Venezuela is “carrying out the first studies” toward building a nuclear energy program, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced on September 27. “We’re taking on the project of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and they aren’t going to stop us,” Chávez told a news conference.

Venezuela also has a deal with Moscow for Russia to build a nuclear reactor in the country. Yet these are probably not the most concerning of Venezuela’s nuclear projects.

At a briefing on September 21, Roger F. Noriega, former assistant secretary at the State Department and visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, unveiled evidence that Venezuela has been working closely with Iran in order to keep the rogue Middle Eastern power supplied with uranium.

“Chávez has been developing the program for two years with the collaboration of Iran, a nuclear rogue state,” wrote Noriega in Foreign Policy, after the briefing. “In addition to showing the two states’ cooperation on nuclear research, these documents suggest that Venezuela is helping Iran obtain uranium and evade international sanctions, all steps that are apparent violations of the UN Security Council resolutions meant to forestall Iran’s illegal nuclear weapons program.”

“Chávez’s suggestion that he is merely studying the idea of a nuclear energy program is misleading,” he said. “In fact, in November 2008, Iranian and Venezuelan officials signed a secret ‘science and technology’ agreement formalizing cooperation ‘in the field of nuclear technology.’ … The week after the agreement was signed, Venezuela’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum prepared a presentation for the International Atomic Energy Agency documenting the establishment of a ‘nuclear power program’ in Venezuela. That presentation, obtained from sources within the Venezuelan government, reveals that an ‘Atomic Energy Committee’ has been managing the nuclear program since 2007.”

Noriega also pointed to a number of Iranian projects in the Roraima basin, close to Venezuela’s border with Guyana. In that area, Iran ostensibly has a gold mine, a tractor factory and a cement factory.

The Roraima basin also has one of the world’s largest deposits of uranium, according to Canadian uranium exploration firm U308 Crop.

Eyewitnesses say the cement plant has not produced as much as one bag of cement. Noriega’s sources claim that instead it is processing ore from the mine, and sending it on to a nearby river port, where the ore is taken to Iranian vessels and quietly taken back to Iran.

Very few tractors have come out of the tractor factory, which according to eyewitnesses is surrounded by Venezuelan soldiers. A shipment marked “tractor parts” bound for the factory was intercepted in December 2008. It contained bomb-making material and components of an explosives lab.

Venezuela is not the only Latin American country doing nuclear deals with Iran. The Israeli Foreign Ministry published a document that stated that Israel has evidence that Bolivia is supplying Iran with uranium. The same document also said that Venezuela was trading uranium with Iran.

These nations have strong links with drug smugglers, and they hate America. They are willing to deal with any of America’s enemies, be it Russia, China, Iran or any other that may crop up in the future. Venezuela is sending and receiving dangerous material to and from Iran.

These nations represent a grave danger to the U.S., especially when they ally with America’s more powerful enemies. On their own they may not be able to do much. But they can offer any nation that hates America a foot in America’s back door. For more information, see our article “Is Chávez Helping Terrorists Go Nuclear?”