After Hamas’ savage October 2023 assault on Israel which claimed 1,200 lives, mostly civilians, Hezbollah ramped up its confrontational posture, sparking fears of further terror attacks. The militant Lebanese political group, for decades, has acted as a powerful proxy actor for Iran’s theocratic regime. Hezbollah, which the U.S. designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997, earned a menacing reputation for bombing civilian targets and involvement in a host of criminal activities, notably narcotics and arms trafficking as well as money laundering. Hezbollah’s sizable but overlooked presence in Latin America poses significant risks. It gives the militants access to lucrative illicit economies along with the ability to strike soft targets in a region lacking robust counter-terrorism capabilities. In the wake of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s fraudulent electoral victory, Hezbollah will expand its South American presence as Iran ramps up support for the murderous regime to counter stricter U.S. sanctions.
Hezbollah participates in a host of criminal and terrorist activities across Latin America. Among the Shiite militant’s most notorious terrorist attacks in the region is the 1992 suicide bombing of Israel’s Embassy in Buenos Aires Argentina, where nine embassy personnel and scores of civilians were killed. Then there was the 1994 attack on Buenos Aires’s AMIA Jewish community center where a suicide bomber claimed 85 lives and left hundreds injured, making it Argentina’s deadliest-ever terrorist attack. It is speculated that Hezbollah, along with Brazilian organized crime groups (Spanish), masterminded the May 2022 murder of Paraguayan organized crime prosecutor Marcelo Pecci while he was holidaying in Cartagena Colombia. Brazilian authorities, in cooperation with Israeli intelligence, recently uncovered a Hezbollah network that was planning to attack Jewish targets in Latin America’s largest country.
Those events underscore the sophisticated nature of Hezbollah’s South American networks and the destabilizing influence they inflict on a politically volatile and vulnerable region. For decades, allegations have swirled over Hezbollah’s operation of training camps in South America and deep involvement in the continent’s cocaine trade, particularly in the Tri-State area a globally recognized hub for illicit economies. Over the last 20 years criminal activities, especially cocaine trafficking and money laundering have emerged as key sources of income for Hezbollah. It is inevitable that the Shiite militia would engage in such a lucrative activity with a global market valued at north of $100 billion annually. As a result, it is believed that Hezbollah has emerged as a major player in Europe’s cocaine trade which is valued at up to $12 billion each year. Estimates vary but cocaine smuggling is thought to generate up to three hundred million dollars annually for Hezbollah. This makes narcotics trafficking the second largest source of revenue for the Lebanese militia which is only surpassed by Teheran’s funding believed to be worth $700 million annually.
South America’s lawless Tri-Border area was at the center of Hezbollah’s criminal network for decades, but the rapidly growing importance of cocaine trafficking for its finances saw the terrorists expand into South America’s Northern Andean countries of Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. You see, strife-torn Colombia is the world’s largest cocaine producer, while Venezuela and Ecuador are key international transshipment hubs. The dismantling of Hezbollah’s narcotics and money laundering networks in the Tri-Border area by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) incentivized the militants to relocate the center of operations to Northern South America. This was given further momentum by lawlessness in Colombia, which is locked in a multi-decade low-level asymmetric conflict, and Venezuela, where Hugo Chavez’s 1999 Bolivarian revolution triggered democratic backsliding and widespread corruption.
The large Lebanese and Shiite Muslim diasporas in Colombia and Venezuela provide readily exploitable communities for Hezbollah to infiltrate. The radical Lebanese Shiite militants do this by leveraging family ties to build networks of legitimate and illicit businesses which are used to generate income and launder the proceeds of crime to fund operations in the Middle East. Colombia, as the world’s largest cocaine producer, is particularly important to Hezbollah because the Andean country’s long history of weak central governments and lawlessness has allowed illegal armed groups to flourish. The tremendous profits generated by cocaine production are responsible for financing Colombia’s nearly 70-year-long low-intensity armed conflict. According to the United Nations Office On Drugs And Crime (UNODC) 2022 cocaine production hit an all-time high of 1,738 metric tons, which is a whopping 24% increase compared to 2021. This sparked fears that cocaine shipments from Colombia would outstrip oil seeing the narcotic become the Andean nation’s top export.
