Iranian and Hezbollah activity in South America – games in the backyard

Iran Early Bird

Some two months ago, the U.S. Treasury, which, as part of the war on international terror, is responsible, inter alia, for tracking and thwarting the transfer of funds to terror groups around the world, designated two Venezuela-based Hezbollah activists. The two, natives of Lebanon, were named as Ghazi Nasr al Din and Fawzi Kan'an. The U.S. Treasury also designated two travel agencies owned and controlled by Kan'an. According to a statement released by the U.S. Treasury, "It is extremely troubling to see the Government of Venezuela employing and providing safe harbor to Hezbollah facilitators and fundraisers. We will continue to expose the global nature of Hezbollah's terrorist support network, and we call on responsible governments worldwide to disrupt and dismantle this activity."



In mid-July, the El Universal newspaper's website exposed intelligence information from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that claimed that members of the Gulf and Sinaloa Mexican drug cartels were being sent to Iran to be trained in the use of explosives and as snipers by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). According to the sources, the drug cartel members were traveling from Mexico to Venezuela and then on to Iran on weekly flights to Tehran. In some cases, the sources said, the drug cartel members were traveling on Venezuelan passports. According to the newspaper, a number of "Lebanese terrorists who belong to Iran [Hezbollah]" have managed to secure Mexican citizenship by way of marriages arranged by drug cartels in the country.



Police in Ecuador reported recently that they had apprehended members of an international drug smuggling network that was "funding" the Lebanon-based Hezbollah organization. Authorities in Ecuador refused to provide details on the alleged ties between the drug network and Hezbollah, but noted that the drug network had transferred 70 percent of its profits to the Lebanon-based group. Senior Ecuadorian officials identified the leader of the drug network as the owner of a Lebanese restaurant in the capital, Quito.



The aforementioned statement from the U.S. Treasury, the El Universal report and the report from the Ecuadorian government constitute just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Iran and Hezbollah's involvement in criminal activity, and the drug trade in particular, terrorism and the export of the Islamic revolution throughout South America – the United States' backyard.



Venezuela – the anchor for Iranian and Hezbollah activity in South America

Western anti-terrorism experts quoted in the Los Angeles Times fear that Hezbollah, Iran's spearhead in the Middle East, is taking advantage of the ever-improving ties between Iranian President Ahmadi-Nejad and his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez, to set up base in Venezuela for the purpose of promoting its activities on the American continent. "It's becoming a strategic partnership between Iran and Venezuela," said one anti-terrorism expert, with others noting that several joint Venezuelan-Iranian business operations had been set up in Venezuela with huge Iranian investment, including tractor, cement and auto factories. In addition, the two countries have formed a $2-billion program to fund social projects in Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America.



The Western experts quoted in the report also noted that Iranian terror and intelligence elements, agents of the IRGC and Hezbollah activists were making use of the Iranian national airline, IranAir, for their terrorist activities.



Iranian activity in Bolivia is on the rise too. Ahmadi-Nejad visited Bolivia in September 2007, and Bolivian President Evo Morales paid a reciprocal visit to Tehran in late July 2008, when he described the two countries as "revolutionary friends." In late September, Morales urged Iran to invest in the gas and petrochemical infrastructure in his country; and an Iranian diplomat said recently that Iran had plans to open a television channel in Bolivia and also several commercial enterprises, including a cement company and dairies.



South America is home to a large Lebanese Shia diaspora, which serves as fertile ground for the recruitment of activists and the criminal activities of organized crime groups that focus on the drug trade and money laundering, primarily in the area of the Brazil-Paraguay-Argentina border triangle. Monies from these operations then serve to finance Hezbollah's ongoing operations in Lebanon and the organization's terror activities.



Venezuela-Lebanon-Iran-Venezuela

The two Hezbollah activists designated as terror elements by the U.S. Treasury are alleged to have "facilitated the travel" of Hezbollah members to and from Venezuela and to a "training course in Iran." Treasury officials also formally accused Ghazi Nasr al Din of exploiting his positions at Venezuelan embassies in the Middle East (in Syria and Lebanon) and his status as president of a Shia Muslim center in Caracas to support financing for Hezbollah. According to the U.S. Treasury, Nasr al Din advised donors on financial contributions to Hezbollah and provided them with the numbers of specific bank accounts into which to deposit the funds.



Nasr al Din is also alleged to have met with senior Hezbollah officials to "discuss operational issues." He is believed to have helped Hezbollah activists to travel to and from Venezuela; and in January 2006, he arranged for two Hezbollah members of the Lebanese parliament to travel to Venezuela for a fund-raising drive and to dedicate a Hezbollah-supported community center in the country.



The link between terror and the drug trade – narco-terrorism

Speaking early this year at a conference on South American affairs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Admiral James Stavridis, head of the U.S. Southern Command, expressed grave concerns "that the connectivity between narco-terrorism and Islamic radical terrorism could be disastrous in this region.” According to Stavridis, “What I worry about in this region with outside actors coming into it is the potential for those streams to cross, if you will, for the fuel of narco-terrorism to become engaged in Islamic radicalism here in the Americas, here in our home.”



