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Venezuela was once South America‘s wealthiest country, and Latin America‘s most stable democracy. Today, 96% of Venezuelans are living in poverty. The country has been hijacked by a criminal dictatorship, and is used as an international hub for drug trafficking, money laundering, illegal gold mining, and political interference from foreign actors. While the country remains stuck in a political impasse, the situation remains underreported by major media outlets. This leaves fringe organizations free to capitalize on a lack of information to manipulate perceptions of the Venezuelan crisis through clever disinformation. This podcast seeks to right this wrong by revealing the truth to the world as the only active English-language podcast on Venezuela. Join host Rafael as he discusses with journalists, academics, and Venezuelan activists who share their research and personal stories to reveal the hidden depths of one of the greatest ongoing humanitarian crises in the world.
Episodes
Tuesday Aug 11, 2020
Ep. 6 | The Iran-Hezbollah-Venezuela Nexus (with Joseph Humire)
Tuesday Aug 11, 2020
Tuesday Aug 11, 2020
In this episode, we turn our attention back to the subject of foreign interference in Venezuela, and set our sights on the actors that compose the Middle Eastern origin of the Venezuelan crisis: Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah.
Hezbollah, a political party in Lebanon whose militant wing is designated as a terrorist organization by a number of countries abroad, has a deeply rooted history in Latin America through diaspora communities that are co-opted by the group to minimize the exposure or detection of its illicit activity in the region.
Apart from its expressed explicit support for Nicolás Maduro’s illegitimate dictatorship, international investigations have uncovered links between the Hezbollah and Venezuela dating back to the Hugo Chávez presidency. These links include include the delivery of thousands of counterfeit Venezuelan passports and visas to Hezbollah affiliates by Venezuelan immigration authorities. Meanwhile, Hezbollah is largely funded by Iran, a regime that has been gradually creating an entry point into Latin America through Venezuela over the past fifteen years.
In this episode, we’re joined by global security expert Joseph Humire, Executive Director of the Center for a Secure and Free Society, a national security think tank that specializes in trans-regional threats in the Western Hemisphere. Joseph testifies frequently before the U.S. Congress on national security issues and before other bodies of parliament in Europe and the Americas. He’s a regular national security commentator on English and Spanish language news outlets, and has been following Iran’s growing presence in Latin America very closely over the past several years.
Included among the many topics we discuss in this episode are Turkey’s growing support for the Maduro regime, as well as the role of Colombian businessman Alex Saab, Maduro’s primary money launderer, a regime partner in an uncovered food-for-gold scheme, and a key player in the emerging Hezbollah-Venezuela relationship.
Read more from Joseph Humire and the SFS:
Iran, Turkey, and Venezuela’s Super Facilitator: Who is Alex Saab?
Donate here for Beirut, Lebanon:
Comments (3)
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Great inside and very well explained!
Thursday Aug 13, 2020
...predict and neutralize the regime's strategy. It would require the participation and lead of the US, Israel and other countries and organizations. A person like Joseph Humire would really be an important piece of this situation or crisis room.
Tuesday Aug 11, 2020
Rafael and Joseph. Excellent interview. As a Venezuelan, I really appreciate your work and the knowledge and involvement of Joseph on the Venezuelan crisis. His explanation on the Venezuelan regime is valuable. Just as he said, the Venezuelan regime center of gravity is having an organization to lie and deceit any one and any country. The best way to fight it with the same tools: having an organization that works like a situation room with all the intelligence and capabilities to analyze...
Tuesday Aug 11, 2020
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