The October 23, 2006 failed explosive operation in Caracas

On October 23, 2006, the Baruta Municipality police found two explosive devices near the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela. One of the bombs was found in a box containing leaflets making reference to the Lebanese radical Islamic group Hezbollah. The local television news network, Globovision, reported one of the devices found in a flowerpot near the Embassy, while the other device found outside a school, near the diplomatic premises.

Wilfredo Porras, acting director of the Baruta police, said they arrested a man carrying “a backpack with six containers of 100 black powder bases, pliers, adhesive tape, glue and electric leads". At that time, the suspect declared the devices were “set to explode in 15 minutes".[1]

“The idea was apparently to create alarm and publicize a message", Borraz told reporters, explaining that the explosives were made to scatter the pamphlets.[2] It is possible that the second device was intended to explode near the Israeli Embassy but the suspect got nervous and dropped it near the American Embassy.

The arrested man is Jose Miguel Rojas Espinoza, a 26-year-old student of the state-run Bolivarian University founded by President Hugo Chaves, offering free education.

An organization calling itself the Hezbollah Latin America (Hezbollah LA) took responsibility for the attack on October 25 on their website and promised they would stage other simultaneous attacks, with the same goal of publicizing the organization. The website presented Rojas as “the brother mujahedeen, the first example of dignity and struggle in the cause of Allah, the first prisoner of the revolutionary Islamic movement Hezbollah Venezuela”.[3] The organization already threatened to explode a non-lethal device on August 18, 2006, which is surprising since they publicly announced their plans and because no one seemed to take notice to this warning. The target mentioned was an ally of the U.S. in a Latin American city in order to launch its propaganda campaign. Hezbollah Venezuela would see this as a beginning of their war against imperialism and Zionism and to show its solidarity with the Lebanese Hizballah after the July war in Lebanon (see Annex 1).

Prior to their announcement, in a strategic statement titled “The Jihad in America will begin in 2007”, Hezbollah leader in Latin America (and Venezuela) Teodoro Darnott announced that two “Latin mujahedeen” had been given orders to place two explosive devices in a Latin American city. The organization promised to announce the event beforehand and stated that the goal of the operation was to alert the public of the beginning of their war against imperialism and Zionism.

Hezbollah Venezuela

Several months ago, a website presenting itself as “the mouthpiece of Hezbollah LA” became active through the following link: http://groups.msn.com/ autonomiaislamicawayuu/hezboallah.msnw. Interestingly, the website is written in Spanish and Chapateka, a mixture of the Indian Maya language and ancient Spanish.

Although the website is claiming activity of Hezbollah LA in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador and Mexico, the backbone of the organization is Hezbollah Venezuela. They present themselves as Autonomia Islamica Wayuu and are led by Teodoro Rafael Darnott, who also leads the Latin American “network”.[4] The second most active group appears to be in Argentina, while the other organizations are practically inactive, at least on the Internet.

Hezbollah Venezuela has had a rather unusual development. According to a Venezuelan opposition blogger, Gustavo Coronel, the organization started in 1999 as a Wayuu community project for micro farming, in an area Northwest of Maracaibo, Venezuela. The leader of the small group, Teodoro Rafael Darnott, was a member of the tribe. It seems that the project failed to catch enough attention of the authorities. Therefore, in 2001, Darnott made an opportunistic political move by joining Chavez’s political party, MVR (Movimiento Quinta República). Darnott was given a letter signed by one of the regional leaders of the party describing him as “a national authority”. Still, the project, now called by Darnott “Mi Pequeño País” (My Little Country), failed to make the desired headway. Therefore, he changed the name of the group to "Jehovah Nisi", a name with Evangelical overtones, and began to call himself “Commander Teodoro”.

It is unclear when Commander Teodoro decided to switch, once more, to become a follower of Hezbollah. He gives the impression of being very uncultured and certainly not an expert on the Islamic religion or ways of life. Opposition blogger Coronel estimates that at some point in time the real “Islamic fanatics” probably contacted him since “they saw in Teodoro Darnott an ambitious man. He was looking for a way to make some money with a group already formed and a certain capacity of leadership over all members of his Wayuu tribe. Teodoro Darnott appears as the visible head but he must be coached from the sidelines, effectively controlled by the professionals”.[5]

“What is the short-term objective of Hezbollah Venezuela?” asks Coronel. He evaluates that “they are not interested in a violent stage, although they claim (a bluff, since they openly say it) to be considering a terrorist act of low intensity to make themselves known. The main objective of Hezbollah in Venezuela is, most probably, to make a psychological impact, to let the world know they are there. They are eager for attention.”[6]

This was also the evaluation of Spanish academic researchers at Jihad Monitor which analyzed the group’s websites, as expressed in Manuel R. Torres Soriano’s article “The fascination of Success: The Case of Hezbollah in Latin America (in Spanish)”. In his article, Soriano emphasizes the leftist revolutionary background and rhetoric of the group.

