However, we remember the already well-known reports of Iran with Ecuador by Rafael Correa and Bolivia by Evo Morales and finally - but not least - the relationship with Nicaragua, a long-standing report by President Daniel Ortega, dating back to his first term as president (1979-1990).
Although there is no common religious history or heritage or culture, it seems that the only platform shared between "some" of these South American countries and Iran, is the profound aversion to a common enemy, namely the United States and the desire to recruit allies in the case against American imperialism.
The International Latin America Conference held in Tehran in February 2007 saw the announcement of Iranian Foreign Minister Mehdi Mostafavi of the opening of embassies in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Uruguay and a representative office in Bolivia, the new axis frightened the international community.
Iran at the time referred to 36 Shiite cultural centers in 17 countries throughout the Latin American region. In January 2012, moreover, the Islamic Republic launched a satellite TV network, in Spanish as part of its ideological battle to counter the "hegemony" of the West.
Considering these events, “it seems impossible today that Iran was a strong ally of the United States during the Cold War. The Shah owed the throne to a coup d'état supported in 1953 by the Eisenhower administration against a democratically elected government but believed to sympathize with communism, this was not forgiven by many Iranians. The two countries maintained close relations for over 25 years until in 1979 a popular revolution overthrew the autocratic regime of Rheza Pahlavi. The Shiite fundamentalists led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeyni seized power and imposed on the people their own theocratic version of the Islamic Republic, inspired by an implacable hatred towards the country with stars and stripes "(cit. Difficult choices - Hillary Rodham Clinton).
The task of the new Iranian president Rouhani, over the past two years, has been successfully to improve relations with Latin American states; although in a less politicized way, it changed the style but not the fundamental objectives of Iranian foreign policy in Latin America: to guarantee alliances with the states of the continent, with the already strong anti-US axis of the ALBA Regimes (Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, a project of political and economic cooperation of some Latin American countries such as Venezuela and Bolivia), to mitigate international isolation and circumvent economic sanctions.
An example is the statements by the Venezuelan ambassador to Tehran that in June 2014, declared that Caracas would be ready to become "a hub for exporting Iranian technology to other Latin American states", in order to circumvent the sanctions of the United States against the Islamic Republic.
Lately, Vice-President Jahangiri has defined Venezuela as a good ally for Iran and expressed the hope that all the agreements already signed between the two countries, in the future, will see their increase.
In the face of today's debate, on Iran's controversial nuclear program, as a threat to global and regional security, and also, in the face of the geographical reality of the Uranium fields owned by both Bolivia and Venezuela (reserves not used by the latter country ), this axis should be considered as one of the most interesting at a geopolitical level among those existing.
Maria Grazia Labellarte
Source: Hard Choices - Hillary Bonham Clinton; Iran in Latin America: President Rouhani's era - The Argentinian revista Def; Iran in Latin America threat or Axis of Annoyance? Woodrow Wilson Center
