Iran’s ability to shape the information environment and spread the narrative of the United States as an imperialist force – perpetrating violence and instability in Latin America – has grown in recent years. These ongoing and multifaceted campaigns of disinformation and care- fully curated messages are coordinated with Russian and Venezuelan state media companies and thousands of allied Internet and social media accounts. Together, these efforts pose a strategic challenge to U.S. interests and regional efforts to promote stability, democratic values, and the rule of law. While less visible than shipping gasoline to the Nicolás Maduro regime and other provocative actions, Iran’s advances in Latin America’s information space is not any less threatening than its more overt activities.
By Diálogo – Digital Military Magazine – Douglas Farah and Alexa Tavarez
Aug 26, 2021
As part of its regional strategy, Iran has created a network of expanding echo chambers whose foundations are Iran’s own Hispan TV state-owned satellite platform; Tele SUR, the Bolivarian radical populist network based in Venezuela; and RT en Español, the Russian state news service. These platforms operate in tandem with social media accounts on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Telegram chat groups to coordinate narratives that are pushed from small platforms to mainstream media content in a relatively short period of time.
These narratives are then disseminated by a small corps of “super spreaders” and well- funded think tanks to push the same messaging across broader intellectual communities. Open- source data analysis identifies how these individuals act as cultural translators across different revolutionary settings and platforms. These crucial interlocutors hold various positions across a broad network of actors, including one senior member of the current Spanish government.
Ultimately, this Iranian-backed network is unified by a strong anti-U.S. ideology, providing a constant narrative of U.S. oppression and reckless exploitation of natural resources while portraying Iran as a key ideological ally of the radical populist Bolivarian Revolution. The overlap of messaging with Russian accounts and media platforms creates the narrative that the Iranian Revolution and the Bolivarian Revolution share a common set of anti-U.S. goals with Russia. There is no comparable U.S. counternarrative or sustained effort to counteract these ongoing narratives that have contributed to the waning political, military, and economic influence of the United States in Latin America.
This multifaceted and ongoing campaign is one of the primary reasons the Maduro regime and the Bolivarian Joint Criminal Enterprise (BJCE) continues to enjoy a large and surprising degree of legitimacy in the hemisphere. Iran’s occupation of Latin America’s information space has grown in effectiveness and sophistication, as all three core media outlets have moved from the fringes to the mainstream of media relevancy. The messaging, largely devoid of Islamic religious content, is at its core a call and convergence center for a global alliance against the United States by Iran, Russia, and the BJCE. Our partner Ex Arca LLC, an information operations analysis company, provided the digital media analysis in this paper. Our partners at iTask provided research support
Introduction
Most of 2019 looked grim for Iran’s once robust efforts to form enduring alliances in Latin America. Staunch ally Evo Morales in Bolivia had fled after losing elections, and the interim government cut off diplomatic relations with Tehran.1 The Maduro regime teetered on the edge of collapse, and Argentina had taken aggressive action against Iranian interests in South America, such as declaring Hizballah a terrorist entity. The tide seemed to have turned sharply against Iran’s allies in the region from the network’s peak times of influence during the first wave of leftist leaders elected in Latin America during the early 2000s.
Yet over the past year, Iran’s theocratic regime has survived the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” sanctions regimen, falling oil prices, the assassination of key leaders, and the onslaught of the COVID-19 global pandemic. And in Latin America, Iran was unexpectedly bolstered by the return to power of strong allies in Argentina and Bolivia, coupled with the endurance of the Maduro regime in Venezuela, the Daniel Ortega regime in Nicaragua, and the Cuban regime. Against long odds, Iran is better positioned to pursue its long-term goals at the end of 2020 than at the beginning of the year.
Basking in these unexpected and sharp positive trends, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made a triumphal tour of his nation’s main allies to publicly reaffirm Iran’s ties to the hemisphere. The multi-country tour is an essential part of Iran’s public engagement in the Western Hemisphere as a partner of the revolutionary, anti-imperialist bloc of Bolivarian states we define as the Bolivarian Joint Criminal Enterprise (BJCE). 2 Both Iran and the BJCE view the United States as not only a common enemy but also the primary culprit for their deep economic and social crises.
