Venezuela’s Real Strategic Value
Forget the oil for a second.
Venezuela was a geopolitical Swiss Army knife for America’s adversaries.
Russia stationed military personnel there. Tu-160 bombers. Naval visits. A foothold 1,400 miles from Florida.
China poured in billions through loans-for-oil deals. Infrastructure investments. Leverage.
Iran used Venezuelan airports to fly in IRGC personnel and equipment.
Hezbollah has operated cells there since the 1990s, with Margarita Island as the hub. Training camps. Smuggling networks. Money laundering through Venezuelan banks.
Between 2010 and 2019, Venezuelan authorities issued over 10,000 passports to individuals from Lebanon, Syria, and Iran.
Cuba embedded intelligence operatives in the security apparatus.
The FARC found safe haven.
The DOJ indicted Venezuelan officials for working with cartels, Hezbollah, and Hamas on narcoterrorism.
Everyone got something.
Russia got Western Hemisphere presence.
China got leverage and cheap crude.
Iran got a base of operations.
Cuba got an ally.
And the oil revenue, broken as it was, funded all of it.
That network just got decapitated.
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