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March 04, 2023

Chinese spy balloons were spotted in the skies of the Caribbean, while Iranian warships sailed into the South Atlantic. Incidents that may seem isolated are correlated with several conflicts taking place in Central and South America as Great Power Competition turns into Great Power Confrontation, coming to the shores of the Western Hemisphere.

 

Three years into a China-induced global pandemic, one year into the Ukraine war, Russia pulling out of the nuclear START treaty, and Iran’s Fordow nuclear site recently discovered to have close to weapons grade uranium particles—the world is inching closer to a global conflict that could see direct and non-direct actions escalate in various theaters simultaneously.

The VRIC alliance, more evident than ever, has diminished its geographic disadvantage with the United States by building joint capabilities and strategically positioning itself in Latin America and the Caribbean. Beyond all the natural differences each external state actor has with on another lies a mutually beneficial coordinated effort to shape a supposedly “multipolar” world, redesigning the international order in an authoritarian image and likeness. The primary target is the United States and democracies worldwide.

Appearing to act autonomously, Russia, Iran, and China’s actions in Latin America are becoming increasingly coordinated and more dangerous. By occupying neglected geopolitical spaces, the VRIC is capitalizing on Latin America’s turn towards the radical Left. Last year’s elections in Brazil and Colombia solidified the VRIC’s strategic gains in South America, presenting new opportunities to further destabilize the region and undermine confidence in democracy and freedom.

IRANIAN WARSHIPS BERTHED IN BRAZIL

In 1832, the Prussian military strategist, Carl von Clausewitz wrote:

«War is the realm of uncertainty; three-quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty.»

On January 11, Rear Admiral Shahram Irani stated that Iran’s Navy has deployed to all the strategic straits in the world except two, one of which is the Panama Canal. This prompted the Panama Canal Authority to release a communique signaling its neutrality commitments to keep the canal open to all vessels, during war and peace, as long as they comply with international and interoceanic norms and dues.

 

In mid-January, after the inauguration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil granted permission for two Iranian warships, the I.R.I.S. Makran and the I.R.I.S. Dena, to berth at a port in Rio de Janeiro between January 23 and 30.

The first naval ship, the Makran, is a former crude oil tanker refitted as an expeditionary seabase. It is the largest ship in Iran’s Navy. It was part of an initial voyage into the South Atlantic in 2021 prior to sailing north into the Baltic Sea en route to St. Petersburg, Russia. The second ship, the Dena, is a Moudge class frigate equipped with advanced weapons systems such as anti-ship missiles, naval cannons, and torpedo launchers. Both vessels are part of the 86th Naval Fleet of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy (IRIN) that has been used for various maritime operations to include providing security for naval exercises and asymmetric amphibious assaults.

 

The Iranian warships never arrived in Brazil in January but were spotted passing near Chilean coastal waters before entering the Drake Passage, connecting the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean to the southwestern part of the Atlantic Ocean near Antarctica. It’s reported that Chile denied the Iranian naval flotilla access to its territorial waters, but the request did not go to the defense or foreign ministry but rather directly to La Moneda, which houses the president’s office and general secretariat of Chile. The Drake Passage is also the only interoceanic channel in the Western Hemisphere not passing through sovereign territorial waters.

 

Iran ran into more obstacles as it entered the South Atlantic. The flotilla remained on “stand-by” as it approached Argentina’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), a convenient hiding place for the Iranian warships who apparently had to delay its arrival to Brazil.

Argentina’s extended EEZ, north of the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) and east of Argentina, at nautical mile 201, is the epicenter of China’s illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing fleet known as Chinese squid jiggers. China’s Maritime Militia, an auxiliary force of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), is known to “go dark” in the South China Sea by camouflaging itself through fishing boats that surround maritime borders.

 

The Iranian warships sailing in the South Atlantic went dark in early February as it was approaching Argentina’s EEZ and nautical mile 201 only to reappear near Uruguay’s territorial waters days later.

According to data collected by maritime organizations that monitor IUU fishing, at least 433 Chinese vessels have been identified near Argentina’s nautical mile 201 and almost 700,000 hours of clandestine activity has been reported in Argentina’s extended EEZ by a “patch” of Chinese fishing vessels since January 2018. This provides the perfect cover for Iranian warships to conceal any illicit activity prior to entering Brazilian territorial waters.

AUTHORITARIAN LEARNING: NORTH AFRICA TO LATIN AMERICA

Iran’s naval deployment to South America coincided with a high-level diplomatic visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian to Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba in early February. On February 2, Minister Abdollahian touched down in Managua and was welcomed by his Nicaraguan counterpart Foreign Minister Denis Moncada and the sons of dictator Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.

