Why Maduro’s Arrest Matters to Israel

While Venezuela was not an Iranian proxy in the Syrian or Hezbollah framework, it acted as an enabler, helping to maintain Iran’s proxies.

For Israel, the significance of the arrest of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro and his wife over the weekend in Washington is even better than sending shivers down Tehran’s spine.

Yes, the prospect of a US-led operation to oust an anti-American dictator will inevitably sharpen concerns among Iran’s leaders about their own weaknesses, especially at a time when protests are raging in the country.

But another meaning is found elsewhere, as Iran dismantles another supporting pillar of the global network it has painstakingly built to finance, shield and sustain its war against Israel. Venezuela has never been an Iranian proxy like Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis or Bashar al-Assad’s Syria.

Caracas was not directly under Tehran’s thumb and operational command, nor did it host Iranian forces on the scale seen in the Middle East. Yet, through Hezbollah, Venezuela became something less important to the ayatollahs—a critical offshore hub that generated cash, looted funds, moved operatives, and enabled Iran to project power far from the Middle East.

Maduro’s arrest comes on the heels of a series of blows to Iran’s regional position. Israel struck Hamas in Gaza, decapitated Hezbollah in Lebanon, and weakened the Houthis’ capabilities in Yemen. Also, the Assad regime collapsed in Syria. Together, these developments show Iran’s declining power.

Tehran’s problem isn’t limited to the protests in the streets today or the one it absorbed in June, but the unraveling of the far-flung support system it has spent years and billions of dollars amassing abroad.

Research by US law enforcement agencies and think tanks such as the Atlantic Council over the past few years has shown that Hezbollah has not acted as a dormant terror cell awaiting activation in Venezuela; Instead, it operated as a crime-terror enterprise embedded in the Venezuelan economy and protected by the government.

‘Global Goals’

Hezbollah smuggled cocaine from Venezuela, extorted money, transferred weapons and helped the Islamic Republic evade US sanctions. Already in 2018, the US Department of Justice concluded that Hezbollah rivaled major Latin American cartels in scale and sophistication. But there was one glaring difference: the revenue generated in South America did not stay there; It was sent to Lebanon, where it helped pay for the terrorist organization’s military buildup.

Besides being a reliable source of income for Hezbollah – Iran’s senior proxy – Venezuela offered something else: a secure air and sea bridge connecting Tehran, Damascus and Caracas. It allowed the transfer of Iranian personnel, dual-use goods, fuel and cash. In other words, Venezuela actively helped Iran pursue its global goals.

While Venezuela was not an Iranian proxy in the Syrian or Hezbollah framework, it acted as an enabler, helping to maintain Iran’s proxies. In that sense, it was very much part of Iran’s world.

Just how much of that world became clear on Sunday when Vice President Delsea Rodriguez said in a televised address that the US attack “had Zionist implications.” This claim of “Zionist” involvement was not evidence of Israeli involvement; It was, however, a testament to how closely the regime identified itself with Iran’s worldview. It was a claim of both inner and outer purpose.

Internally, it was aimed at supporters of Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chávez, who turned Israel into an imperialist villain, dipping into traditional anti-Semitic tropes to rally supporters. Outwardly, it was directed at the region, where the anti-Zionist message has long served as a convenient rallying cry, as the political culture of Latin America still includes a reflexive sympathy for anti-American narratives with which Israel is often conveniently associated.

Rodriguez criticized Israel not because it was involved in US operations, but because it fit the Theran ideological framework adopted by Venezuela: domestic failures explained through a foreign conspiracy, with “Zionism” for all intents and purposes, serving as a scapegoat.

Maduro’s arrest is important to Israel because it removes another important piece from the puzzle that Iran has been putting together for years. Not a piece of the puzzle within striking distance of Israel, but an important supporting role for those within striking distance.

For years, Israel’s conflict with Iran has been about nuclear capabilities, ballistic missiles and deterrence. Less attention has been paid to quiet competition in access, financing, and safe havens.

Venezuela was part of that quiet front—never decisive in itself, but valuable to Iran because it was distant and often ignored. If, with Maduro’s arrest, Venezuela is removed from Tehran’s orbit, the Islamic Republic’s options will be further narrowed, and this precisely at a time when it is coming under great stress from within.

‘piece by piece’

Venezuela’s next step — what it will become — is uncertain. But what seems certain is that after this US intervention, the days of providing Iran with a secure foothold in the Western Hemisphere are quickly coming to an end. And for Israel, that’s reason enough to smile.

But the words of a recent interview with Venezuela’s most prominent opposition figure, Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado, give Israel even greater reason to smile. She describes Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas as foreign powers entering Venezuela under Maduro’s regime. In his words, Venezuela was not only misruled; It was commanded by external actors whose interests were directly opposed to the interests of a sovereign country.

He accompanied that pattern with warm words toward Israel, rarely heard from Caracas in decades. Asked directly in a November Israel Hayom interview whether post-Maduro Venezuela would restore ties with Israel and move its embassy to Jerusalem, Machado replied: “Of course. Venezuela will be Israel’s closest ally in Latin America.” She said cooperation with Israel would be part of a broader Venezuelan struggle against “crime and terror” that has characterized the country under Maduro’s leadership.

For Israel, those words matter less because they guarantee policy outcomes and more because they mark an ideological break with the global vision that defined Venezuela after Chávez severed ties with Jerusalem in 2009. Under Chávez and Maduro, hostility toward Israel symbolized an anti-American, anti-Western camp’s ideological relationship with the West. Machado’s language indicates a complete rejection of that framework.

For years, Iran has sought to demonstrate that its reach is global and that its options are limitless. Today’s picture looks different. Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen – and now Venezuela – tell a story not of expansion, but of contraction.

Maduro’s fall will not overhaul Israel’s strategic realities overnight, nor will it end the war.

Israel is fighting Iran’s proxies. But it represents another escalating blow to Iran’s global posture — a reminder that Iran’s power was patiently built, piecemeal, and is now being similarly dismantled.