Iran is backing Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro just as the Trump administration steps up military pressure in the Caribbean and expands its crackdown on criminal networks linked to the regime in Caracas.
Earlier this week, Iran condemned US actions and publicly committed itself to Maduro. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei warned of “dangerous consequences” of US military activities in the region. He argued that the operations threaten “international peace and security,” according to Iran’s official news agency IRNA.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Iván Gil Pinto immediately welcomed Tehran’s support. In comments carried by the Tehran Times, he thanked Iran for its “solidarity with the Venezuelan people.”
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Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro holds up a copy of his country’s case filed with the International Criminal Court regarding U.S. sanctions during a news conference at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
“This is a partnership for power, not principle. Iran’s involvement focuses on deepening military, criminal and intelligence cooperation in flagrant disregard of international norms,” he said.
Asked Monday if he had ruled out anything, including U.S. troops on the ground, President Donald Trump told reporters: “No, I’m not ruling that out, I’m not ruling anything out. We just have to take care of Venezuela. They’ve dumped hundreds of thousands of people from prisons into our country.”
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Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sits next to a senior military official in Iran. (Getty Images)
“Iran is extremely concerned that it will lose its most important hub in Latin America,” he said. “Losing Maduro will be a strategic loss for Iran, because Venezuela is a strategic hub not only for activity in Venezuela itself, but also for activity in Latin America in general.”
Citrinowicz pointed to the recently exposed assassination attempt on Israel’s ambassador to Mexico, which Mexican authorities linked to operatives linked to Iran’s Quds Force. According to Citrinowicz, the operation illustrates how Iran uses Venezuelan territory as a base.
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Former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi welcomes Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro at Sadabat Palace in Tehran, Iran on June 11, 2022. (Photo by Iranian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
He said the Iranians “used their presence in Venezuela, primarily the presence of the Quds Force, to gather the right people who actually tried to carry out this attack.”
“It is one of many examples of how Iranians are using their presence in Venezuela as a way to enter the Latin American continent as a whole.”
He added that Venezuela has long been Iran’s main support base in the region: “Losing Venezuela means not only losing Venezuela’s grip but also the ability to use Venezuela to increase their activities in Latin America in general, including operational activities as we saw in Mexico.”
Citrinowicz said Iran has already lost a long-time ally in the region after the recent elections in Bolivia. The other partners include Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, but “strategically and historically, Venezuela was the most important because it gave them enough space to operate.”
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Venezuelan Petroleum Minister Pedro Tellechea and his Iranian counterpart Javad Owji sign agreements during a meeting of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and then-Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, June 12, 2023. (Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters)
Asked whether Iran is directly helping the Venezuelan military, he said: “They have advisors on the ground. They can help the Venezuelan military, and they can also send weapons through Qeshm Fars Air flights that fly from Tehran to Caracas. They have done that in the past, and they can do that even today.”
On Tuesday, Adriana Jones, president of American Families Against Cartel Terrorism (AmFACT), welcomed the U.S. State Department’s designation of Venezuela-based Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization.
Jones — whose sister Maria “Rhonita” LeBaron and four of her children were murdered in the 2019 Juárez Cartel massacre — said the move shows Washington’s resolve.
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“The Cartel de los Soles terrorist designation is an important reminder that the Trump Administration is willing to use the Foreign Terrorist Organization designation to combat dangerous drug and human trafficking cartels,” she said.
She urged policymakers to extend the same designation to the Juárez Cartel and its armed wing, La Línea, arguing that every day without a cartel “gives them room to operate with impunity and increases the likelihood that more American families will endure the same grief and devastation as we did.”
Since September, the US has launched at least 21 deadly attacks on boats allegedly involved in narcotics trafficking from Central and South America, including one on Sunday, as part of what officials described as a widening campaign to disrupt maritime routes linked to Venezuelan criminal networks.
