The new wave of leftist governments in Latin America, along with an increasingly brazen posture from Tehran has given Iran and its proxy terrorist groups a favorable environment to mingle with organized crime, cross borders with impunity, and engage in more direct state-to-state exchanges, analysts say.

“There's always been a certain level of, not only networks, but also influence by both Hezbollah and behind Hezbollah, Iran, in the region," said Evan Ellis, a former State Department official and research professor of Latin American studies at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute.

"That increased with respect to the state-to-state Iranian engagement largely through populist actors in the mid-2000s, with a new crop of leftist populist leaders: Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales in Bolivia, and certainly Rafael Correa in Ecuador, among others."

This movement includes the recent reported entry of Iran and Hezbollah agents into the region through Venezuela, as evidenced by a 2022 incident in which a plane was grounded and seized in Argentina upon request of the United States. The state-owned aircraft had five Iranian nationals on board. Paraguay officials and others claimed they were linked to the Quds Force, which is designated a terrorist organization by the United States. Argentina denied reports that crew members were linked to Quds.

The seizure coincided with the return to the region of many of the same populist actors. “Essentially, you're taking Quds Forces operatives and Hezbollah-affiliated personnel around the region," Mr. Ellis said.

"In recent months what you've seen also is a broadening of that Iranian engagement with a trip to Nicaragua to talk about oil deals. And more recently, a three nation trip by President [Ebrahim] Raisi, accompanied by several ministers, including his defense minister, to Venezuela, as well as to Nicaragua and to Cuba, where several deals were signed in each place.”

The Iranian links in the region have become more apparent amid the Israel–Hamas war. On. Nov. 8, two alleged Hezbollah operatives were arrested in Brazil for planning attacks in the country. And warnings of a terror threat to the United States have increased, particularly in relation to its porous southern border.

Chile and Colombia, both with newly-elected leftist administrations, recalled their ambassadors to Israel on Oct. 31 and criticized the Jewish country’s offensive against Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists.

Bolivia severed diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv on the same day—the country had signed an agreement with Iran in July to strengthen “defense and security cooperation.” At the time, Iran’s Defense Minister said Latin American nations occupied a “special place in Iran’s strategic outlook,” and that the cooperation with Bolivia could be modeled by more countries in the region.

Carlos Berzaín, Bolivia’s former minister of defense and now head of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy, said every Latin American country being ruled under ‘21st century socialism’ is "publicly converted into an enemy of the United States—adopting the rhetoric Cuba has had for almost 65 years—with very grave political and security consequences.”

The term “21st century socialism” is commonly used by Venezuela’s socialist dictatorship and others to characterize their ideology.

Mr. Berzaín said his homeland is an example of one of the countries reclaimed by socialists (in late 2020) after a brief stint with the opposition in power.

“Today, Bolivia, as a dictatorship, is dependent upon the leadership of Cuba's dictatorship, and its foreign policy shows it," he told the Epoch Times.

"It is at the service of other dictatorial regimes like Iran, Russia, and China with which there is no traditional or legitimate interest in the type of relations they maintain. Those are founded on corruption … on Bolivia's condition as a narco-state, and on favoring crimes such as terrorism with an ‘anti-imperialist’ rhetoric.”

Leading Iran analyst Emanuele Ottolenghi, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Foundation for the Defence of Democracy, said terrorist networks have grown.

“In Brazil, the sympathetic government of Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva has allowed Hezbollah and Iranian fronts to quietly expand with little risk of scrutiny from authorities," Mr. Ottolenghi wrote in an Oct. 28 article.

"In Chile, with a strong and radicalized Palestinian diaspora, Iranian agents and Hezbollah networks have infiltrated government, media, and academia, in addition to running illicit financial networks.”

Iran and its proxies’ long and widespread activity in Latin America further increases concerns about a welcoming political environment.

Terrorist group Hezbollah has played a prominent role in the region. U.S. officials estimate Iran gives the group hundreds of millions of dollars annually, weapons, and more.

“For decades, Hezbollah has patiently built a global web of networks, engaged in illicit financial activities, and supported terrorist plots,“ Mr. Ottolenghi wrote.

He said most countries in the region don’t consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization, making it harder to monitor and curb its activities.

“Because of its decades-long involvement with organized crime—a critical component of Hezbollah’s funding strategy—the group has extensive connections with local crime syndicates," Mr. Ottolenghi said.

"These connections provide access to weapons, explosives, counterfeiting, and most critically, corrupt public officials in key positions at migrations, customs, and ports of entry.”

In recent years, several Hezbollah-connected arrests have been made in Latin America.

