RFERL:

Admiral Craig S. Faller, Commander of U.S. Southern Command, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on February 7, 2019 that “Iran has deepened its anti-U.S. Spanish language media coverage and has exported its state support for terrorism into our hemisphere.” This statement came on the heels of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement on FOX the previous day. Pompeo stated, “Hezbollah has active cells – the Iranians are impacting the people of Venezuela and throughout South America.”

There is very little public knowledge about the activities of the Iranian regime and Lebanese Hezbollah in Latin America. There are only a handful of scholars who have presented analysis of the activities of Iran and Hezbollah there. Until now there has been only a handful of public statements by U.S. government officials. It is safe to assume that U.S. intelligence and military officials have far more intelligence about such activities than what they have made public. It is also safe to assume that their knowledge constitutes only a portion of the total of the activities of the Iranian regime and Hezbollah.

The Islamic Republic has had close relations with Venezuela for some time now. Iran’s close ties with the Nicolás Maduro regime and the previous president Hugo Chávez, have enabled Iran to extend its military and financial presence, primarily through its proxy Hezbollah.

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