When Zarif arrived in Caracas on November 5, 2020, he was met by his Venezuelan counterpart, Jorge Arreaza, who tweeted that “each high level visit deepens our strategic alliance and our brotherhood.” He also affirmed Venezuela’s right to purchase weapons, oil, and other products from each other.3 In a later interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency, Arreaza stated strengthening “strategic cooperation” with Iran was Venezuela’s “top priority,” given that both nations faced U.S. “blockades.”4 He stressed that both regimes were “revolutionary, anti- imperialist, dedicated to being free, and facing common adversaries.” 5
Following a brief stop in Cuba, Zarif flew to La Paz, Bolivia, for the inauguration of new Bolivian President Luis Arce, a strong ally of Maduro and protégé of former Bolivian President Evo Morales. In addition to blasting the United States for wanting to subjugate Latin America to extract its natural resources, Arce immediately reestablished diplomatic ties with Iran and Venezuela. Bolivia’s interim government that took office in 2019 had broken relations with Iran and denied recognition to the Maduro regime, recognizing Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s lawful leader. 6 Ultimately, the visit was the most visible example of Iran’s official engagement in the hemi- sphere in 18 months. Recently, Iran’s engagement has centered on gasoline shipments to the Maduro regime in May 2020 and a series of flights between the two nations to ferry out the gold used to pay for the fuel, and possibly deliver advisers, technicians, and equipment into Venezuela.
The Zarif visit, timed to Arce’s inauguration, was preceded by Maduro’s announcement of a new “Military, Scientific and Technological Council” that would allow the Maduro regime to develop its own weapons systems and defend itself against what the regime calls U.S.-sponsored military attacks by Colombia. This is the first formal public military weapons production link between the Maduro and Iranian regimes. When the United Nations’ arms embargo on Iran expired on October 18, 2020, it opened the door to internationally sanctioned weapons transfers between the two nations.7 Maduro stated the new commission will bring together the “best minds” of the Venezuelan military to work with “sister nations,” such as Iran, Russia, China, and Cuba to build a cooperative focused on military science and technologies. 8
Although Iran is the focus of this paper, the Maduro regime’s engagement with Iran is often carried out in tandem with the support of Russia. Four days after Zarif ’s visit, Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president; Astrúbal Chávez, cousin of the late Hugo Chávez and long-time leader of Petróleos de Venezuela, the state oil company sanctioned for massive money-laundering; and other senior Venezuelan officials arrived in Moscow to establish new anti-sanctions mechanisms. 9 At the same time, reflagged Russian “ghost” oil tankers, using methods pioneered by Iran, were documented as moving millions of barrels of Venezuelan heavy crude to safe harbor from U.S. sanctions, likely as part of a triangulated exchange for Iranian gasoline. 10
While the alignment of Russian and Iranian agendas is not new, the complementary and coordinated efforts by Iran and Russia to keep the Maduro regime afloat has proliferated across several arenas. Two strategic areas of convergence of interest are coordinated media and messaging campaigns with state media enterprises and weapons and defense fields, with a focus on aviation and the development of drones and light aircraft. This intersection is an important alliance that reshapes the military and diplomatic landscape and strengthens the hands of both extra-regional actors in the Western Hemisphere (see figure 1). As Admiral Craig S. Faller, commander of U.S. Southern Command, stated in his 2020 posture statement:
Admiral Faller’s statement frames how we examine Iran’s influence on the information space in Latin America while working in tandem with other malign actors to weave a tapestry of a broad, persistent, and effective campaign to delegitimize U.S. interests, empower U.S. rivals, and weaken the foundations of democratic governance and the rule of law.
Figure 1. Iranian Activity in the Region
The final malign actors – Maduro and his cronies in Venezuela – pose one of the most direct threats to peace and security in the Western Hemisphere. Emboldened by Russian, Chinese, Iranian, and Cuban protection and patronage, Maduro has allowed Venezuela to become a safe haven for the ELN [Ejército de Liberación Nacional (National Liberation Army)], FARC [Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia–Ejército del Pueblo (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People’s Army)] dissidents, and drug traffickers while the Venezuelan people starve.
This vicious circle is framed by systemic issues of young democracies with weak institutions, rampant corruption, exploited by transnational criminal organizations, often better funded than the security organizations they face; external state actors that don’t share those values, China, Russia and Iran; and violent extremist organizations. They’re trying to advance their interests at the expense of U.S. and partner nation security.1
The Advance of Iran’s Soft Power
With little fanfare or notice, Iran has been building and fortifying a web of soft power and sharp power engagement platforms across the hemisphere. While Maduro and Iranian lead- ers have publicly spoken of purchasing Iranian missiles and other advanced weapons systems, this interplay of hard power rhetoric is intertwined with the narrative of the United States as a looming and imminent threat to the region. Ultimately, the Iran-BCJE alliance has successfully positioned itself to dominate the information space in Latin America, with few overtly religious themes.