Darnott traces the origins of Hezbollah Venezuela to a small Marxist faction called “The Guaicaipuro Movement for National Liberation (Proyecto Movimiento Guaicaipuro por la Liberación Nacional - MGLN)”, which struggled against the oppression of the poor, indigenous peasants in the Valle de Caracas region (see Annex 2). Darnott presented himself as Commander Teodoro, with the clear intention to imitate Subcomandante Marcos, the Mexican guerrilla leader in Chiapas, and the insurgency of the Zapatista movement. According to this account, the MGLN did not withstand the pressure of the security forces and was forced to retreat to Colombia. The group returned after five years to Venezuela to convert themselves to Hezbollah, without a clear explanation for this metamorphosis.[7]

Soriano considers significant the group’s synergy with the so-called “Bolivarian revolution” in Venezuela. In one of its ideological editorials, the group expresses enormous respect and positive appreciation for the achievements of Hugo Chavez’s regime: “Hezbollah America Latina respects the Venezuelan revolutionary process, supports the policies of this process concerning the social benefices for the poor and the anti-Zionist and anti-American policy of this revolution”.[8] However, the group does not accept the socialist ideology, not because they opposes it, but because Hezbollah’s ideology is “theocratic and obeys divine rules”. Therefore, for a new Venezuela to emerge, the revolution should aspire “to the divine and the moral” and should support firmly the Hezbollah "political-military project”.[9]

The strategy “to change Venezuela” as derived from their website includes: total destruction of the sex industry; attacking the upper classes who are “the most corrupt”; attacking corruption in government and in the masses, both civilians and military; attacking false idols and satanic cults, as defined by the organization.[10]

Hezbollah Argentina

A thorough analysis of the Hezbollah Argentina website shows a striking different picture from that of Hezbollah Venezuela. While the Venezuelan group is based on indigenous Wayuu Indians with a strong leftist background and revolutionary rhetoric, the Argentinean group seems to include radical rightist mixed with leftist populist elements; the two trends with very close relations with the local Arab Shi’a community and the Iranian regime.

The rightist influence is clear in the publication of some of the most anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and anti-American texts of Norberto Ceresole, including “The Falsification of the Argentinean Reality in the Geopolitical Space of the Jewish Terrorism” and “The Attacks in Buenos Aires a Product of the Infiltration of the Jewish Fundamentalism in the Service of the Israeli Counter-Espionage”. In fact, on the Hezbollah Argentina website, some photos from the suicide bombings at the Israeli Embassy (1992) and the Jewish Community AMIA building (1994) are sub-titled “Jewish terrorism”. It is interesting to note that the Ceresole texts are probably downloaded in exact form and fonts from the website of Radio Islam[11] and a Shi’a website.[12]

Norberto Rafael Ceresole was an Argentine sociologist and political scientist (died in 2003), who identified himself with Peronism. He was active in the 1970s in the left-wing Argentinean terrorist groups ERP (Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo) and Montoneros, later to become a neo-fascist, anti-Semite, Holocaust denier and viscerally anti-Israel. He was an adviser to leftists, as well as radical rightist politicians and military leaders in his country (such as Aldo Rico, Raúl de Sagastizabal and Mohamed Seineldín, a.k.a. “Carapintada”) and across Latin America. According to his own account Ceresole made contact with the Iranian regime immediately after the bombing of the Jewish AMIA building in 1994. His accusation was that the Jews and the Israeli Secret Services were responsible. Ceresole visited Iran and Lebanon, where he met “an important, intelligent Arab movement, a patriotic group active in Southern Lebanon”. It seems that he even wrote a book on Hezbollah and published it in Spain.[13]