"In 2017, U.S. authorities arrested Samer el Debek, another Hezbollah agent, who, court documents reveal, had scouted potential targets that included the Israeli and U.S. embassies in Panama, as well as the Panama Canal," Mr. Ottolenghi said.

"In 2021, Hezbollah operatives attempted to assassinate U.S. and Israeli nationals in Colombia."

Despite the handful of arrests, Iran and proxy Hezbollah’s activity is ongoing in the region and remains largely “undisturbed,” Mr. Ottolenghi said.

Complicity and Close Ties

The enabling of illegal activity by Latin American leftist governments and their direct criminal engagement with Iran have been extensively reported.

Key state actors have facilitated transnational terrorist activity by providing criminals, who are wanted by Interpol, transport on state-run airlines as well as real passports with fake names.

"The speed and ease with which Hezbollah operatives are able to secure false documentation in Latin America should not come as a surprise," stated Matthew Levitt in a 2013 House Homeland Security hearing. At the time, Mr. Levitt was the counterterrorism and intelligence director at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

"According to Israeli intelligence, the use of such passports by Hezbollah operatives is widespread, and the documents are used by the organization's activists in their travels all over the world.''

State enablers include former president Hugo Chávez and his successor, incumbent Nicolás Maduro, previously the Minister of Foreign Relations, according to former Venezuelan officials and intelligence reports.

Former staff member of the Venezuelan embassy in Iraq, Misael Lopez, went public in 2017 denouncing a passport- and visa-for-sale scheme based out of the embassy in Caracas, which he told CNN was widespread and state sanctioned.

Mr. Lopez cooperated with a CNN investigation that had access to a classified intelligence document linking former Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami to 173 Venezuelan passports and ID’s that were issued to individuals from the Middle East. The investigation revealed that it included people connected to Hezbollah.

Former Venezuelan intelligence officials also claim Mr. El Aissami recruited agents for Hezbollah and worked to expand its spying and trafficking networks in Latin America, according to a New York Times report.

In 2021, the Israel Hayom newspaper published information hacked from Venezuela’s Military Counter Intelligence Agency that the Maduro regime was sheltering Hezbollah operatives involved in drug and arms trafficking, money laundering, and more to fund terrorism.

Symbolizing the depth of Iranian influence in the country, an academic center in Venezuela's capital Caracas was named after Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani—an Iranian terrorist killed in Baghdad in 2020 by order of former President Donald Trump.

Similar ties are being built with Bolivia, according to Mr. Berzaín.

“[Bolivian President Luis] Arce has ... signed a military agreement that makes Bolivia the platform of terrorism for the Southern Cone due to its geopolitical position," he said, referring to the southern half of South America, comprising Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and part of Brazil.

"There have been accusations of Iranians identifying with Bolivian passports for a long time. Iranian participation today is active and growing," he said.

Mr. Berzaín said President Arce is continuing the work of his mentor, former socialist president Evo Morales.

“In Bolivia, Morales granted trade areas to Iran, licensed a television channel and other media, and allowed cultural and religious penetration," Mr. Berzaín said. He said Bolivia's Alba Anti-Imperialist School invited Iran's Ahmad Vahidi to the inauguration, who was alleged to have been involved in the AMIA bombing.

An Iranian propaganda channel, "Hispan TV," broadcasts in Spanish to many countries in the region including Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Chile according to its website.

Mr. Berzaín said “governments working to serve dictatorships” such as Iran include Mexico under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Chile under President Gabriel Boric, Colombia under President Gustavo Petro and Brazil under President Lula da Silva.

“Their reaction ... to the terrorist attacks of Hamas against Israel show their regard, and their commitment to terrorism with all their alibis and pretext," Mr. Berzaín said.

Brazil's minister of foreign relations under former President Jair Bolsonaro, Ernesto Araújo, said, “Iran is a long time partner of Chavez’s Venezuela and Morales’s Bolivia."

"Every time a new country turns to that same branch of socialism, which is narco-socialism, it immediately becomes a close partner of Iran,” Mr. Araújo told The Epoch Times.

In Brazil, an operation to arrest Mr. Rabbani, by then considered a leading Iranian terrorist, was planned but failed, according to official sources who spoke to Brazilian magazine, Veja. Around 2008—during a previous Lula da Silva administration—Mr. Rabbani was visiting the country, but it took too long for Brazil’s federal police to get the operation authorized, which allowed Mr. Rabbani to escape, the report said.

He possibly entered the country after taking a state-operated flight from Venezuela with a classified passenger list carrying Caracas-provided fake documentation, according to the magazine. The late authorization was due to a “complicated discussion on the political convenience of arresting him,” the Veja report said.