This information strategy uses two main typologies. The first is composed of basic stories building goodwill, sympathy, cultural affinity, and finding commonalities. These are stories about Muslims and/or Iranians spreading goodwill, Iranian embassies in the region participating in local cultural events, stories of tragedy and war in Yemen and Syria, and tales of heroism in overcoming adversity. To diminish the sense of Iran as a distant “other” in Latin America, Hispan TV and other Iranian outlets often highlight the Shia Muslim belief in the Virgin Birth of Jesus to Mary, also a central tenant of the dominant Roman Catholic and evangelical faiths in Latin America, to bridge the cultural divide between Iran and Latin America.
The second typology consists of political narratives of U.S. imperialism, Israeli abuses, and anti-revolutionary actions both against the Iranian and Bolivarian revolutions. These narratives express the need for radical change in the world order, with the United States as the chief obstacle to that change. In each case, the narrative is spread by consistently pumping out stories that engage small but expanding echo chambers and developing like-minded followers and net- works in social media platforms.
One example is Islam Oriente, a Web site that publishes religious texts in Spanish and has a high number of real followers and tweets. The site, which often publishes Pablo Jofré Leal (a Chilean national who also appears as a correspondent for RT TV, Hispan TV, and Tele SUR), threads the line between political and humanitarian and also discusses Islamic art, the Koran, and Palestine. Focusing on these seemingly mundane topics while weaving in bits of political and humanitarian texts underlies a pro-Iranian narrative that builds a false sense of credibility in the account as a nonpolitical source.12
The tweets focus on sending readers to the Islam Oriente Telegram account and to its Face- book page, where they host Islamic art and humanitarian stories. 13 Overall, the rhetoric is meant to draw readers in and condition them to have empathy and common understanding with the Iranian community. Ultimately, building goodwill in a nonthreatening matter allows Iranian actors to later push their more problematic political and strategic agenda.
Other key elements of this network are quasi-academic institutions that produce books that are then sold across multiple platforms and universities and host forums for leaders of the BJCE, Iran, Russia, and other allies to propagate political ideological content and network. Well- funded think tanks and research organizations produce policy and position papers that weave the Bolivarian and Iranian revolutionary rhetoric into a compelling anti-U.S. tapestry. This has a broad appeal to the region’s traditional and powerful traditional leftist groups as well as to radical populists.
The direct impact of these joint efforts on perceptions of the population of these efforts is difficult to precisely gauge, although there has been a considerable erosion in Latin America of the population’s positive views of the United States. The Pew Research Center found the percentage of people in Latin America who viewed the United States favorably tumbled from a median of 66 percent in 2015 to 47 percent in 2018. In Mexico, where the three primary networks discussed here compete most directly with U.S. media outlets, the U.S. favorability ratings fell from 66 percent to 36 percent in that same period. 14
Key events, such as Zarif ’s Latin America visit, the assassination of Iran’s leading nuclear scientist Moshen Fakhrizadeh on November 27, 2020, and the development of Russia’s Sputnik COVID-19 vaccination in turn provide content for the media platforms discussed below. Ultimately, the coverage of these events creates a chain of self-reinforcing echo chambers of the joint Iran-BJCE narrative, falsehoods, and attacks that spread to an expanding pool of media and Internet outlets. Furthermore, these platforms carry extensive and unquestioning praise of the Iranian and Maduro regimes, regional allies, and, to a lesser degree, Russia.
