The regimes of Iran and Venezuela signed a deal for the establishment of an Iranian drone development facility in Venezuela, the Argentine outlet Infobae reported on Friday.
Iran has maintained close ties with the Venezuelan socialist regime since the arrival to power of late dictator Hugo Chávez in 1999, who easily bonded with the rogue Islamic regime over their shared anti-U.S. stance. The relationship continued after Chávez’s death in 2013, leading to dictator Nicolás Maduro bolstering his regime’s cooperation with Iran over the past decade. In 2022, Maduro visited Tehran, signing a broad 20-year cooperation agreement with Iran.
Late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi reciprocated Maduro’s visit during a broader Latin American tour in 2023. Raisi claimed at the time that Iran and Venezuela have a “strategic relation” with “common interests, views,” and “enemies.” It is largely believed that their alliance allowed Iran’s proxy, the Shiite jihadist group Hezbollah, to expand operations throughout the region.
Infobae stated in its report this week that, according to unnamed sources, the strengthened cooperation “now includes significant military and economic cooperation that could have implications for the stability of the region.”
The outlet stated that Iran has established a drone development base at the El Libertador air base, located in the central-Venezuelan city of Maracay, where training for Venezuelan military personnel is also being carried out.
The project allegedly calls for the production and training of a “wide range” of Iranian-made drones, such as the such as the ANSU-100 (Mohajer-2), the ANSU-600 (Mohajer-6) and the ZAMORA V-1 (Shahed-131).
“These drones, designed for reconnaissance and attack missions, represent a significant technological advance in Venezuela’s military capacity, with the direct support of Tehran,” the report read.
In 2023, Iran closed a deal to sell drones to Bolivia, a country led by pro-Iran socialist President Luis Arce and described by experts as the Islamic regime’s “most successful project” in the region. The Iran-Bolivia drone agreement immediately drew fierce criticism from neighboring Argentina, a country that was the victim of two terrorist attacks committed by Iran through Hezbollah against Israeli targets in the 1990s.
Infobae stressed that the collaboration between Iran and Venezuela is not limited to the military, pointing out that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force — a U.S.-designated terrorist organization — established “an active presence” in Venezuela since at least 2020.
Other “ventures” launched by Iranian individuals linked to the IRGC since 2020 include an Iranian-owned supermarket chain in Venezuela that occupies facilities that once belonged to a privately owned Colombian supermarket chain seized by the Venezuelan socialists in the early 2010s.
“Iranian delegations, led by figures such as Mahan Air [Iranian airline linked to the IRGC] executives and other Quds Force collaborators, have held meetings with senior officials of the Venezuelan regime,” the report read. “These meetings have been aimed at strengthening economic ties between the two countries, although they have also served to generate income to finance the activities of the organization, considered terrorist by several countries.”
The Argentine outlet explained that among the joint economic activities stands the use of Mahan Air for direct flights between Caracas and Tehran. The flights, according to Infobae, have been used to transfer Venezuelan gold in exchange for Iranian oil in a scheme that violates international sanctions on both regimes.
“Subsequently, the gold would have been sold in markets in Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries, generating funds that, according to the media, were used to finance Quds Force activities,” Infobae stated.
In 2022, Argentine officials seized a cargo plane that belonged to Venezuela’s state airline Conviasa and detained its Iranian crew following a request from the U.S. Department of Justice, which determined that the plane originally belonged to Mahan Air. Although the plane was seized in 2022 during the administration of socialist former President Alberto Fernández, Nicolás Maduro blamed current President Javier Milei for “stealing” the plane and issued an arrest warrant against him and other members of his administration. Milei took office in December 2023.
Infobae stated that the return of Alex Saab — Maduro’s top money launderer and new Industries Minister — has been another factor that boosted cooperation between the two countries. Saab was released by the outgoing administration of U.S. President Joe Biden in December 2023 at a time when he was undergoing trial proceedings on charges of using the U.S. financial system to launder $350 million from Venezuela’s state coffers.
“Saab has played a key role in the consolidation of economic and strategic ties between Caracas and Tehran, facilitating agreements that have strengthened this alliance,” Infobae stated.
The Argentine outlet asserted that Iran’s ambassador to Caracas, Hojat Soltani, is in charge of coordinating “every Iranian movement in Venezuelan territory” in the fields of technology, oil, communications, and defense. Soltani reportedly centralizes and manages all related inquiries in his office, where a “great number” of Venezuelan officials stay in “permanent contact” with him.
Infobae reported elsewhere this week that Iran helped the Maduro regime cover up an oil spill caused by an “operational negligence” committed by Iranian engineers in November at one of Venezuela’s main refineries.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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