It appears that Managua and Tehran will begin a series of binational investments to replicate the commercial-military model Iran installed in Venezuela, turning Nicaragua into the hub to export Iranian products throughout Central America. A point emphasized by Laureano Ortega Murillo, a son of Daniel Ortega and his senior advisor for foreign trade and investment.

One week after Iran’s visit to Nicaragua, on February 9, Daniel Ortega announced the release of 222 political prisoners who were subsequently deported to the United States. 94 of them were stripped of their Nicaraguan citizenship. This happened on the same day that the Iranian regime released seven female activists from Tehran’s Evin prison after the Supreme Leader granted amnesty to several political prisoners that were incarcerated during the 2022 protest of the regime’s morality police.

After Managua, Iranian Foreign Minister Abdollahian visited Caracas to follow up on the 20-year strategic deal signed with Venezuela in 2022 on energy, technology, commerce, agriculture, and defense. The visit followed the delivery of more than one thousand Iranian manufactured cars to Venezuela, located near a strategic military base in Maracay, Aragua State, of Venezuela.

On the same day that Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro met with Iran’s foreign minister, he also signed a major reciprocal commercial agreement with Colombia. President Gustavo Petro of Colombia is warming up to Venezuela, and by extension, to its international allies, such as the Islamic Republic of Iran. On February 24, the Iranian deputy foreign minister traveled to Bogota for bilateral meetings with Colombia’s foreign and agricultural ministry in a continuation of high-level meetings and visits by Iran since President Petro’s inauguration in August 2022.

 

The Iranian foreign minister’s three country tour of Latin America concluded on February 4 in Havana, to discuss, among other issues, counter-terrorism cooperation with Cuba. This follows a U.S. diplomatic visit in January to Havana to also discuss counter-terrorism cooperation, as well as migration and counter-narcotics issues with the communist regime.

CHINA’S SECOND HIGH ALTITUDE SPY BALLOON

On February 2, as Iran’s foreign minister went wheels down in Nicaragua—a white, spherical unidentified flying object was observed in the skies above Costa Rica. Three days earlier, another High-Altitude Surveillance Balloon from China violated North American airspace through Alaska, passing over Canada, and entering the United States via Montana traveling for four days across the continental United States before being shot down over the Atlantic Ocean by the U.S. Air Force as it was leaving South Carolina.

 

China’s spy balloon raised several alarms in the U.S., given its trajectory flying over sensitive military infrastructure, to include nuclear missile sites, the air base that houses the B-2 stealth bomber, and Strategic Command (STRATCOM) at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Nebraska, which oversees the country’s nuclear forces. In Latin America, however, no alarm bells rang as a second Chinese spy balloon passed through the sovereign airspace of at least three countries in the region.

Chinese officials admitted to owning the second spy balloon spotted over Latin America when Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said that the balloon was an “unmanned research airship” that was derailed due to weather. Colombia’s air force confirmed that the balloon traveled over northern parts of the country on February 3. But contrary to the U.S. reaction to the spy balloon canceling Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s trip to Beijing, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro tweeted that he will “accelerate my trip to China to look for options [to finance] the Bogota metro,” an infrastructure project being built by APCA Transmimetro, a Chinese consortium.

 

Much like China’s spy balloon that entered the U.S., the second balloon flying over Latin America flew over sensitive military and security infrastructure, to include the Costa Rican Coast Guard (SNGCR) and Colombia’s Combat Air Command No. 3 (CACOM-3), both responsible for maritime drug interdiction (and other) operations along the sensitive and disputed Colombia-Nicaragua maritime border.

 

Costa Rica does not have an active military, therefore, depends substantially on its Coast Guard to patrol its territorial waters. Last year, the U.S. donated state of the art equipment such as interceptor boats and secure communications, to complement the two patrol vessels donated in 2017 to engage in joint operations in the Caribbean.

China’s second spy balloon was initially spotted on February 2 in Jaco, a beach town on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, southwest of the capital city, San José. It was seen leaving the country off the Caribbean coast in the province of Limón. The estimated trajectory of China’s second spy balloon flew near Costa Rican Coast Guard stations that have the mission of protecting the coast from drug trafficking and illegal fishing.

In Colombia, the National Air Defense System detected China’s spy balloon on February 3 as it traveled east along the 11th parallel at an average speed of 28 mph and entered the country through Cartagena de Indias before being spotted near Barranquilla and Valledupar on the Caribbean coast. Among other military installations, the spy balloon passed near the Combat Air Command No. 3 (CACOM-3) located at the MG Alberto Pauwels Rodríguez Air Base adjacent to the Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport on the outskirts of Barranquilla. CACOM-3 is the Colombian Air Command that is responsible for a variety of air and sea security operations within Colombian territorial waters, to include patrolling over the San Andrés Archipelago near the disputed maritime border with Nicaragua.

