{"id":3670,"date":"2020-07-14T06:01:50","date_gmt":"2020-07-14T06:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vricmonitor.org\/iran-takes-to-the-seas-to-prop-up-venezuelas-maduro-regime\/"},"modified":"2024-08-21T14:37:46","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T14:37:46","slug":"iran-takes-to-the-seas-to-prop-up-venezuelas-maduro-regime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vric.securefreesociety.org\/es\/iran-takes-to-the-seas-to-prop-up-venezuelas-maduro-regime\/","title":{"rendered":"IRAN TAKES TO THE SEAS TO PROP UP VENEZUELA\u2019S MADURO REGIME"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Iran\u2019s increased maritime engagement in the Western Hemisphere is causing concern for U.S. officials closely monitoring and blocking some of this activity. This relatively new problem set is poking at specific chinks in the armor of U.S. sanctions. Aside from the mass propaganda by the Maduro regime announcing the arrival of the original five Iranian tankers in May, at least 103 other tankers have visited Venezuela for the first time in the past year, according to one study. Many of them use sanctions-evasion techniques such as ship-to-ship transfers and turning off their transponders.\u00a0

Of concern is the potential dual-use of these supposed gas and oil shipments to and from Venezuela, particularly as it relates to Iranian state-owned companies known for the proliferation of WMD materials and means of delivery. Four of the Liberian-flagged vessels intended for Venezuela are part of a civil forfeiture complaint by the Department of Justice that links the ships to Iran\u2019s clerical army, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), who recently set up a supermarket in Caracas, the first of its kind. While attention is on Venezuela, IRGC-linked vessels are appearing elsewhere in Latin America, namely in Brazil and Panama, in what appears to be a coordinated effort with Cuba and China.\u00a0

China and Iran\u2019s strategic partnership just reached greater levels with the signing of a new 25-year trade and cooperation agreement, which entails large scale military cooperation. Being that Beijing and Tehran are allies of the Maduro regime, it\u2019s likely that this cooperation will impact Venezuela. One potential area of collaboration is space and cyberspace, where China and Russia have made significant advances in the Western Hemisphere. In what Beijing calls the \u201cinformation silk road,\u201d China has completed its global satellite tracking system, known as the BeiDou, a competitor to the U.S.-owned GPS, part of China\u2019s new quantum communications network. Meanwhile, Russia signed a satellite cooperation agreement with Brazil this past month.\u00a0

The VRIC convergence in Venezuela was evident in mid-June when Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman, was arrested in Cape Verde off an Interpol Red Notice in his name. The Saab case is instructive in understanding the dark networks developed beneath the surface of a military-assisted, humanitarian aid operation in Venezuela. These dark networks are continuously disrupted by U.S. sanctions in what is a new battleground for the VRIC\u2013humanitarian assistance.\u00a0<\/p>

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