Links between Muslim Terrorism and Maduro

After Maduro’s capture, Rubio links Venezuela mission to fight against Iran, Hezbollah

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States will exert leverage to ensure that the country “no longer cozy up to Hezbollah and Iran in our own hemisphere.”

In the wake of the US operation that brought Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to the United States to face charges, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the mission is also about ending Iran and Hezbollah activity inside Venezuela.

Rubio made the remarks on US television a day after elite US forces carried out a pre-dawn raid in Caracas that resulted in Maduro’s capture and his transfer to federal custody in New York. President Donald Trump and Rubio have framed the mission as aimed at dismantling narco-trafficking networks and foreign influence tied to Caracas.

Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Rubio said the United States will exert leverage, including continued sanctions and pressure on Venezuela’s oil sector, to ensure that the country “no longer cozy up to Hezbollah and Iran in our own hemisphere.”

On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he offered a shorthand for US goals: “No more drug trafficking, no more Iran Hezbollah presence there, and no more using the oil industry to enrich all our adversaries around the world.”

Rubio also dismissed comparisons between the Venezuela operation and US military interventions in the Middle East, saying Venezuela’s Western Hemisphere context is different.

“The whole foreign policy apparatus thinks everything is Libya, everything is Iraq, everything is Afghanistan,” Rubio told CBS. “This is not the Middle East. And our mission here is very different. This is the Western Hemisphere.”

Israel uses Venezuela as signal to Iran

The Venezuela operation drew attention in Israel, where leaders used it to signal a warning to Tehran amid mounting unrest inside Iran. Opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote on X that “the regime in Iran should pay close attention to what is happening in Venezuela,” framing the US action as a broader message to a government facing intensifying protests and riots at home. 

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli said the capture of Maduro struck a blow to what he called the “global axis of evil” and sent a “clear message” to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei about the consequences of supporting narcoterrorism and militant proxies such as Hezbollah, according to the Jerusalem Post.

“Maduro did not run a country; he ran a crime and drug empire that directly fueled Hezbollah and Iran,” Chikli said. “The president’s decisive steps have proven once again that strong leaders are the only way to defeat dictators.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, fearing a preemptive attack by Tehran, reportedly assured Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday that Israel does not intend to attack Iran right now. At the same time, Trump posed with a “Make Iran Great Again” hat in Washington.

Rubio’s comments underscore a broader US security concern about Tehran’s relationships in the Americas, especially its ties to Caracas. Venezuela and Iran built close diplomatic and economic ties during the presidencies of Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez.

The relationship deepened in the mid-2000s, when Chávez cast Venezuela as part of what he called an “axis of unity” with Iran and other US adversaries. In June 2022, Iran and Venezuela signed a 20-year cooperation pact meant to shore up their alliance and blunt US sanctions, expanding collaboration on energy, technology, and security. The deal included Iranian assistance for Venezuela’s oil sector in exchange for economic access, along with stepped-up military cooperation, including drones.

US officials believe that those ties have also created space for Hezbollah, Iran’s Lebanese proxy, to raise money and build logistical networks in Venezuela and neighboring countries. Over the years, Washington has sanctioned Venezuelan officials and businessmen accused of helping Hezbollah operatives obtain passports, move cash, and participate in smuggling schemes, allegations the Maduro government has denied.

Hezbollah has been active in South America in the past. It is believed to have orchestrated two major attacks on Jewish targets in Buenos Aires in the 1980s that together killed hundreds of people. The current president of Argentina, Javier Milei, supports Israel and has taken steps to hold Hezbollah accountable for those attacks.

https://www.jpost.com/american-politics/article-882443

The connection between Venezuela's drugs and terror - and how it affects us

Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs President Dr. Dan Diker warns that Venezuela has become a central hub for Iranian-backed terror, drug trafficking, and Hezbollah operations across Latin America.

Dr. Dan Diker, the President of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, spoke with Arutz Sheva-Israel National News about Venezuela's contribution to global terror, as he completes a comprehensive article on this matter that should be troubling the entire world.

"The world paid attention to Venezuela's significant involvement in global terrorism and global drug trafficking, and now, it is all coming out," Dr. Diker says. "Hugo Chavez and Maduro were responsible for billions in terror funding from Iran. They represent the Iranian regime. Senior Iranian officials don't need a visa to enter Venezuela and receive Venezuelan citizenship immediately and automatically," he adds and states that Venezuela is not only an extension of Iran in South America, but it serves as a transit point for terror to the entire Latin America.

Diker mentions the Hezbollah Israeli Embassy and AMIA bombings of 1992 and 1994 in Argentina. "Venezuela inherited and advanced this terrorism through Hugo Chavez and later through Maduro. They continue to support Iranian terrorism through Hezbollah and Iran's other satellites. They finance terrorism on the Brazil-Argentina-Paraguay border triangle. Venezuela is the agent for transporting terrorism from there and from the north, since Venezuela is the northernmost country in South America."

"They are responsible for the billions in terror funding and the transfer of terror elements. President Trump understood this. It isn't just a matter of drug trafficking, but also a terror machine at the US's back door, and Trump wants to send a clear message to the Iranian regime, and I think he was successful in that."

Dr. Diker also addressed claims by some in the West that Trump's decision was driven by economic considerations and a desire to take control of Venezuela's oil, which would not justify such actions against the leader of a sovereign state. "I heard such criticism over the past few days. There is a war here between the axis of evil and Venezuela, Russia, China, and Iran, which are taking control of the economic axis of evil through oil. What is preferable, that they control it, or that the United States, Saudi Arabia, and the Emiratis, who represent a stabilizing force in the global energy landscape, control it? That is the choice."

Diker also mentions that "in 1983, President Reagan raided Granada and captured Cuban military agents, in 86', the Americans attacked Libya, and, in 89', they captured Manuel Noriega, the dictator of Panama, for the same things, trafficking drugs and supporting terror, and he sat in an American prison for 17 years. So why are they criticizing Trump, who is doing the same thing as his two predecessors? It is subjective criticism like that against Netanyahu."

Diker claimed that Barack Obama and Joe Biden's policies led to the growth of global terror and its spread from Syria and Lebanon to Africa. "Obama gave a billion dollars in cash to the Ayatollah in Iran. How did that help us?" he wonders.

Dr. Diker insists that there is a direct connection to Venezuela. Hezbollah is a leading drug trafficker and runs drug, cigarette, vehicle, and oil businesses in Venezuela. "There is a full partnership between the two. The United States must do good public diplomacy to explain it to the American people. People are unaware of the danger that Venezuela poses to the US."

"A percentage of oil that Venezuela exports to China, and here they are hurting that ability. America wants to take 80.5 trillion dollars out of the ground in Venezuela, which is proud to be part of the Axis of Evil," says Diker, and adds the impact of the American operation in Venezuela on the protesters in Tehran who are encouraged by it in their fight against the Ayatollahs in Iran.

It was Cubans who guarded him. 32 of Maduro's Cuban Security Force Guards were killed during Maduro’s capture.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/420437