In a letter to his “Iranian friends”, Ceresole tried to prove that there is a parallel between the Shi’a faith and what he calls “the minority, pre-conciliar traditional Catholicism” (before the Vatican II Council), which is theologically irreconcilable with Judaism. Ceresole considers Iran, since the Khomeini revolution, to be “the center of resistance to the Jewish aggression” and the only state that has supplanted “the secular Arab resistance” in fighting the Jewish State. But according to Ceresole, many would like to see the Iranian “counterstrategy” not only resist the Israeli aggressiveness, but destroy every piece of it, one by one. Moreover, Ceresole states, “the struggle against the Jewish State cannot be circumscribed geographically only to the Middle East”.[14]

The more popular leftist trend is present in the cooperation with Quebracho, a small Argentinean militant group. Hezbollah Argentina’s website proudly announced, in September 2006, that a demonstration by a group of some 20 Quebracho militants had thwarted a protest manifestation of the Jewish community in front of the Iranian Embassy.

The Patriotic Revolutionary Movement (Movimiento Patriótico Revolucionario - MPR) Quebracho, affirms to be a political organization fighting for “a socially just, economically independent and politically sovereign country” for the “National Anti-imperialist Revolution”. According to their vision, violence is a response to the violence of the system and injustice. Therefore, the group is not opposed to violence from the people, who have the right to justice and defense. For example, the group claims that President Chavez of Venezuela, who won the democratic elections, is accused by his imperialist enemies to be violent and a dictator. The violent struggle becomes generalized, making it more effective than other forms of opposition.[15]

Quebracho militants refuse to define themselves as leftist or rightist. They consider themselves “revolutionary patriots” in the framework of the Latin American liberation struggle “in which the national struggle has, however, a preeminent place”. The group is revolutionary because they believe in “real profound changes”. Enemies of Quebracho are “imperialism and the great capital: the big financial monopolies, the IMF, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the U.S., the E.U., Japan and Israel, among others”. They also include national oligarchies.

Quebracho came to power on August 31, 1996, as a result of an agreement between various “popular organizations” who consider themselves allied to the ethos of terrorist organizations such as the Peronist Montoneros, the Trotskyist Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores - Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (PRT-ERP) and the struggle of Hebe de Bonafini and the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo.[16] Quebracho boasted to have participated in several violent anti-imperialist manifestations in 2004 against Citibank, the IMF, the Argentinean Army’s participation in the “invasion of Haiti”, and others. The group clearly presents its cooperation with the Arab Argentinean Dueling (Hogar Árabe Argentino) organization of Berisso and the Islamic Association of Argentina (Asociación Argentino Islámica - ASAI) of La Plata, which they consider to be “permanently attacked by the Zionists”. Quebracho also expresses solidarity with the struggle of the Lebanese Hizballah and the Lebanese and Palestinian people against what they call “terrorist attacks of Israel and the genocide of thousands of their people” (see Annex 3).

According to a local observer, the Islamic Association of Argentina mainly consists of converts to Shiism (while there are few Argentineans who convert to Sunnism) and cooperates closely with the Iranian Embassy and is therefore frowned upon by the Argentinean Sunnis. The Islamic Association of Argentina and its religious leader, Sheikh Abdala Madani, clearly identify themselves with the Iranian regime. The link clearly appears on their website and Khomeini posters are carried at every anti-Israel demonstration.[17]

The Islamic Association of Argentina website contains an interview by leftist Turkish journalists with Lebanese Hizballah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah dated August 20, 2006, in which he praised the socialist movement “which has been away from international struggle for a considerable time” and at last “has begun to offer moral support for [Hezbollah] once again. The most concrete example of this has been Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela. What most of the Muslim states could not do has been done by Chavez, by the withdrawal of Venezuela's Ambassador to Israel. He furthermore communicated to [Hezbollah] his support for [the] resistance. This has been an immense source of moral strength for [Hezbollah].” Nasrallah saluted “the leaders and the people of Latin America” for their heroic resistance to “the American bandits” which led the Lebanese people “to embrace Chavez and Ernesto Che Guevara” and post “pictures of Chavez, Che, Sadr and Khamenei together in the streets of Beirut”.[18]

Interestingly, the text appears in good place on the site although the Hizballah has flatly denied that Nasrallah has “given any interviews to any Turkish or other non-Lebanese journalist during the month of August” and that the Turkish Evrensel Daily has recognized it is as a forgery.[19] Does Hezbollah Argentina believe that the views expressed in the interview suit their interests in Latin America?

