"One confidential intelligence document... links Venezuela's new Vice President Tareck El Aissami to 173 Venezuelan passports and ID's that were issued to individuals from the Middle East, including people connected to the terrorist group Hezbollah." The passports could be used for travel to North America or Europe. — CNN, February 14, 2017

"We're concerned that [Venezuelan President Nicolás] Maduro has extended safe harbor to a number of terrorist groups... [including] supporters and sympathizers of Hezbollah." — Nathan Sales, former coordinator for counterterrorism at the US Department of State, Yahoo News, January 20, 2020.

"President Raisi's visit to Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua in plain defiance of the United States demonstrates the failure of the Administration's Latin America policy. We must repair our relationships with our friends in the region so that we can form a united front against the countries that invite the Islamic Republic's terrorist regime into our hemisphere." — US Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, Chair of the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Fox News, June 15, 2023.

Iran began significantly increasing its influence in Latin America after US President Joe Biden assumed office, most likely assuming, apparently correctly, that the Biden Administration would not take any action against the regime.

The Iranian regime's terror cells have indeed grown in Latin America. Iran's terror proxy Hezbollah and Al Mustafa International University have both played a key role in expanding the mullahs' presence and ideology in the region.... "where they can then recruit students and inculcate loyalty to the Islamic Revolution among local populations..." – Report, United Against Nuclear Iran.

Back at home the Iranian regime continues to enrich uranium to levels slightly below those needed for nuclear weapons breakout, all of which -- along with China set to militarize Cuba -- is a clear and present existential danger to the United States.

Source: Majid Rafizadeh - The Gatestone Institute