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Hezbollah’s growing foothold in Latin America has found its epicenter in Venezuela, where U.S. lawmakers and former counterterror officials say the Maduro regime has turned the country into a safe haven for one of the world’s most dangerous terrorist groups — giving it access to drug trafficking routes, forged documents and a gateway to the Western Hemisphere.
At a Senate Caucus on International Counternarcotics Control hearing this week, both Republican and Democratic senators warned that Hezbollah’s integration into Latin America’s criminal underworld — once concentrated in Colombia and the tri-border region — has now taken root under Venezuela’s protection.
Witnesses described an illicit web of narcotics, money laundering, and passport-for-terrorist schemes that have flourished with state sponsorship, turning Venezuela into what one expert called the “most important facilitator for Hezbollah in Latin America.”
“Venezuela is a willing safe haven for what remains the most lethal, dangerous foreign terrorist organization to the United States,” said Marshall Billingslea, a former senior Treasury official.
Hezbollah’s growing foothold in Latin America has found its epicenter in Venezuela, where U.S. lawmakers and former counterterror officials say the Maduro regime has turned the country into a safe haven for one of the world’s most dangerous terrorist groups. (AFP via Getty Images)
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, both warned that Hezbollah’s 50-year presence in Latin America now poses a hemispheric threat requiring coordinated U.S. action.
Sales urged more Latin American nations — especially Brazil and Mexico — to designate Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization.
The bipartisan tone, rare in today’s Congress, underscored what lawmakers called a clear and present danger: a sanctioned regime in America’s backyard providing cover to a global terror…