Why Hezbollah prospers in Venezuela and Argentina

It is probably not by chance that the Latin American Hezbollah seems to flourish in these two countries. Venezuela was considered for many years one of the bases of the Lebanese Hizballah in Latin America. Especially the Margarita Island, a free-trade zone that is home to a sizeable Arab Muslim community, is cited by U.S. official sources as a potential terrorist base. The alleged threat emanating from Margarita Island is receiving far more attention in Washington, but is as much a product of the tensions between the Bush Administration and President Chavez.[20]

What makes Hezbollah Venezuela worthy of attention is the timing of their activities. They have become visible at a moment in which “the strange liaison” between Hugo Chavez and the Iranian President Ahmadinejad have become an item of international interest.[21] Chavez has come out in support of Iran's nuclear program, as well as denouncing the war in Lebanon and accusing Israel of a “new Holocaust”. At the Non-Aligned Movement summit, which was held in Cuba, leading up to the Iranian leader's Caracas visit, Venezuela and Iran channeled the tide of global anti-U.S. sentiment into support for Iran's right to nuclear energy.[22]

The recent wave of anti-Semitism in Venezuela, as reflected in analyses at a September 2006 Caracas conference on the Middle East conflict and its local repercussions, made the Jewish community rather nervous. Some at the conference feared that Chavez's verbal attacks on Israel may lead to physical attacks on local Jews. Already, graffiti is appearing on the Mariperez Synagogue with increasing frequency. Some even accused Chavez of bringing in Hezbollah to indoctrinate Wayuu Indians in the west of the country. According to Jewish activists, the wave of anti-Semitism comes from official and pro-government media. Chavez's failure to rebuke the media and the anti-Semitic graffiti represents the “crux of the problem.” In meetings between Jewish leaders and high level government officials, including Chavez himself, the government has claimed to have its hands tied. "We'll do what we can, but we can't deny people freedom of speech" has been the government's response.[23]

The tolerant attitude towards radical personalities and ideologies is well illustrated by President Chavez’s conduct towards the famous terrorist of Venezuelan origin, Carlos Ilich Ramirez, the famous Chacal, captured by France and sentenced to life in prison in 1997. In 1999, Ramirez sent a letter from prison to “the distinguished fellow Venezuelan” witnessing solidarity and support. President Chavez acknowledged the authenticity of the letter while expressing his concern for his “fellow countryman in disgrace”. The Venezuelan Ambassador in Paris received orders to assist the terrorist and “to safeguard his human rights”. During his October 2001 visit to Paris, Chavez was hopeful for a positive outcome of his request by signing a pact towards the repatriation of detainees, but the French government stated that agreements could not include repatriation of terrorists.[24] On June 1, 2006, President Hugo Chavez referred to Ramirez as his "friend" during a meeting of OPEC countries held in Caracas.[25]

The present Argentinean government is not sympathetic to radical organizations or regimes, but in this country there are many active groups and movements of the radical right and left which have often expressed anti-Semitic, anti-Israel as well as anti-U.S. views and activities. The difficulties in the long investigation and prosecution of the terrorist bombings of the Israeli Embassy and AMIA building, which at times involved the arrest and trial of rightist or the corrupt, witness the tolerance for such radical endeavors.[26]

Just two weeks ago, Argentine prosecutors asked a federal judge to issue an arrest warrant against former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani and seven others for the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish cultural center that killed 85 people. The Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry representative in Argentina, Mahsan Rabani, was also said to be involved. In 1993, Rabani began inquiring about renting a commercial van in Buenos Aires, asking specifically for a “Renault Traffic”, the type of van used by the bomber.[27]

There is also a strange coincidence concerning the special relationship between Hugo Chavez, Norberto Ceresole, Argentinean rightist and anti-Semitic personalities. In 1994, Ceresole founded, with Raúl de Sagastizabal, the Centro de Estudios Argentina en el Mundo and started to meet with Mohamed Seineldín, a.k.a. “Carapintada”. It was through this military group that Ceresole met Chavez and began to function as an advisor to his team. In June 1995, Ceresole was detained and deported out of the country by Venezuelan intelligence police (DISIP), accused of trying to start political links in Venezuela, particularly with Chavez. Ceresole’s reappearance in Venezuela after Chávez came into power, his close relations with senior members of the government and the publication of a book dedicated to Chavez titled Caudillo, Ejército, Pueblo: la Venezuela del Comandante Chávez (1999), created a wave of concern from all sides of Venezuelan society. Then, by the end of 1999, Ceresole was asked by the Vice President to leave the country.[28] Interestingly, Ceresole proposed the creation of an Office of Strategic Intelligence in Venezuela that could be financed by Hezbollah, just like his office in Madrid. However, such an office was never created.[29]

