Ahmadinejad embarks on Latin American tour, Obama peeved

Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will embark on a five -nation tour in Latin America on Sunday as tensions continue to grow between the United States and Iran. Howard LaFranchi of the Christian Science Monitor touts the tour as "designed to counter perceptions of Iran’s growing international isolation over its nuclear program."

Ahmadinejad is set to visit Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Cuba and Guatemala. This will be his second trip to Latin America since 2009. Iran has stressed the importance of the region to Iran.

"The promotion of all-out cooperation with Latin American countries is among the top priorities of the Islamic republic’s foreign policy,” said the official IRIB News Agency last week.

While Ahmadinejad's previous trip to Latin America in 2009 did not draw much comment from the United States, this time strong words have been issued by American officials.

"As responsible nations toughen sanctions on Iran and the regime becomes increasingly isolated, it makes sense that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would seek a helping hand from fellow dictators and human rights abusers," said Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)., who also dubbed the visit the "Tour of Tyrants."

Additionally in a recent interview with El Universal newspaper in Caracas, Venezuela, Obama commented that the Venezuelan government’s “ties with Iran and Cuba have not benefited the interests of Venezuela and its people.”

“Sooner or later Venezuela’s people will have to decide what possible advantage there is in having relations with a country that violates fundamental human rights [...] is isolated from most of the world [and] has consistently supported international terrorism.”