime have close connections with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and other countries. Hezbollah enjoys Iranian support and is fighting in Syria’s civil war on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad.

Maduro’s former vice president Tareck El Aissami is under U.S. indictment for funding Hezbollah with proceeds from a Venezuela-based drug trafficking ring. He met in Syria last week with Assad, according to Venezuelan state media, which quoted him as saying there were “similarities” between the conflicts in Syria and Venezuela.

El Aissami played a key role in dismantling a coup plot against Maduro last year when he ordered the arrest of almost 100 army officers. He has also organized paramilitary “colectivos” to silence the opposition, arming them with Iranian-made 5.56-mm compact versions of the Russian AK-47.

A Venezuelan colectivo leader of Lebanese origin, Ghazi Nasr al Din, ran a paramilitary training and recruitment center out of a gym in downtown Caracas. He is on the FBI terrorism watch list for “facilitating the travel of Hezbollah members to and from Venezuela.” He has also traveled as a diplomat to Syria and Iran.

“!ran is playing a far larger role in designing Venezuela’s security structure than is commonly known,” says James Humire, a Washington-based policy analyst and author who lectures on Latin America.

At a recent U.S. Congressional hearing, Humire presented a list of over 2,000 Venezuelan passports issued to suspected members of Hezbollah, Hamas and other Iranian-supported Islamist groups

Retired Venezuelan National Guard brigadier Marco Ferreira has told VOA that some of the passports were issued when he worked at the interior ministry’s immigration office under the supervision of Cuban security advisors. He said one reason for establishing the Iranian air link was to facilitate the movement of suspect nationals from Middle Eastern countries.

Rear Adm. Touraj Hassani Moghadam, Iran’s deputy head of naval operations, told the Meher news agency in December that the navy wants to send a flotilla equipped with “special helicopters” on a five-month mission to Venezuela.

This article is published courtesy of the Voice of America (VOA)