In 2021, when the UK designated Hamas as a terrorist organization, 20 Brazilian congressmen signed a letter in support of Hamas.

The Brazilian lawmakers claimed that “resistance is not terrorism” and they pledged their “support and solidarity” to Palestinians' “cause of liberation.”

Ten of the lawmakers were from President Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party and two of them are now ministers in the Lula administration. Others are from peripheral hard-left parties, including the Communist Party of Brazil, now part of the governing coalition.

Hamas seemed to take note. The group celebrated President Lula da Silva’s election in late 2022 and called him a "freedom fighter" in a published message of support.

“The Iranians certainly realized how much they have to gain from association with South American crime— through crime-friendly governments,” Mr. Araújo said.

In February, sanctioned Iranian warships docked in Rio de Janeiro. Then, on Nov. 10, one of the suspects investigated in Brazil for planning terror attacks confessed to being recruited by Hezbollah, but was released from custody, according to Jornal Nacional, a Brazilian TV station.

The São Paulo Forum

Mr. Berzaín said two America's emerged in the 21st century, "one democratic and the other dictatorial."

"The dictatorial one conspires and continuously attacks the democratic one, which remains passive and defenseless, allowing the existence and expansion of dictatorships," he said.

One operational arm is the São Paulo Forum, which was created in 1990 by Brazil’s da Silva and Cuba’s Fidel Castro to push forward socialism in the region. The group united narco-terrorist groups including Colombia's FARC, social movements, and government administrations.

FARC members said in a since-deleted 2007 letter to a São Paulo Forum meeting, that the Forum worked as a “lifeline” for the communist cause and a “formidable proposal.” The Forum is active to this day and coordinates hundreds of left-wing organizations.

“Regimes belonging to the São Paulo Forum can facilitate money laundering, logistics bases near the United States, fake passports and circulate personnel, and access other resources necessary for Hezbollah—as well as diplomatic cover for Iran.” Mr. Araújo said.

China’s Game

“Iran has served as a spearhead for China and Russia in the region,” Paulo Henrique Araújo, Brazilian author and São Paulo Forum researcher told the Epoch Times.

China’s role in enabling Iranian-backed terrorism gained increased attention after the two countries signed a 25-year strategic cooperation agreement in 2021 and violated oil sanctions. The U.S. seized nearly 1 million Iranian oil barrels on Sept. 8, allegedly bound for China.

Beijing has loaned billions of dollars to Venezuela—a key entry point for Iranian penetration in Latin America, according to experts.

Fifteen current and former Venezuela’s leaders were indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2020 for a “narco-terrorsim conspiracy” to “flood” the United States with narcotics.

Propping up authoritarianism and criminal activity to create turmoil and draw Washington’s attention has been part of China’s strategy for Latin America, according to reports and court documents.

China, Russia, and Iran “actively seek to take advantage of the nascent, fragile democracies in this region and look to exploit the region’s resources and proximity to the United States," former Southern Command Commander, Admiral Craig Faller told Congress in 2021.

Maj. Gen. Evan Pettus said the Chinese Communist Party has "strategically positioned" itself in the region.

Beijing now has "a significant degree of leverage over the region, thereby endangering democratic sovereignty and U.S. interests” he wrote in an Oct. 5 article published by the U.S. Air Combat Command.

According to Paulo Henrique, China, Russia, and Iran, in collaboration with leftist administrations in South America, intend to "de-legitimize [multilateral] organizations and replace them. And first is the OAS. They mean to void the OAS and replace it with CELAC.”

CELAC, the Community of Latin-American and Caribbean States, is a regional bloc of 33 member states. It was created In Venezuela with broad involvement of São Paulo Forum parties.

Former President Bolsonaro suspended Brazil's participation in CELAC, however President da Silva rejoined after returning to office this year.

"In the 2021 CELAC meeting in Mexico you had Maduro celebrated and China received as a guest of honor—the one to really influence political, ideological, economic, diplomatic and other efforts, instead of the U.S,” said Paulo Henrique.

This year, China, Brazil, and Russia have worked to include Iran into a new wave of countries joining BRICS, an organization previously seen as a mostly economic and loose group of developing countries, but which has become a stronger geopolitical alliance amid increasing tensions with the United States.

Joining BRICS will give Iran “increased legitimacy” and “more trade with growing economies,” according to commentary published on the U.S.-based Stimson Center website.

Correction: The article has been updated to include the correct terrorist group (Colombia's FARC) involved in the Sao Paulo forum. The Epoch Times regrets the error.