U.S. officials say Margarita Island hosts Hezbollah base in Western Hemisphere
Iran and the Maduro regime are cited as factors in Hezbollah’s growing footprint on Venezuela’s Margarita Island, a development officials say could reshape regional security dynamics and pose a broader threat for the United States.
Margarita Island off Venezuela's northeast coast has emerged, according to U.S. officials, as Hezbollah's most important base of operations in the Western Hemisphere, bolstered by Iran's footprint and protection from Nicolás Maduro's government. The development, officials say, signals a broader regional security challenge tied to narcotrafficking networks and transnational terrorism. "The single most serious threat to the United States from the Western Hemisphere is from transnational terrorist criminal groups primarily focused on narcotrafficking," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a year-end State Department briefing. "Margarita Island might be of significance to the U.S. because of its location and the security dynamics around it."
The island’s location near Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada—along important maritime routes in the Caribbean—adds to concerns about its role as a drug-trafficking hub and a logistical hub for irregular armed groups and foreign intelligence networks, officials said. Melissa Ford Maldonado, director of the Western Hemisphere Initiative at the America First Policy Institute, told Fox News Digital that Margarita’s isolation makes it attractive to actors who can exploit cross-border access to Colombia for illicit shipments.
Marshall Billingslea, the former assistant secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes in the U.S. Treasury Department, said Margarita Island now serves as Hezbollah’s key foothold in the Western Hemisphere. "From what I have seen and what I have been told, there is a wide range of activities that Hezbollah and to some extent Hamas are engaged in," he told Fox News Digital. "Margarita Island is really the center of gravity for their activities." He described Hezbollah as operating a broad economic network on the island, including training camps and companies that help fund and sustain its presence there. His comments are grounded in a written testimony submitted to a Senate hearing in October.
In that testimony, Billingslea traced the island’s transformation to the era of Hugo Chávez, when Venezuela opened doors to Hezbollah and allowed a major footprint, including a paramilitary training site on Margarita Island. He argued that when Nicolás Maduro took power, Hezbollah relations with the narco-regime deepened, expanding both their presence and their ties to the Cartel de los Soles, a network of Venezuelan officials accused by the United States of drug trafficking. The testimony also highlighted how Venezuela’s state apparatus supported Hezbollah’s integration into the economy through a range of activities linked to cross-border smuggling and drug importation. Between 2010 and 2019, Venezuelan authorities issued more than 10,400 passports to people from Lebanon, Syria and Iran, according to the testimony.
Recent developments in the Middle East have added to Margarita Island’s strategic importance. Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon has damaged the group’s financial infrastructure, prompting greater reliance on overseas networks in Latin America. Billingslea said Hezbollah has moved some fighters from Lebanon to Venezuela, creating a clearer link between the group’s external operations and its local footprint. He also cited Iran’s growing role in Venezuela, including the trade in weapons and drones in exchange for gold, a dynamic he said helps sustain the group’s operations abroad.
The United States faces a strategic choice in how to counter this threat. Billingslea said Washington has positioned forces in the Caribbean to counter Hezbollah, but emphasized the need for precise intelligence to root out a group that has blended into local populations. He indicated that the Venezuelan opposition possesses valuable information, though he cautioned that it remains unclear whether the U.S. government is leveraging that access effectively.
Analysts and former officials describe removing Venezuela’s narco-terrorist regime as a significant national security goal, with implications for regional stability and U.S. security interests. Still, they stress that any strategy must be informed by verifiable intelligence and careful assessment of the risks and consequences for civilians in Venezuela and the wider Caribbean region.
As U.S. officials monitor the evolving situation, Margarita Island’s status as a Hezbollah hub remains a focal point in debates over how the international community should confront the transnational networks that link drug trafficking, terrorism financing and state actors in Latin America. The evolving dynamics in Venezuela, Iran and Hezbollah continue to shape the security landscape across the Caribbean and beyond.