If you thought that Hezbollah was just Israel’s problem, think again. Iran’s proxy and Iran are well established in America’s southern neighbor countries, and, without intervention by the United States, they are there to stay. A tropical islet in northeast Venezuela called Margarita Island – also known as Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s “Terror Island” – is a safe haven for Hezbollah and Iranian operatives. They move freely, participating in narco-terrorism, human trafficking, money laundering, terrorist training, and arms trafficking.
What goes on at Margarita Island is just a microcosm of the larger influence Hezbollah and Iran are exerting in Venezuela and other Central and South American countries. Furthermore, it’s been going on for nearly four decades.
Hezbollah Is a Transnational Criminal Organization
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was not wrong when he asserted that transnational terrorist criminal organizations were the greatest threat to the United States in the Western Hemisphere. In fact, if anything, Rubio understated the menace.
In a July 2009 report, Reuters revealed, “Dorit Shavit, head of Latin America and Caribbean affairs at the Israeli foreign ministry, told Colombian newspaper El Tiempo that the presence of Hezbollah had increased in recent years in Venezuela’s northwestern Guajira region and on the Caribbean island of Margarita.” Though the Hugo Chavez regime at the time denied the presence of Hezbollah in Venezuela, Israel has consistently maintained close surveillance and offered a more believable story. As we understand now, the Israeli account was true 16 years ago, and in 2025, Iran’s terrorist proxy Hezbollah is more entrenched.
To provide a better understanding of Hezbollah’s history in the Americas, former US Treasury Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes Marshall Billingslea testified before the US Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, shedding light on Hezbollah’s legacy over the years. He explained, “Its first terrorist attacks outside the Middle East were in Argentina, with the bombings in 1992 and 1994 against the Israeli Embassy and the Argentine Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, which killed 114 people and injured many hundreds.” Billingslea went on to say, “[O]ver the past three decades, Hizballah’s [sic] ‘Unit 910’ – the so-called External Security Organization – has steadily built up its infrastructure across Latin America.”
In recognition of the anniversary of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, President Donald Trump announced his “Trump Corollary,” asserting, “Today, my Administration proudly reaffirms this promise under a new ‘Trump Corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine: That the American people — not foreign nations nor globalist institutions — will always control their own destiny in our hemisphere.” For Trump, the proclamation of expanded sovereignty made clear that the United States would take a special interest in what goes on in the Western Hemisphere. That means dealing with a terrorist organization such as Hezbollah.
Recent reports describe Hezbollah, supported by Iran, as having established a substantial operational presence over the years in Venezuela and particularly on Margarita Island. “It is close to Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada, in an oil-rich part of the Caribbean along key maritime routes, and it has long had a reputation for being a major drug-trafficking hub, possibly because it’s off the mainland, and there’s not a lot of law enforcement there,” Melissa Ford Maldonado, director of the Western Hemisphere Initiative at the America First Policy Institute, told Fox News Digital.
In a 2020 Issue Brief released by the Atlantic Council titled “The Maduro-Hezbollah Nexus: How Iran-backed Networks Prop Up the Venezuelan Regime,” Joseph M. Humire wrote:
“In October 2018, the Justice Department elevated Hezbollah’s status in the United States by listing it as one of the top five transnational criminal organizations. Naming Hezbollah alongside three major Mexican cartels and the Central American gang MS-13 was a wake-up call for Latin America to realize that, in today’s age, Hezbollah is equal to the cartels in organized crime and terror.”
A 2019 RAND Corporation commentary titled “Hezbollah Is in Venezuela to Stay” described a terrorist organization that has put down roots not only in Venezuela but also in adjoining countries. Hezbollah and, by extension, Iran have been and are now creating a transnational criminal enterprise that is not just in Venezuela. “Hezbollah has long maintained a presence in Latin America, especially in the infamous Tri-Border Area, a semi-lawless region where Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil converge,” RAND explained. Furthermore, the RAND report also used the word “entrenched” when describing Hezbollah’s footprint in Venezuela.
Venezuela should be designated a state sponsor of terrorism, which allows the United States to treat the country as a military threat actively seeking to harm America. President Trump has hinted at taking the fight beyond narco-terrorists, using fast boats to move deadly drugs to a land attack. The terrorist training camps on Margarita would be a good start.
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliate.
