Venezuala-Iran-Nicaragua Axis more than just an idle threat

A disturbing post from the Counterterrorism Blog today. As someone who is familiar both with Latin America (I travel there quite a bit) and of the situation at our porous border, it is critical that the United States begin to take action to thwart the threat that is developing to our South. Pay particular attention to Admiral Stavridis' remarks (linked below):

My colleague Andrew Cochran's post on the threat (or not) to the Panama Canal seems to me to miss the larger picture of the threat from Latin America.

That threat is contained in the recent statements by Adm. James Stavridis, head of the US Southern Command at a recent CSIS conference.

Stavridis warned that "the connectivity between narcoterrorism and Islamic radical terrorism could be disastrous in this region. What I worry about in this region with outside actors coming into it is the potential for those streams to cross, if you will, for the fuel of narcoterrorism to become engaged in Islamic radicalism here in the Americas."

That is it in a nutshell. It is the Iran-Venezuela-Nicaragua nexus, built on a foundation of already-existing Hezbollah and Hamas operatives who have been economically active in the region for decades. My full blog is here.

Also of note: Venezuela is increasing naval activity ostensibly to defend its offshore oil platforms.