Soaring cocaine production is not only responsible for funding illegal armed groups that are challenging the government and soaring rural violence but also attracts the attention of transnational criminal syndicates like Hezbollah. The Lebanese militants forged connections with various Colombian illegal armed groups involved in the cocaine trade, notably the Oficina de Envigado, Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC – Spanish initials), and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC – Spanish initials). After the 2016 FARC peace accord, Hezbollah went on to forge relationships with dissident bands that rejected the deal. Colombia’s leftist guerillas for decades operated along the porous border with Venezuela, where they continue to maintain a significant presence to this day.
After Chavez assumed office and initiated his socialist Bolivarian revolution in February 1999 Caracas cultivated relationships with Colombia’s leftist FARC and National Liberation Army (ELN – Spanish initials) guerillas. The leftist regime went on to provide arms, logistical support, and safe havens in Venezuela to Colombia’s leftist guerillas. Following the 2016 peace accord, dissident FARC bands and elements of the ELN went on to expand their operations in Venezuela, notably in cocaine trafficking, extortion, and illegal gold mining, as the rule of law and government control in remote regions broke down. This allowed those illegal armed groups to operate with impunity while amassing considerable wealth and power, to the point where they provided basic public services to communities in the areas abandoned by Caracas. The Chavez regime went on to foster associations with other U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations and armed groups, notably Hezbollah.
Democratic backsliding, endemic corruption, and crumbling state institutions were responsible for spiraling lawlessness making Venezuela an attractive base of operations for Hezbollah. Chavez allowed the Lebanese militants to establish a safe haven on Margarita Island, off Venezuela’s eastern coast, and offered sanctuary to Venezuelan-based supporters of the U.S. designated terrorist organization. By 2010, U.S. officials estimated there were Hezbollah training camps operating in and around Caracas administered by the Venezuelan military. Meanwhile, Venezuelans of Lebanese, Syrian, and Iranian descent were recruited for paramilitary training at Hezbollah facilities. The regime even went on to broker weapons for cocaine deals between the FARC and Hezbollah, while supplying Venezuelan passports to Hezbollah and Hamas operatives.
As ever-stricter U.S. sanctions bit deeper, Caracas became increasingly reliant upon illicit economies, notably cocaine trafficking, arms smuggling, and money laundering, to generate urgently required hard currency. The growth of illegal activities in Venezuela was further facilitated by the Chavez regime’s endemic corruption, centralized authority, and cronyism which saw the pariah state emerge as an important transshipment point for cocaine trafficking. According to the DEA, almost a quarter of global cocaine production passes through Venezuela. It is estimated around 16% of Venezuela’s gross domestic product (GDP) (Spanish) is generated by illicit economies, highlighting Caracas’ dependence on illegal activities in an economy that has shrunk by over 60% since Maduro took power in 2013.
The Maduro regime’s dependence on income from illicit economies and support from Hezbollah’s main benefactor Iran has created a fertile environment for the Lebanese to expand their presence in Venezuela. Hezbollah has already formed a strategic relationship with the Venezuela-based Cartel of the Suns (Cartel De Los Soles), a network of drug trafficking cells embedded in the authoritarian regime’s military forces. A key regime figure, until his fall from grace, with longstanding close ties to Hezbollah is former Vice President and Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami who is of Iraqi Lebanese descent. Venezuelan intelligence documents show El Aissami and his Syrian immigrant father, who worked with Hezbollah in Syria, recruited members and facilitated cocaine trafficking for the militant organization. During El Aissami’s time as Minister of Interior, he gave Venezuelan passports to at least 800 migrants from Middle East countries who had ties to Hezbollah. It is speculated that the autocratic regime has given up to 10,000 Venezuelan passports to citizens of Syria, Iran, and Lebanon.
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Growing international indignation at Maduro fraudulently stealing the 2024 presidential election along with the regime’s increasingly violent repression of opposition will lead to stricter sanctions against Caracas. This will force the dictatorial government to become more dependent on Iran’s support and illicit economies to generate crucial hard currency. Indeed, Teheran, itself the target of stringent U.S. sanctions, is an important source of crucial condensate and aid to Venezuela’s flailing petroleum industry which is responsible for Venezuela’s economy returning to growth. Those events will create a fertile environment for illegal armed groups to expand operations in Venezuela, with Hezbollah optimally positioned to bolster its presence, notably in cocaine trafficking and money laundering. As that takes place, it will further destabilize one of the most volatile areas in South America at a critical time with rising cocaine production fueling violence in neighboring Colombia.
By Matthew Smith for OIlprice.com