Three main outlets were identified as strategic platforms for converging Iranian-BJCE narratives: Hispan TV, the Iranian state Spanish news site; Tele SUR, the Bolivarian news outlet founded by Hugo Chávez; and Russia’s RT en Español. These outlets often share not only similar narratives on key world events, but also, in at least three cases, the same journalist was published in all three mediums, often repeating the same story verbatim across the platforms:
.Hispan TV, The least well-known medium that carries Iran’s version of events and propaganda most prominently is , Iran’s Spanish-language satellite station that broadcasts 24/7 across Latin America. In 2010, Iran launched Hispan TV to provide a platform for anti-American and anti-Western narratives for a Latin American audience.15 Hispan TV hosts very little programming directly on Islam but rather focuses on perpetuating distinct narratives to counter “Western-made order,” “capitalism,” and “American government and culture.”16 HispanTV has 36 correspondents in 27 countries, most of whom are Venezuelan and also report for Tele SUR. The outlet transmits satellite news to all countries in Latin America and offers free programming on YouTube and Facebook.17 What is particularly interesting is the little-known role of Iranian funding of Hispan TV through several Spanish companies and front groups tied to the Podemos Party that has strong links to the Maduro regime and the BJCE.
Tele SUR The Venezuelan media outlet was launched by Hugo Chávez in 2005 as a “socialist alternative to CNN,” designed to spread the radical populist ideology of the Bolivarian Revolution. The Chávez/Maduro regimes have footed about 80 percent of the costs and provided the main studio facilities in Caracas, although Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Cuba reportedly make small financial contributions.18 Argentina, under the Fernández de Kirchner government, initially supported the media outlet until the Mauricio Macri administration (2015–2019) later blocked Tele SUR transmissions to Argentina. However, the current Fernández de Kirchner government has resumed Tele SUR broadcasting.
RT en Español. The Russian television station based in Moscow began transmitting to Latin America in 2009 and has bureaus in Managua, Caracas, Havana, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Miami, and Los Due to its high-quality production, rapid delivery of breaking news, and extensive network of correspondents, RT en Español has become one of the most influential mediums in the Western Hemisphere, giving Russia a relatively cheap delivery platform for its narrative. As Admiral Faller noted in his posture statement:
The disinformation campaign that Russia has been on is truly about, in all instances, painting the United States in an inaccurate light. One example is reporting that I was on the border of Venezuela about to lead an invasion force. Another example was they twisted it just enough in an article in RT, to say that I had said something that was at odds with the vice president of the United States, which was just complete baloney.
Their largest by volume, outside of their Russian-language effort in social media, is in Spanish. You have to ask, what’s the national interest of Russia in that disinformation here in our neighborhood and around the world? And it’s concerning to us. 19
One of the key elements driving the overlapping interests of these groups is the constant referencing of each other and their allies on their own networks. Each medium has a relatively small number of voices that are represented, but the repetition and ties to other media and the Internet make this small group seem like an overwhelming army of diverse voices. As a result, the narrative gains traction as it is cited across platforms—and in turn legitimatizing the media outlets as credible and reliable sources of information. An IBI Consultants study in 2019 showed the frequency with which this network of media outlets cites each other to create the echo chambers. Prensa Latina, the Cuban official news agency and Hispan TV, for example, referenced each other 8,710 times, or about 1,000 times a year or almost 3 times a day. Tele SUR and Hispan TV quoted each other about once a day for the period under study.20One example of creating an echo chamber is one of the most popular features on the Hispan TV Web site called Polimedios, an aggregation of pro-Iranian and BJCE news items from affiliated media. All are presented as independent actors, giving the impression that the global media is broadly reporting the same things. One recent menu of stories included “Iran and Lat- in America close ranks against the United States”; “Iran and Cuba blast illegitimate U.S. sanctions”; “Bolivia: Goodbye to the coup mongers”; “Iran can buy and sell weapons”; and “Venezuela is now freeing itself from the blockade.”21
Samuel Robinson Institute
One of the newest intellectual centers is the well-funded Samuel Robinson Institute (SRI) in Caracas, founded in October 2020, and with direct ties to the Iranian regime. SRI, named for Simón Bolivar’s famed teacher Simón Rodríguez who used the pseudonym Samuel Robinson, offers a high-profile platform for Bolivarian leaders and their Iranian allies to host events that present an alternative narrative to the humanitarian and human rights crises in both countries. The institute’s full-time researchers are a “who’s who” of leading BJCE intellectuals and top-sell- ing authors. SRI is the newest and most influential of the think tanks that acts as a convergence center for Iranian/Bolivarian thought and intellectual content. Because it offers a safe space under Maduro regime protection, it does not serve as an academic center but as one where like-minded people who often cannot travel easily can meet safely. For example, former Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa has multiple pending arrest warrants in Ecuador and can only travel to countries where he trusts the authorities, as he does when contributing to SRI.
