Castro-Chavism, Iran's wild card in asymmetric warfare

By: Hugo Marcelo Balderrama - 13/07/2025

Guest columnist.
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Walking through Bolivia's major cities, one comes across several Iranian medical centers. For example, the Iranian Hospital has been operating in El Alto, the fourth most populated city in the country, behind La Paz, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and Cochabamba, since 2009. Low costs for the specialties of General Medicine, Internal Medicine, Gynecology and Obstetrics, Pediatrics, Traumatology, Surgery, Ophthalmology, Dentistry, Clinical Laboratory, Radiology, and Ultrasound are the communication tactics used to present themselves as a quality option for those most in need.

However, is there no saint who distrusts such a large alms?

This same phenomenon was already seen in Venezuela in past decades. Therefore, Iran's presence in Latin America does not respond to sound humanitarian interests in supporting the most needy in our countries, but rather to a destabilization strategy that seeks to annoy the United States in its own region. Hezbollah is the most lethal attack card, as its merger with authoritarian regimes and criminal organizations has provided it with an enormous source of funding for its asymmetric warfare. In this regard, the Center for a Secure Free Society, a geopolitical research institute, highlights in its report, "Iran's Strategy for the Americas":

In Venezuela, advisors to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) openly talk about building "Caribbean Houthis"—small boats armed with missiles, mines, and kamikaze drones that can cut off US or allied fleets from the South Atlantic. The vessels' shallow draft allows them to prowl both riverine and coastal areas. Venezuelan commanders have already paired them with Iranian-made loitering munitions for saturation attack exercises.

Likewise, in Bolivia, the dictatorship of the Movement Toward Socialism, first under Evo Morales and then under Luis Arce Catacora, gave the Iranian theocracy the opportunity to influence the Armed Forces and, moreover, to set up training centers in the Chapare region of Cochabamba. The "teachers," actually terrorists, indoctrinate recruits with a mixture of religion and subversion.

Ideologically, Iran's narrative was championed and amplified by the radical left in Bolivia, particularly indigenous movements. By presenting the Islamic Revolution as parallel to the anti-imperialist struggles of indigenous peoples, Iran inserted itself into the coca growers' groups and the militants of the late Felipe Quispe, El Mallku. Nicaragua and Cuba acted as ideological amplifiers, offering diplomatic platforms and propaganda infrastructure such as HispanTV and TeleSUR. Not to mention the university professors who used, and still use, their classrooms as relay antennas.

Consequences?

Intelligence reports from Argentina, Chile, and Peru show that Bolivia has transformed from a host country for terrorists into a training center and a springboard for the export of radical and violent individuals. This nexus between crime, Castro-Chavismo, and terrorism has given Hezbollah access to logistical networks that reach the U.S. border.

Human trafficking networks, which thrive on the millions of Latinos fleeing hunger caused by dictatorships, now transport not only migrants but also terrorists, as U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has clearly explained.

It is in this context that the confrontation between Israel and Iran, which has so far contained hostilities, must be viewed as part of a global war, where there are no neutral countries. In this regard, Carlos Sánchez Berzain, in his article "Israel, the Defense of International Peace and Security, and Global Geopolitical Change," emphasizes:

On the Gaza front, the Trump administration's goal is also to end the conflict, but Iran is preventing this, and Israel has opted for a frontal fight against the perpetrator and supporter of that and other conflicts. Therefore, Israeli actions against the theocratic regime, which can now be called the Israel/Iran war, are bringing about global geopolitical change by weakening Iranian support for Russia, diminishing or paralyzing support for terrorist groups, halting Iranian theocratic military/cultural expansion in Latin America and Africa, and putting the existence of the ayatollah regime at risk.

In conclusion, will the next national government have a strategy to free Bolivia from the web of organized crime and, thus, stop being a pawn of the Iranian theocracy?

«The opinions published herein are the sole responsibility of its author».