 

A portion of the maritime border has long been claimed by both countries, and Nicaragua gained fishing rights over a big portion in a 2012 ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague. Colombia responded back then by stating it would no longer recognize the ICJ’s jurisdiction on border disputes and continued patrolling the waters, which are used by cartels to move drugs from South to Central America. Last year, the ICJ ruled that Colombia must “immediately cease” patrolling these waters because they are within Nicaragua’s exclusive economic zone, intensifying the decades-long maritime border dispute.

WEAPONIZED PEACE

On February 24, the anniversary of the war, Lula launched a negotiated peace proposal for the one-year-old war in Ukraine. The proposal insists on creating a group of countries to mediate the conflict, a “Peace Club” as he called it, that could include China, India, and Indonesia.

 

As Lula was discussing his “peace plan” with President Biden, Iran’s warships were approaching Rio de Janeiro. Almost four months ago, on November 5, 2022, the same Iranian warships that are in Brazil were docked in Jakarta, Indonesia, and offered as a naval diplomatic mission promoting “peace” in advance of negotiations for an Iran-Indonesia preferential trade agreement. Iran, which last year formally applied to join the BRICS bloc—a more than a decade-old grouping of emerging economies—is joining Beijing in pressuring Jakarta to join the BRICS.

 

Indonesia is a strategic choke point with around 25 percent of global trade passing through the Strait of Malacca. When the I.R.I.S. Makran and I.R.I.S. Dena ported in Jakarta in 2022, they spoke of “maritime security” and protection of trade routes.” An Iranian disinformation campaign that came to Latin America in 2023 when its two warships berthed in Brazil. The global context of VRIC activities in Latin America is the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War that passed its one-year mark on February 24. On the heels of the Munich Security Conference, where President Volodymyr Zelenskyy opened with an urgent call for the free world to send more help to Ukraine—China presented a 12-point plan to end the war in Ukraine. Days prior, on February 10, Brazilian President Lula da Silva sat with President Biden at the White House to discuss, among other issues, the “state of democracy” in Brazil and worldwide, to include the Ukraine War.

The false narrative is amplified by Iran’s ambassador in Brasilia who welcomed the warships with a tweet on February 26 stating that the “Iranian Navy has at all times been a force of safety and security in our region and beyond … to fulfill its principle mission: #PEACE.”

 

After China’s spy balloon passed through Latin America and the Caribbean, the Chinese leader Xi Jinping welcomed Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in mid-February to Beijing for a three-day visit. This was Raisi’s first international trip since protests erupted in Iran last year during his participation in the United Nations General Assembly.

 

China, Russia, and Iran are the central actors in a triple threat axis that is intent on changing the international order. Venezuela is the primary Latin American proxy for this triple axis; however, Lula in Brazil and Petro in Colombia provide the VRIC with new ways and means to weaponize peace in the region and worldwide.

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Hace una década, muchos en la comunidad estadounidense de política exterior y seguridad nacional restaban importancia a una alianza emergente entre Rusia y China, y descuidaban a Irán y Venezuela como parte de la competencia de grandes potencias que se alzaba para desafiar a Estados Unidos.

 

Hoy, es una realidad. Venezuela, Rusia, Irán y China o «The VRIC» están en una alianza estratégica que es evidente en conflictos globales como la Guerra en Ucrania o a través de ejercicios navales conjuntos en el Golfo de Omán. A pesar de sus diferencias naturales, The VRIC es cada vez más activo en regiones del mundo donde Estados Unidos está disperso.

 

En 2019, comenzamos el Programa de Amenazas Transregionales del VRIC para llenar este vacío y comenzar a educar a los responsables políticos sobre el desafío multidimensional y de seguridad nacional que plantean los actores estatales externos en América Latina y el Caribe.

 

Desde entonces, hemos publicado más de dos docenas de informes detallados y hemos concedido innumerables entrevistas y sesiones informativas sobre el VRIC. Muchos de nuestros informes, denominados VRIC Monitor, han sido citados en los principales medios de comunicación, como The Wall Street Journal y The Washington Post, o presentados en diversas sesiones informativas con el Departamento de Defensa (DoD) y ejércitos asociados de todo el mundo.

