FIRST ON FOX: From a distance, Margarita Island looks like a Caribbean escape. Palm-lined beaches, duty-free shops and resorts are reminiscent of a tropical playground just off Venezuela’s northeastern coast. But U.S. officials say the Venezuelan outpost has become something entirely different: Hezbollah’s main base of operations in the Western Hemisphere, bolstered by Iran’s growing footprint and the protection of the Maduro regime.
This threat, U.S. officials warn, reflects a broader security challenge emanating from the region. “The most serious threat to the United States from the Western Hemisphere comes from transnational terrorist criminal groups whose primary focus is drug trafficking,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday at an end-of-year press conference at the State Department.
The island’s isolation, she said, has made it attractive to “irregular armed groups, foreign intelligence services and criminal networks that use it as a departure point for boats carrying illegal shipments from Venezuela.”
CARTEL LINK: HEZBOLLAH AND IRAN EXPLOIT MADURO’S VENEZUELA FOR COCAINE MONEY
In this September 13, 2016 photo, beach chairs are stacked on the empty Playa El Agua beach on Margarita Island, Venezuela. The number of flights to the island has fallen by 50 percent. (Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo) (Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
CARTEL LINK: HEZBOLLAH AND IRAN EXPLOIT MADURO’S VENEZUELA FOR COCAINE MONEY
Marshall Billingslea, the former assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes at the U.S. Treasury Department, said Margarita Island now serves as Hezbollah’s main foothold in the Western Hemisphere.
Hezbollah terrorists take part in cross-border raids, part of a large-scale military exercise, in Aaramta, bordering Israel, on May 21, 2023. (Fadel Itani/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
In written testimony he submitted to the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control before an Oct. 21 hearing, Billingslea traces the island’s transformation back more than two decades. Under Hugo Chávez, he wrote, Venezuela “opened its doors to Hezbollah, allowing the group to establish a large footprint, including a paramilitary training center, on Margarita Island.”
“When Nicolás Maduro seized power,” Billingslea added, “the breadth and depth of Hezbollah’s presence in Venezuela expanded dramatically, as did their ties to the narco-terrorist regime and the Cartel de los Soles.”
WHY THE US CAN BRING A VENEZELAN TANKER – AND NOT UNDER ‘WARTIME’ AUTHORITY USED IN CARTEL ATTACKS
People walking on the main island of El Yaque Beach on Margarita Island, Nueva Esparta State, Venezuela (Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images)
“The relationship with the Cartel de los Soles is very close, and has been for many, many years,” Billingslea said, referring to the network of senior Venezuelan officials accused by the United States of drug trafficking.
Billingslea said Hezbollah has embedded itself in Margarita Island’s economy, exploiting the island’s tax-free status and cross-border access to Colombia to generate revenue from drug smuggling and importation. He said the group operates a wide range of businesses on the island and also has several training camps there.
His testimony also described how the Venezuelan state apparatus helped entrench Hezbollah in the country. He wrote that former senior official Tareck El Aissami, while overseeing Venezuela’s Passport and Naturalization Agency, “was instrumental in providing passports and citizenship documents to Hezbollah operatives and to a large number of people from Lebanon, Syria and Iran.” According to the testimony, Venezuelan authorities issued more than 10,400 passports to individuals from those countries between 2010 and 2019.
TRUMP SAYS US TO SEIZE HUGE VENEZELAN OIL TANKER AS SHOWDOWN WITH Maduro erupts into new phase
Participants take part in the 17th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Porlamar, Venezuela’s Margarita Island, Saturday, September 17, 2016. President Nicolas Maduro had touted the 17th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement as an opportunity to increase international solidarity for his government as the oil-dependent economy reels from widespread food shortages and triple-digit inflation. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos) (Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo)
A Justice Department announcement dated May 27, 2020 alleged that Diosdado Cabello ordered Venezuelan lawmaker Adel El Zabayar to travel to the Middle East to obtain weapons and recruit members of Hezbollah and Hamas for training in clandestine camps in Venezuela. The filing also details a subsequent weapons delivery to a Maduro-controlled hangar at the country’s main international airport.
Recent developments in the Middle East have only increased the importance of Margarita Island, Billingslea said. Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon has damaged the group’s military leadership and financial infrastructure, forcing it to rely more heavily on overseas networks.
“In particular, Israeli successes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, including their attacks on the Al-Qard al-Hassan financial infrastructure operating in Lebanon, will have two consequences,” he said. “The first is that it makes fundraising and monetization from Latin America even more important for the terrorist group. Second, we have seen evidence that Hezbollah has actually moved fighters out of Lebanon, specifically several hundred from Lebanon to Venezuela.”
US DELIVERS JETS TO GULF OF VENEZUELA IN CLOSEST APPROACH YET, AGAINST RISING TENSION
Hezbollah members salute and raise the group’s yellow flags during the funeral of their fallen comrades Ismail Baz and Mohamad Hussein Shohury, who were killed in an Israeli attack on their vehicles, in Shehabiya in southern Lebanon on April 17, 2024. (AFP via Getty Images)
Asked whether this shift brings the threat closer to the United States, Billingslea said Hezbollah is now “operating close to the US and further away from the Israelis.”
He said Iran’s role in Venezuela has deepened alongside that of Hezbollah. “There is a substantial Iranian footprint in Venezuela linked to the trafficking of arms and drones, especially for gold,” he said. After suffering losses in the Middle East, he added, “the Iranians are becoming even more dependent on the supply of gold in exchange for drones and weapons.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
A multilingual road sign is pictured on Margarita Island, Nueva Esparta state, Venezuela, on November 26, 2024. Margarita, Venezuela’s main island, is a Caribbean paradise in decline after years of devaluations, inflation, a pandemic and the collapse of public services. (Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images)
He said Washington faces a strategic choice. “I believe that the United States currently has sufficient forces positioned in the Caribbean to meet the Hezbollah threat,” he said. “But when you have a terrorist group that has blended in with the local population, it obviously requires very precise intelligence. I believe the Venezuelan opposition has a good deal of that intelligence, although it’s not clear to me whether the U.S. government is using that access to its full potential.”
For Billingslea, the conclusion is clearer: Eliminating Venezuela’s narcoterrorist regime would significantly strengthen U.S. national security.
