The launch of a direct shipping route between Iran and Venezuela is part of the agreements between Tehran and Caracas to circumvent U.S. sanctions imposed on both countries, Iran Front Page news site reported.
By Dialogo Américas – Julieta Pelcastre
May 03, 2023
Since February, when the shipping route was launched, two ships with “Iranian products” have arrived at Venezuelan ports, the Iranian site reported. The agreement stipulates that a ship will sail from Iranian shores bound to Venezuela every three months. A third ship is scheduled to leave in May, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.
“You never really know if these [Iranian] announcements have to do with very concrete things or simply have the sole objective of showing […] on a global level and to its own population that it [Iran] is a world actor,” Paulo Botta, director of the executive program on Contemporary Middle East at the Catholic University of Argentina, told Diálogo on March 31.
Among the goods and products that have made it on the direct shipping route to Caracas were automobiles from Iran’s two largest automakers, Iran Khodro and Saipa, Venezuela-based news network TeleSUR reported. In June 2022, both countries signed a 20-year partnership agreement in areas such as mining, oil, gas, and energy.
“Neither Venezuela nor Iran are relevant economies in the world. In addition, they have a huge amount of problems, each due to mismanagement and very high levels of corruption,” Botta said. “Iran, when it sees countries like Venezuela, sees them in terms of funds or resources […] to continue to survive.”
In 2022, Iranian Ambassador to Venezuela Hojatollah Soltani described the direct shipping route as a “missing link” between the two regimes, Safety4sea, a U.S.-based platform that focuses on sustainable shipping, reported. Iran is prepared to use heavy ships to expand shipments to Caracas, IRNA reported.
“The same thing happened with direct flights between Tehran and Caracas. They sell it themselves as if it were substantial,” Botta said. “What Iran is doing, especially with Venezuela, is reaching countries in the region that it would not otherwise be able to reach.”
Increased complexity
Iran has greatly contributed to the growth of organized crime in Latin America. For more than two decades the Iranian-sponsored terrorist group Hezbollah has been operating in the Triple Frontier, which consists of the tri-border region among Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, as part of illicit economies to finance the group’s operations in other parts of the world, reported Mexican daily El Heraldo.
Hezbollah’s External Security Organization is active in Venezuela through a support network made up of the Nicolás Maduro regime’s illicit economy (drugs, gold, weapons, contraband, etc.), which strengthens the terrorist group’s global movement of funds, people, products, and illicit materials, the Washington, D.C.-based security think tank Center for a Secure Free Society indicated in a report.
“The same networks that Hezbollah uses to launder assets for large organized crime syndicates are used to provide logistics for other activities, such as planning attacks,” Emmanuele Ottolenghi, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Argentine news site Infobae.
“The problem is not only Iran and Hezbollah, but all those structures that are too permeable, corrupt, that are used by everyone, including Hezbollah and Iran, and some countries like Russia,” Botta said. “This is much more complex and much more widespread, in a region where criminal networks are tremendously active.”
Strengthening ties
To gain greater influence in the world Iran is looking to Latin America. Between February 26 and March 3, two warships of the Iranian Navy — sanctioned by the United States — docked in the port of Rio de Janeiro to showcase Iran’s growing military and naval power, CNN reported.
In January, Tehran announced that its Navy would send ships to cross the Panama Canal for the first time later in the year as a move to extend its maritime reach, Spanish daily ABC reported. In a late 2022 report, the research institute Wilson Center highlighted that Iran has been sanctioned repeatedly for its malign behavior, such as promoting terrorism.
In June 2022, the Bolivarian regime also took delivery of the second Iranian-made tanker for the fleet of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA. The ship is part of an agreement between both regimes for four tankers, the Venezuelan regime indicated in a statement.
The Iran-Caracas axis also promotes all kinds of opaque transnational businesses, including illegal mining and blood gold, Infobae reported. The Iranian presence brings nothing positive for the Latin American peoples. It seeks to empower dictators and engage in high-voltage geopolitics, the Argentine publication said.
“What we have to do is to strengthen the links between the responsible protagonists in the region, taking into account that certain actors are not going to change their behavior, such as Venezuela and Nicaragua,” Botta said. “If the countries of the region are really interested in improving and collaborating for regional security they must do it together — it’s fundamental.”
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