According to its Web site, SRI falls under the umbrella of Misión Verdad (Truth Mission), an investigative media outlet based in Caracas, which is “dedicated to analyzing the process of the war against Venezuela.”
Misión Verdad was created in 2012 and is led by Gustavo Borges Revilla, a Venezuelan national with at least 10 years of experience in covering Latin American politics for various film and television outlets such as Ávila TV and Amazonia Films. Misión Verdad claims to be an independent media outlet, although its source of funding is unknown. 22 Most of its critical content is directed toward Colombia, the United States, and the geopolitics of the shared border between Colombia and Venezuela.
Borges is the executive director for both SRI and Misión Verdad. Also, the design and tone of both are nearly identical, and all the writers for SRI also write for Misión Verdad. 23 In an interview with Multimedios VTV, Borges stated that Venezuela is among one of many countries being asphyxiated by maximum pressure strategies and sanctions. He added a major problem is that these countries do not have networks for reflection, intellectual thought, or analysis to unite these countries and create solutions. 24 Ultimately, the goal of SRI is to forge these networks across academic, political, and cultural spheres, which Borges identified in his interview as lacking.
SRI officially launched on October 28, 2020, and the site’s domain was registered by Borges 2 weeks prior.25 Within days of its launch, the SRI Twitter account received various welcoming tweets from high-profile Bolivarian leaders such as Nicolás Maduro, Evo Morales, Ricardo Patiñoa Correa crony wanted for massive corruption in Ecuador and Tarek William Saab, the Maduro regime’s attorney general. 26
On November 5, 2020, Zarif spoke at the institute’s inaugural event, and shortly after Zarif ’s visit, Arreaza was announced as a permanent investigator at the think tank.27 Zarif thanked the Venezuelan people for hosting him and spoke openly about the relationship between the oil sectors of Iran and Venezuela. Although this political relationship has flourished over the years, Zarif added that U.S. aggression has made it impossible for Iran and Venezuela to enjoy the natural resources abundant in both countries. “The U.S. is terrorizing the populations of Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, China, and Russia in areas where they are not allowed to fulfil their political objects,” Zarif stated. “That is the definition is terrorism.” 28
Ultimately, the Iranian connection comes full circle with the inauguration of Acre in Bolivia, a significant victory for both the BJCE and Iran. To further cement the point, Evo Morales, Arce’s mentor, was a keynote speaker at an SRI December 7, 2020, conference on the “Dialogue Among Civilizations.” He was accompanied by Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, who is pushing the candidacy of his own protégé in Ecuador, given his inability to run in person due to pending criminal charges, including kidnapping. 29
The “Dialogue Among Civilizations” conference was held the day after Venezuela’s parliamentary elections, and in his speech, Morales congratulated Venezuelans for participating in the democratic elections.30 Despite the fact that Venezuela has the highest homicide rate in the hemisphere and is among the top five most violent countries in the world, Morales added, “the international press says, ‘there is dictatorship, there is violence.’ However yesterday we could testify: here there is no violence; here there is peace, tranquility, and yesterday there was a grand celebration of democracy.” 31
Cultural Translators and “Super Spreaders”
A key feature of the echo chambers is cultural interpreters—super spreaders—working across multiple platforms. Several individuals who work for at least two of the three outlets in the study appear on the main Web sites in the echo chamber and repeat each other’s reporting on an ongoing basis, including anti-U.S. and anti-Israel attacks, defenses of Iran, and praises of the Maduro regime and its allies. These individuals were identified through data-mining of bylined journalism reports:
- Pablo Jofré Leal, Chile (HispanTV, teleSUR, RT en Español, Sputnik News, IslamOri- ente, and multiple Web sites).
- Pablo Iglesias Turrión, Spain (HispanTV, teleSUR; he is a member of Spain’s governing coalition).
- Carlos Aznarez, Argentina (HispanTV, teleSUR, RT en Español).
- Leonardo del Groso, Argentina (HispanTV, teleSUR).
- Marcelo Colussi, Argentina (HispanTV, teleSUR, RT en Español).
Pablo Jofré Leal is among the most prolific of the interlocutors. Jofré often writes for different media outlets using the same script word for word and then appears on television interview shows to repeat the message. However, perhaps the most influential and visible of the super spreaders is Pablo Iglesias, a young, charismatic Spanish politician who leads the left-wing Podemos Party. 32
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