According to the Miami Herald, 10 Dec 2011, Jose Azel: “Iran is an increasingly important politico-economic player in Latin America. Its influence transcends geography, language, culture and religion. At the heart of this growing Iranian influence is a peculiar trilateral political configuration with Cuba and Venezuela. The basis of this eccentric alignment is not East-West political philosophy, or a coalition based on congruent economic models, or North-South ideological affinity.”
According to Azel: “Even more perplexing, it is a strategic alliance that transcends profound theological differences. What, then, brings together Fidel Castro, a Marxist-Leninist atheist; Hugo Chávez, a putative socialist Christian; and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a product of Islamic fundamentalism? What allows the Iranian theocracy, so removed from Latin America by ethnicity, customs and values, to play an increasingly influential role in this hemisphere?”
It would be a mistake to scrutinize Iran’s influence in country-by-country terms rather than in terms of the interest of the Tehran-Havana-Caracas alliance. It should be obvious that Iran, Cuba and Venezuela, has the unifying point of virulent hostility toward the United States.
While the Administration is focused on European financial crisis and the Middle East it seems like no one in the Administration is aware of the shenanigans in our back yard.