The address by Stavridis, who oversees U.S. military activity in South America, was accompanied by background pictures of Ahmadi-Nejad and the presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia. Pointing at the picture of the Iranian president, Stavridis said: "This gentleman is Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, president of Iran, a state that sponsors terrorism.

"He is a very dangerous man and he is in this area of the world,” the admiral continued, noting that Iran had already opened 10 embassies in Latin America. “President Ahmadi-Nejad says he wants to have an embassy in every country in this region,” Stavridis said.



“Today, in Latin America, there is a competitive environment for us politically. The United States needs to be a good competitor in this marketplace. We need to show why our ideas are better, are sensible [and] will produce good results,” the admiral added, referring to “capitalism, free-trade agreements, human rights, democracy and liberty.”



Stavridis said the drug traffickers were becoming increasingly sophisticated and that as a result, there was a need for a change of tactics in order to apprehend them. According to the admiral, the drug traffickers are finding ways to avoid being detected at sea and are shipping their drugs in submarine-like vessels (note, Iran has boasted recently about its ability to manufacture submarines) and are also flying them out from locations in north Venezuela and that the law enforcement authorities are struggling to locate and intercept the shipments.



For his part, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Thomas A. Shannon said in June this year that Iran "has a history of terror in this hemisphere [South America], and its linkages to the bombings in Buenos Aires [the Israeli Embassy in 1992, and the AMIA Jewish community center in 1994] are pretty well established." Shannon added that the United States was concerned that Iran could use this infrastructure in the event of a conflict with the United States.



The spreading of Islam

Over and above Iran and Hezbollah's terrorist and criminal operations in South America, Iran is also busy with "social-religious" activities for the purpose of spreading the Shia faith in South America and converting various populations throughout the continent.



In an interview with an Iranian website, Iran's ambassdor to Mexico, Mahmoud Hassan Kadiri Abyane, explained why South America is fertile ground for the spreading of Islam, commenting: "During my time in Mexico, I have been in contact with various segments of the population – young people, youths and adults, pupils, students and lecturers and the like. I am under the impression that in general, there is very fertile ground in Latin America for the presentation of Islam. One needs to pay attention to a number of aspects in this field:

a. "Latin America was conquered by Imperialism… Christian missionaries stood alongside the soldiers, the torturers… These are harsh memories that are etched in historical memory. As a result, Catholicism, which is the ruling religion in Mexico, was introduced there by Imperialism."

b. "America treats the Mexican and Latin immigrants in a disgraceful manner… All residents of Mexico, from the president down to the regular citizen, expresses dissatisfaction with this. The bad attitude towards the immigrants deeply offends the Mexicans and residents of Latin America… As a result, anti-American positions characterize Latin America."

c. "The extensive cultural influence of the United States in Latin America and Mexico… The influence that has infiltrated in various ways and naturally encourages secular culture and weakens the religious fanatcism of the Latins. One the one hand, this is a negative point in light of the corrupting culture of the Americans. On the other hand, the lack of religious zealousness with regard to Catholicism, or the weakening of this zealousness, paves the way for a link to Islam and the acceptance of Islam."



Abyane notes that Iran distributes more than 300 Spanish-language Islamic books in South America, including on CDs. He also comments on the fact that in Mexico, for example, due to emigration on the part of men, the women outnumber the men there by some seven million. Catholicism, he continues, does not permit divorce or polygamy, and as a result, those seven million women are forced to remain single and never to bear children. From the point of view of the civil law in Mexico, Latin America and Europe, these women will be able to marry only if seven million men divorce their wives! Iran and Hezbollah are taking advantage of this social situation to obtain citizenship for activists originally from Lebanon and/or Iran so that they will be able to move around freely without raising fears.



Games in the backyard

Iranian President Ahmadi-Nejad has made a point of posing a challenge to the United States in its own "backyard" – a challenge similar to the one that Iran is posing in its backyard in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf. In an interview with the Kayhan daily, Ahmadi-Nejad said that "in all places from which the United States and Britain are ousted by the peoples and nations, the model of the Islamic revolution is welcomed – from Lebanon to Palestine and all the way to a distance of thousands of miles in South America."



For the Iranian vision of an all-Islam world – a vision enthusiastically stressed by Ahmadi-Nejad in the framework of his messianic belief in the Mahdi (the messiah according to the Shia religion) – South America serves as virgin ground for Iranian political, religious and economic activity. Iran is conducting Islamization activities in South America by means, inter alia, of the Ahl-Albeit organization (a body concerned with the spreading of the Shia word around the world) and Shia centers operating throughout the continent.



Iran is operating there in its familiar fashion, and through its spearhead, Hezbollah, with the objective of coming to some kind of strategic balance with the United States. In keeping with this logic, the U.S. threat to Iran will be answered by a similar Iranian threat in the U.S. backyard in Latin America. Hence, Iran is operating through a number of channels: It is upgrading its diplomatic and economic ties with countries (Venezuela and Bolivia) that lead the anti-American line on the continent; and it has no qualms about aiding and maintaining ties with elements affiliated with organized crime and drug trafficking in order to finance Hezbollah activities and strengthen countries and elements that are able to weaken the United States from within (drug traffickers).



"Bush must certainly be shocked to see Ahmadi-Nejad warmly welcomed in Latin America," the Iranian Resalat daily wrote during the Iranian president's visit to South America.