{"id":3680,"date":"2020-02-01T12:40:46","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T12:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vricmonitor.org\/u-s-and-colombia-highlight-the-terrorist-threat-from-venezuela-at-regional-counterterrorism-summit\/"},"modified":"2024-08-21T15:11:02","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T15:11:02","slug":"u-s-and-colombia-highlight-the-terrorist-threat-from-venezuela-at-regional-counterterrorism-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vric.securefreesociety.org\/es\/u-s-and-colombia-highlight-the-terrorist-threat-from-venezuela-at-regional-counterterrorism-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. AND COLOMBIA HIGHLIGHT THE TERRORIST THREAT FROM VENEZUELA AT REGIONAL COUNTERTERRORISM SUMMIT"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Venezuela continues to be the central hub for the global, great power competition in the Western Hemisphere between Russia, Iran, China, and the United States. 2020 has already marked a series of international visits and diplomatic engagements by both the Maduro regime and Interim President Juan Guaid\u00f3. High-ranking Maduro officials have visited China, Iran, and Spain, while Guaid\u00f3 made his first major international tour to Colombia, Europe, Canada, and the U.S. Meanwhile, the Trump administration reinforced its solidarity with Juan Guaid\u00f3 presenting the Venezuelan constitutional president at the State of the Union speech on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C.\u00a0<\/p>

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Earlier in January, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo participated in the Third Western Hemisphere Counterterrorism Ministerial Conference in Colombia, backing the official terrorist designation of Hezbollah by the Duque government. This was followed by a U.S.-Colombia joint airborne assault exercise at the Tolemaida Air Base in the Cundinamarca department of Colombia.\u00a0<\/p>

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Heightened tension between the U.S. and Iran in the aftermath of the killing of Qods Force General Qassem Soleimani has brought the Islamic Republic to the forefront of the VRIC alliance. Recent visits from Russia and Venezuela have allowed Iran to round-up its key allies as the IRGC prepares for a possible retaliatory strike, perhaps through its proxy forces worldwide. In the midst of this tension, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro sent a high-level delegation to Tehran, including his Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza. This was followed by a recent state visit to Caracas by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as the Moscow-Caracas-Tehran nexus is becoming increasingly active.\u00a0<\/p>

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Vladimir Putin\u2019s support of the Maduro regime is portrayed by Moscow as an attempt to aid allies and extend Russian influence abroad, however, the core motivation seems to be to gain greater control over lucrative energy reserves. By some estimates, Russian oil giant, Rosneft, is controlling up to\u00a0 70 \u2013 80 percent of Venezuelan oil exports, prompting U.S. officials to admit they may have underestimated the extent of the Kremlin\u2019s control in Venezuela.<\/p>

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China\u2019s influence in Venezuela, on the other hand, according to U.S. officials, seems to be waning. Yet, before visiting Iran, Maduro\u2019s Foreign Minister Arreaza visited Beijing to showcase that the regime\u2019s strategic alliance with the PRC is far from over. Meanwhile China continues to spread its influence throughout the region, particularly in Mexico and the Dominican Republic.\u00a0<\/p>

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Addressing Russia, Iran, and China in Latin America, Admiral Craig Faller of U.S. Southern Command stated\u00a0on Jan. 30, 2020 in the annual Posture Statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee of the 116th U.S. Congress:\u00a0<\/p>

\u201cMalign state actors [VRIC and its allies] are part of a vicious circle of threats that deliberately erode stability and security in the region\u2026..[requiring] the need to be clear-eyed about both the security threats we face now and in the near future, and the significant opportunities that await only with our initiative and engagement in the hemisphere [because] here is no other region we depend upon more for our prosperity and security, and with which we are more closely tied through bonds of family, trade, and geographic proximity, than Latin America and the Caribbean.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

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