Iran-South of the Border

America has not perceived direct threat from Latin America since the days of the Cuban Missile Crisis. At that time the Soviet Union attempted to  place ballistic missiles on Cuban soil, thus placing a dagger at the throat of America. Could the groundwork for another such crisis be in the formative stages?

This week President Ahmadinejad of Iran visited with Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. In Venezuela the discussion was about OPEC oil cuts and funding for plans to thwart American domination. "This fund, my brother, will become a mechanism for liberation," Mr. Ahmadinejad said to Mr. Chavez during the announcement.

Here is how the New York Sun interprets the visit:

Until recently, Mr. Chavez and his fellow Latin American leftists were an annoyance for advocates of free trade and good governance. Now that they've allied themselves with Islamic extremists, however, they've become a great deal more dangerous. As we learned during the Cuban missile crisis, allowing enemies who possess nuclear weapons to set up forward operating bases within range of our cities is not an option - a point, by the way, that was understood by both Democrats, such as President Kennedy, and Republicans, such as Richard Nixon whom he defeated for the White House.

President Reagan understood all this, which is why during the 1980s he fought so hard against Mr. Ortega's Soviet-backed camarilla and raided Grenada. That the left makes common cause with the Islamists is one of the bizarre facts of modern geopolitics. The only thing Marxists like Messrs. Chavez, Ortega, and Correa have in common today with the likes of Mr. Ahmadinejad is a hatred of America. That is the foundation on which the Marxist-Islamist scheme is formed and the motivation behind any actions it carries out.

Although economic in nature, this entente will eventually become a military one. This has been underscored in the last several years by Venezuela's billions of dollars in arms purchases, which included both small arms and more serious weapons like the Sukhoi Su-30 Russian fighter jets and Russian-made attack helicopters. There is also increasing troop movement among the left-wing Latin American states. The military ambitions of Messrs. Chavez, Ortega, and Ahmadinejad spell trouble.

It is possible we could see Iranian missiles aimed at the major cities of the American south.

For more background on Hugo Chavez check this recent article by Cecil Maranville in the December issue of World News and Prophecy.