A regional conservative turn in South America is sharply reducing Iran’s reach in the Western Hemisphere, according to the article, by cutting off financial and logistical channels used by Tehran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Hezbollah. The shift is taking place while the United States struggles to force a decisive outcome against Iran in the Middle East.
The article cites leaders including Javier Milei in Argentina, Rodrigo Paz Pereira in Bolivia, Daniel Noboa in Ecuador, and José Antonio Kast in Chile as part of the right-wing wave. In Argentina, Milei’s rise pushed out the Peronists and Kirchnerists, led to harsher policy on the AMIA bombing case, and resulted in Argentina designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. In Bolivia, the end of MAS rule under Paz led to cooler ties with Tehran and the cancellation of military agreements signed with Iran.
The biggest blow, the article says, came months ago with the fall of Nicolás Maduro’s government in Venezuela, which deprived Iran of its most important base in the Western Hemisphere. The political changes quickly triggered severe economic damage, as trade, investment, oil and gold swap networks, worth billions of dollars, collapsed under governments unwilling to help evade sanctions. South America, once a financial bridge for the Iranian regime, is now described as hostile to its criminal-economic networks.
On the security front, Iran and Hezbollah lost safe havens that had functioned as hubs for financing and logistics. Venezuela stopped serving as a center for discounted oil sales to China, money laundering, drug trafficking, gold mining, and the spread of drones and weapons. In Argentina and Ecuador, the terror designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, along with intensified pressure in the Tri-Border Area, severed a major revenue stream for Hezbollah from drug cartels. The article concludes that Iran has lost strategic depth, operational bases, and vital income sources in the region, leaving it more isolated and weaker internationally.
