Senior U.S. officials are increasingly pointing out Iran’s and Hezbollah’s role in Latin America and Venezuela as a threat to the hemisphere and the United States.
On February 7, the commander of U.S. Southern Command, Navy Admiral Craig Faller in his testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington said, ““Iran has deepened its anti-U.S. Spanish language media coverage and has exported its state support for terrorism into our hemisphere.”
This came a day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in an interview with Fox Business drew attention to the role of Cuba and Iran in Venezuela.
“People don’t recognize that Hezbollah has active cells – the Iranians are impacting the people of Venezuela and throughout South America,” he said Wednesday. “We have an obligation to take down that risk for America.”
Pompeo added that this issue will be discussed in a Mideast conference scheduled for February 13-14 in Warsaw, Poland, which is aimed at galvanizing support for containing Iran and its influence in the region.