Last November, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made his seventh trip to Iran . As always, he hugged and took the hand of his dear buddy Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and strengthened furthermore bilateral relations and trading volumes with Teheran, wishing “the end of the American Empire”.
However, even though most of the media claim that the relation between Caracas and Teheran started only in 2005 with the election of Ahmadinejad, this seems not to be so true. Actually, Chavez, who seized power in December 1999, has established privileged ties with Teheran from the very beginning of his mandate.
The 19th of November, the Iranian reformist newspaper E’temad-e-Melli wrote an interesting article tracing back the links between the Islamic Republic and the Bolivarian one. “Relations between Tehran and Caracas began since the formation of the [Iranian] Reformist government”, stated the daily. Former President Muhammed Khatami has actually visited Caracas in his first term. And in 2005, Chavez presented Khatami with the Order of the Liberator – the country’s highest decoration – calling it a symbol of their strong ties.
However, Iranian dissidents state that Khatami had no interest in pursuing an alliance with Venezuela . But this was the policy of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who controls the Foreign policy.* The reasons to look after for links with Venezuela were multiple. At the time, Iran , under international pressure, was looking for new alliances particularly among the so-called non-aligned countries. In the Middle East , Iran had only Syria and Qatar , but it did not have any base close to the United States , a place from which Teheran could threaten the “imperialistic enemy”.
When, Chavez took power, he was exactly the right partner for Teheran. It may sound contradictory, as Venezuela has indeed a democratic Constitution whereas Iran has a theocratic one, and Chavez is a Communist. But the new Bolivarian leader was a revolutionary as the Iranian regime is. Furthermore, Chavez and Teheran had as a goal the “destruction” of the same enemy: the United States . Hence, already in 1999-2000 the relations between the two biggest oil producers started. Since then, the two countries gave birth to the emergence of a new worrying phenomenon that we may call Marxist-Islamism, where atheist communist ideology lives along with the Islamist one.
A witness of the starting of the Iranian-Venezuelan relations is Manuchehr Honarmand, an Iranian dissident journalist, who in 2002 was a victim of this “unholy” alliance. Honarmand is a Dutch citizen who used to write columns for the opposition daily Kayhan International, based in London . In December 2002, he decided to go to the US to expand Kayhan’s distribution and went to South America for tourism. In transit at the Caracas airport, waiting for a connecting flight, he was approached before by two Iranians, who asked him information about himself, and soon after by two uniformed Venezuelan policemen.
They cuffed his hands and he was brought to an office behind the transit area. Then the Venezuelan police beat him and forced him to sign papers in Spanish, which he was unable to understand. Few hours later, Honarmand found himself in a dark cell in Caracas , charged with no evidence of drugs’ transport in a suitcase. And for the first few months, the Venezuelan authority refused to allow him to contact the Dutch Embassy. The Venezuelan National Guard report stated that the suitcase was found with a Copa Airlines (A South American Company) luggage tag, while Honarmand was traveling on a KLM flight.
Honarmand was robbed of his luggage and money and his papers and his Dutch passport were confiscated. While he was in jail, he tried to contact Houshang Vaziri, his editor in chief, who assured him support. But Vaziri disappeared and was found dead in Paris . Honarmand was freed only in 2005, thank to the Dutch government’s pressures. Now he lives in Holland , but that experience has marked his life as a human being and as a journalist. After his release, he has devoted much of his work to gather information about the nature of the ties between Teheran and Caracas .
Honarmand found out that Iranian officials are present in every sector of the economy. And according to an article, which appeared in the Iranian newspaper Entehab on December 8, Teheran has actually been engaged in proselytizing to the poorest sectors of Venezuelan society.
Furthermore, Iran ’s manus longa, Hezbollah, are also reported to be openly acting throughout Venezuela . However, according to the US State Department, Hezbollah members are active not only in Venezuela but in all South America , particularly in the Tri-Border area where the frontiers of Argentina , Brazil and Paraguay merge.
But on October 23, 2006 , two explosive devices were found near the U.S. Embassy in Caracas , Venezuela . One of the bombs was found in a box containing leaflets making reference to Hezbollah.
According to the Venezuelan daily El Sol De Margarita, Venezuelan police in connection with the bombs detained a man, Jose Miguel Rojas Espinoza, a student of the state-run Bolivarian University founded by Chavez. Furthermore, Hezbollah seems to be active on the Venezuelan side of the Guajira Peninsula , on the north coast of Colombia and Venezuela , within the pastoral tribe of Wayuu. A website presenting itself as “Hezbollah Venezuela , Wayuu Islamic Autonomy” became active through the following link: http://groups.msn.com/autonomiaislamicawayuu.
Recently, relations between Caracas and Teheran further developed. During last Chavez’s November trip to Teheran, he and Ahmadinejad decided, that in order for the two countries to enjoy even better relations, to launch direct flights between Caracas and Teheran. However, according to comments in the Iranian famous blog Jomhour Iran , part of the Iranian population seems unhappy about the two country alliance. The Iran regime has made huge investments in Venezuela – in the order of two billions dollars – creating discontent among the Iranian people, who need internal investments, to cross the poverty line.
But Chavez is too important an ally. According to the Iranian newspaper E’temad-e Melli, thanks to his charismatic personality and Venezuela ’s oil production and economical influence, he paved for Iran political relations with Socialist-Marxist South American countries. According to the Washington Post, Chavez has encouraged his ally, Bolivian Socialist President Evo Morales, to open diplomatic relations with Iran and solidify an “anti-imperialist bloc” of energy producers. Last September, Ahmadinejad visited Morales and the two countries signed a five-year industrial cooperation plan with a one billion dollars investment as well as a 100 million dollar plan to jointly develop technology and trade.
E’temad-e Melli informs also that relations with Nicaragua , lead by Sandinista President Daniel Ortega, and Ecuador , lead by Chavez’s personal friend President Rafael Correa, are developing. In exchange, Iran has received support from the above Latin American countries against sanctions in the UN.
Chavez was recently defeated during the Constitutional referendum in Venezuela , but he immediately took the offensive, insisting he was “not finished” with his Revolution for Venezuela . On December 10 , Venezuelans have actually began their work week at a new hour after President Hugo Chavez ordered the setting of clocks half an hour back, creating a new time zone unique to the South American country. Chavez claimed that the existing time zones are an “imperialist” creation.
In the mean time, Chavez announced his willingness to start a nuclear program for peaceful purposes, worrying US lawmakers. And he launched the Bank of the South (along with Argentina , Brazil , Paraguay , Ecuador and Bolivia ) as an alternative to the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank.
According to the Venezuelan media, Chavez has made the bank part of a strategy to weaken U.S. influence in the region. But for that, he knows that he can count on Ahmadinejad, who said to be ready to spend billions of dollars (or euros) to finance Chavez’s projects to help thwart US domination.
Dr. Roberto Barducci has been working for thirty years as development projects manager in the Middle East and North Africa for International organizations. His op-eds appear regularly in the Italian Democratic Party daily, Europa Quotidiano.
* In his weblog, Khatami’s deputy, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, had this to say about Chavez recent defeat:
“Chavez and TV
I read somewhere that Mr. Chavez, the new friend of Iranian government, gives lecture to his countryment forty hours a week on averages.
I think if he had talked less, his situation in Venezuela would not be so awful to get such a negative reply from his people on the issue of changing constitution..”