Iran seeks to oxygen among its allies in Latin America

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has traveled for the fifth time today to Latin America to undertake a whirlwind tour of five days in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Ecuador, seeking political and financial support to enable it to circumvent the blockade imposed by the West because of its nuclear program. As in the four previous occasions, Ahmadinejad has started his visit in the office of Hugo Chavez, the president opened six years ago the regime of the ayatollahs the doors of the region and with the same rhetoric he preaches against the U.S. imperialist .

"The culture of the peoples of this region and its historical claims are similar to the Iranian people," Ahmadinejad said before departing with three of his ministers to these four countries claiming to be socialists. "The people of Latin America has had an anti-colonial thought and is now up and stand against the excesses of the regime of oppression," he said. Outside the journey is Brazil, which is ostensibly unmarked Rousseff Iran since becoming president.

Ahmadinejad's trip comes amid military turmoil of the waters of the Persian Gulf when the Iranian economy, in the red, does not appear for many trips, and when internal disputes erode the regime.

Just last week, on January 2, Tehran announced the success of its military maneuvers in the Strait of Hormuz, the outlet channel 40% of global oil production, Iran threatened to close if the U.S. and Europe tightens up sanctions .

The Iranian leader to visit Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Cuba. Brazil, which has been unchecking of Tehran, is
out of the journey
Iran's decision to go ahead with its nuclear program has won four rounds of Security Council sanctions the UN and Western powers, with the consequent stifling of the economy. Only in the last year, the currency, the rial, has accumulated a fall of 66% and has lost 12% of its value against the dollar. The Jan. 30 are expected foreign ministers of the EU adopt new sanctions against Tehran over its refusal to halt a program that experts aimed at getting the atomic bomb.

Washington is closely following the Iranian president's itinerary in the region and pointed to Nicaragua and Ecuador, through phone calls paths, reprisals to those exposed to closer ties with Iran. "We are reaching out to countries in the region to explain what he means our new legislation for those who negotiate with the Central Bank of Iran," he told Efe William Ostick, spokesman for the State Department's Latin America. Ostick referred to the Defense spending bill passed by Barack Obama last December 31, for the first time establishes sanctions against any foreign institution to trade on the Central Bank of Iran. For Victoria Nuland, State Department spokesman, Ahmadinejad's journey is a desperate move: "As the regime feels increasing pressure, is desperate for friends."

Venezuela is a clear example of the penalties they can threaten the United States: in 2006, and until now, the Government of Venezuela was decertified "for failing to cooperate fully with antiterrorism efforts," and in May 2011, Washington imposed sanctions on the state Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), which prevent it from establishing contracts or obtain funding from the U.S. government for selling gasoline to Iran components. And on Sunday the U.S. Embassy in Caracas confirmed the expulsion of the Venezuelan consul in Miami, Livia Acosta, appointed to work between 2006 and 2008 in an alleged Iranian plan to run a computer attack against U.S. nuclear plants in the Cuba would also have helped.

U.S. has expelled the Venezuelan consul in Miami, Livia Acosta, accused of collaborating in an Iranian plan to run a computer attack against U.S. nuclear plants
These warnings have to Caracas and Havana do not care. Hugo Chavez is expected to Ahmadinejad with open arms since September 2011, when he was suspended an Iranian president's visit to Caracas because of cancer detected Chavez. Since 2006, Venezuela and Iran will join about 300 agreements on energy cooperation, petrochemical, commercial, industrial, banking, education, tourism, telecommunications, technology transfer and development of biotechnology, nanotechnology and space services. But the agenda of the new meeting to be held on Monday, has not been revealed. And more than business, Chavez has said that Ahmadinejad is for him "a brother who is resisting like a mountain to the aggressions of imperialism and colonialism."