On Friday the Wall Street Journal carried Mary Anastasia O'Grady's "Americas" column on "The New Tehran-Caracas axis." This column directs attention to an important subject of which too little notice has been taken:

With Iranian nuclear aspirations gaining notice this week, it's worth directing attention to the growing relationship between Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez. The Reagan administration repulsed Soviet efforts to set up camp in Central America. Iranian designs on Venezuela perhaps deserve similar U.S. attention.

The warmth and moral support between Ahmadinejad and Chávez is very public. The two tyrants are a lot more than just pen pals. Venezuela has made it clear that it backs Iran's nuclear ambitions and embraces the mullahs' hateful anti-Semitism. What remains more speculative is just how far along Iran is in putting down roots in Venezuela...

[I]n a Christmas Eve TV broadcast, Chávez declared that "minorities, the descendants of those who crucified Christ, have taken over the riches of the world." That ugly anti-Semitic swipe was of a piece with an insidious assault over the past several years on the country's Jewish community. In 2004, heavily armed Chávez commandos raided a Caracas Jewish school, terrifying children and parents. The government's claim that it had reason to believe that the school was storing arms was never supported. A more reasonable explanation is that the raid was part of the Chávez political strategy of fomenting class hatred -- an agenda that finds a vulnerable target in the country's Jewish minority -- and as a way to show Tehran that Venezuela is on board. Ahmadinejad rivals Adolf Hitler in his hatred for the Jewish people.

It's tough to tell whether Chávez is a committed bigot or whether his anti-Semitism and embrace of the mullahs are simply a part of his calculated efforts to annoy the Yanquis. But it doesn't make much difference. The end result is that the Iranian connection introduces a new element of instability into Latin America.

In his efforts to provoke the U.S., the Venezuelan no doubt hopes that saber rattling against imperialismo can stir up nationalist sentiment and save his floundering regime. That view argues that the U.S. would do best to ignore him, but it's not easy to ignore a Latin leader who seems intent on forging stronger ties with two of the worst enemies of the U.S., Ahmadinejad and Fidel Castro...

Property rights are being abolished. This week, authorities invaded numerous "unoccupied" apartments in Caracas to hand them over to party faithful, part of a wider scheme to "equalize" life for Venezuelans...

The Iranian news agency MEHR said last year that the two countries have signed contracts valued at more than $1 billion. In sum, Iranians, presiding over an economy that is itself crumbling into disrepair, are going to build Venezuela 10,000 residential units and a batch of manufacturing plants, if MEHR can be believed. Chávez reportedly says these deals -- presumably financed with revenues that might be better employed repairing the vital bridge -- include the transfer of "technology" from Iran and the importation of Iranian "professionals" to support the efforts.

Details on the Iranian "factories" -- beyond a high-profile tractor producer and a widely publicized cement factory -- remain sketchy. But what is clear is that the importation of state agents from Hugo-friendly dictatorships hasn't been a positive experience for Venezuelans. Imported Cubans are now applying their "skills" in intelligence and state security networks to the detriment of Venezuelan liberty. It is doubtful that the growing presence of Iranians in "factories" across Venezuela is about boosting plastic widget output. The U.S. intelligence agencies would do well to make a greater effort to find out exactly what projects the Chávez-Ahmadinejad duo really have in mind. Almost certainly, they are up to no good.

Juan of Paxety Pages directs our attention to O'Grady's column and writes: "Chavez and his mentor Fidel Castro have long desired nuclear weapons to threaten the US mainland. The missles already owned by Iran could, I believe, strike a large part of the US from a base in Venezuela. [W]e should be concerned with strikes against us - and Iran, with the help of Chavez, Castro and now Evo Morales in Bolivia, may just give them a way to hit us directly."

On the Daily Standard last week, Aaron Mannnes also discussed Chavez's drift toward anti-Semitism and his alliance with Iran in "Blast from the past."