As tensions between the United States and Venezuela mount, U.S. senators warned of the Latin American country’s drug and money laundering ties to Hezbollah.
At a hearing of the U.S. Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control earlier in the week, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) described the ties between the Lebanese terrorist group and the regime of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
“Hezbollah collaborates extensively with government officials in Venezuela on intelligence infrastructure, securing arms, identification documents, bank accounts and pipelines for moving operatives and equipment,” Cornyn said, citing a 2025 RAND study.
“I think for many Americans, including me and other members of Congress, we always believed or knew that there were terrorist operatives in South America because of the well-known terrorist attacks that we’ve talked about here,” he said, “but perhaps didn’t know that Hezbollah was so intertwined with the government of President Maduro, as it was previously with President Chavez of Venezuela.”
U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the USS Gerald Ford into the Caribbean on Friday in the latest sign of escalating tensions between the United States and Venezuela that have also included sinking suspected drug boats and flying military aircraft off Venezuela’s coast.
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) said on Tuesday that Israel had “absolutely annihilated Hezbollah” by killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah in 2024 and killing or wounding thousands of its members using exploding pagers that same year.
“Israel did America a huge favor by taking down this absolute, strong terror network,” the senator said. “I see a lot of handwringing here about Israel and not supporting Israel when in reality, that was a key cog.”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said that he believed that Hezbollah, Venezuela and other rogue states and terrorist groups are interlinked through finance.
“A considerable amount of the evil in the world is supported by a shadow financial system that operates to accomplish two things: One, protect these criminals’ and kleptocrats’ assets behind rule of law, while at the same time protecting the criminals’ and kleptocrats’ assets from rule of law, which is accomplished by secret accounts and secret means of transferring funds,” Whitehouse said.
“That is dangerous to all of us,” he said. “We need to focus on it.”