 

Ahora, a través de nuestro vanguardista sitio web multimedia, el Centro para una Sociedad Libre y Segura (SFS) puede mostrar en tiempo real todas las actividades del VRIC. Accediendo al mapa virtual interactivo podrá conocer los elementos diplomáticos, informativos, militares y económicos de la influencia estratégica de las redes de RVIC. El mapa es totalmente interactivo y permite realizar búsquedas por categoría, país, cronología y palabras clave.

 

El sitio web del VRIC Monitor permite correlacionar las actividades de Venezuela, Rusia, Irán y China en diferentes países latinoamericanos al mismo tiempo y a lo largo de una línea de tiempo de cinco años, para encontrar patrones, tendencias y, en última instancia, poder analizar la influencia estratégica de los adversarios cercanos de Estados Unidos en nuestro vecindario.

 

El Monitor VRIC es el mayor repositorio de información de código abierto sobre las actividades de China, Rusia e Irán en América Latina y el Caribe. Además del mapa interactivo, el Monitor VRIC produce informes analíticos, infografías detalladas y vídeos cortos para ayudarle a interpretar las actividades más relevantes del VRIC en un mes determinado.

 

Próximamente, el VRIC Monitor contará con una sección premium por suscripción que le permitirá profundizar en la influencia de actores externos mediante el análisis forense de la desinformación digital y el seguimiento de las rutas de viaje desde el extranjero. Estos productos premium se alimentan de una base de datos interna de SFS que utiliza herramientas de inteligencia artificial (IA) y aprendizaje automático para recopilar datos masivos sobre Venezuela, Rusia, Irán y China en inglés, español, portugués y francés (se espera añadir más idiomas en el futuro).

 

Este sitio web es un proyecto iterativo de SFS y se actualizará mensualmente y se mejorará periódicamente con nuevas funciones. El mapa interactivo se lanza con un sólido conjunto de datos de casi 2.000 entradas que se remontan a 2019. Tenemos previsto seguir añadiendo nuevas entradas mensualmente.

 

Gracias por visitar el VRIC Monitor y esperamos que este servicio sea útil para su investigación y análisis y pueda informar su comprensión de las amenazas, desafíos y oportunidades de seguridad nacional de los Estados Unidos en el Hemisferio Occidental.

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A decade ago, many in the U.S. foreign policy and national security community were downplaying an emerging alliance between Russia and China, and neglected Iran and Venezuela as part of the Great Power Competition that was rising to challenge the United States.

 

Today, it’s a reality. Venezuela, Russia, Iran, and China or “The VRIC” are in a strategic alliance that is evident in global conflicts like the War in Ukraine or through joint naval exercises in the Gulf of Oman. Despite their natural differences, The VRIC ™ is increasingly active in regions of the world where the United States is spread thin.

 

In 2019, we began the VRIC Transregional Threats Program to fill this gap and start educating policymakers about the multi-dimensional, national security challenge posed by external state actors in Latin America and the Caribbean. Since then, we have published more than two dozen detailed reports and given countless interviews and briefings about The VRIC ™.

 

Many of our reports, called the VRIC Monitor, have been cited in leading media outlets, such as The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, or featured in various briefings with the Department of Defense (DoD) and partner militaries around the world.

 

Now, through our cutting-edge, multimedia website, the Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS) is able to illuminate the full range of VRIC activities in real-time. By accessing the interactive, virtual map you can learn about the diplomatic, informational, military, and economic elements of strategic influence by VRIC networks. The map is fully interactive and is searchable by category, country, timeline, and keywords.

 

The VRIC Monitor website allows you to correlate Venezuela, Russia, Iran, and China’s activities in different Latin American countries at the same time and across a five-year timeline, to find patterns, trends, and ultimately be able to analyse the strategic influence of America’s near-peer adversaries in our neighborhood.

 

The VRIC Monitor is the largest repository of open-source information on the activities of China, Russia, and Iran in Latin America and the Caribbean. Aside from the interactive map, the VRIC Monitor produces analytic reports, detailed infographics, and short videos to help you interpret the most relevant VRIC activities in a given month.

 

Coming soon the VRIC Monitor will have a subscription-based, premium section that will allow you to dig deeper into external actor influence by analyzing digital disinformation forensics and tracking travel routes from overseas. These premium products are powered by an SFS internal database that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning tools to collect bulk data on Venezuela, Russia, Iran, and China in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French (with additional languages expected to be added in the future).

 

This website is an iterative project by SFS and will be updated on a monthly basis and upgraded periodically with new features. The interactive map is launching with a robust data set of almost 2,000 entries dating back to 2019. We plan to continue to add new entries on a monthly basis.

 

Thank you for visiting the VRIC Monitor and we hope this service is useful for your research and analysis and can inform your understanding of U.S. national security threats, challenges, and opportunities in the Western Hemisphere.