President of Iran Set to Visit Nicaragua, Venezuela, & Cuba

 The President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisí, will travel next week to Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba to strengthen relations with these “friendly countries” in economic, political and scientific matters, the presidential office announced Wednesday.

The Iranian president will travel accompanied by a “delegation of senior officials” on his visit to these three countries, to which he travels “invited” by the dictators Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua; Miguel Díaz-Canel in Cuba; and Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.

Under the administration of Raisí, an ultra-conservative cleric, at least 580 political prisoners have been “executed”, according to the United Nations (UN).

Raisí, former head of Iran’s judiciary, will begin his Latin American tour on Sunday, when he will leave Tehran. This is his first trip to the region since he took office in August 2021. Until now, he had focused on visits to the region to strengthen relations with Iran’s neighbors.

The Iranian relationship with dictatorships

Iran maintains close ties with the dictatorships in Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba, cemented by their mutual opposition to the United States.

Ortega is one of Iran’s main allies in Latin America and has supported Iran’s nuclear program and called on Israel to “disarm” to avoid a war.

In February 2023, the governments of both countries signed a memorandum on cooperation and public consultations in Managua, during the visit of Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian to Nicaragua.

Relations between Tehran and Caracas have been very close since the time of the late President Hugo Chávez (1999-2013) and have strengthened ever since.

Iran has become one of the main allies of the Maduro government in recent years, particularly since 2020 when there was a gasoline shortage in Venezuela and Maduro asked Tehran to buy fuel.

Maduro made an official visit to Tehran in May 2022, in which he met with Raisí and with the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, who praised Venezuela’s “resistance” against the United States.

Iran and Cuba are close political allies and share their support for Venezuela and their animosity towards the USA, which keeps all these countries under sanctions.

Last year Tehran and Havana agreed to strengthen their cooperation in technology and food security, during the visit to Iran by Cuban deputy prime minister, Ricardo Cabrisas.

This article was originally published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by Havana Times