The Simon Wiesenthal Center discovered Hezbollah Venezuela’s website, which calls for “Jihad in Latin America”. The Center sent a letter to the Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Counter-Terrorism Center (CICTE), Steven Monblatt, asking for an investigation of the group, by the end of July 2006.[30]

Sadly, it seems that the Venezuelan authorities have not attempted to challenge Hezbollah Venezuela or to explain the government’s silence, even after the bombing attempts at the U.S. Embassy or the new threats emitted on its website.

Islamization in Latin America

Another factor influencing the growing attraction to radical Islamist terrorist groups could be the successful campaigns of Islamic proselytism in the heart of poor indigenous Indian tribes and populations by both Shi’a and Sunni preachers and activists. The influence of Muslims in the past was mainly based on major and minor concentrations of Muslim immigrants in different areas of the continent. Major Muslim immigration can be seen in countries such as Argentina and Panama, in addition to English speaking Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. Yet, Brazil, which is a Portuguese speaking country, hosts the largest Muslim community in South America.

According to Yahya Juan Suquillo, an acting Imam in Ecuador, it is a great misconception to think that since there is a very small conversion rate among Christians to become Muslims in Islamic states, that there might be the same situation for Latin American people. Latin America is searching for its own identity and the common people are clearly looking forward to a totally different spiritual change. Proof of this is that 20 to 30 years ago, Catholicism claimed almost 90% of the total population in Latin America, whereas today the numbers are merely between 55% and 65%. Latin America is a fertile area for Islamic dawah, and Islamic values are already present in Latin American culture. Muslim institutions, in the past, have failed to identify the potential of Latin American people to accept Islam. Therefore, they must work “with a genuine strategic plan to promote the peaceful way of life that Islam teaches in His book, the Glorious Qur'an”.[31]

According to Chris Zambelis, Spain’s al-Murabitun, a group which emphasizes the cultural links between the Arab world and Latin America through Spain’s Moorish heritage, is believed to be the most prolific missionary movement operating on the continent. The Murabitun are comprised predominantly of Spanish and European converts to Islam.[32] Since 1995, hundreds of Tzotziles tribes, members from Altos de Chiapas, converted to Islam.[33] The Murabitun, and like-minded movements, advocate a collective reversion to Islam and a return to the region’s true heritage, as opposed to what many see as conversion to the Muslim faith. The Murabitun also claim that Islam is not tainted by European and Western colonialism and imperialism, but instead serves as a remedy for the oppression and destruction brought by Spanish conquest.[34]

The Murabitun’s efforts to gain support in Mexico include an unsuccessful attempt to forge an alliance with Subcommandante Marcos and his Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) following the group’s armed rebellion in Chiapas in 1994.[35] In an article comparing Zapatism and Islamism, Fausto Giudice tries to present aspects of Islam that are compatible with the Zapatista ideology and strategy. This is what Giudice calls “the direct democracy”, discussing the principles of consensus, the “shura” and “majlis” structure. He even asks himself if Subcomandante Marcos could be the incarnation of the Mahdi.[36] Marcos and his popular Zapatista movement seem to have such a symbolic importance in the eyes of the Islamists that a Turkish al-Qaeda publication has even pretended that he has indeed converted to Islam.[37]

The growing number of adherents to the radical Shi’a ideology, as exemplified in the activities of Hezbollah LA, illustrates the competition between the two branches of Islam in the continent and could influence the radicalization of local Muslim communities, the older original and the converted.

Does al-Qaeda bandwagon Hezbollah?

Since October 25, 2006, two days after the failed bombing near the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, Hezbollah Venezuela’s website took a new turn. Waves of al-Qaeda and other Sunni terrorist organizations’ announcements, manifestos and videos, mainly from Iraq, have been posted by the Autonomia Islamica Wayuu and a user identified as “Samir 237”. Strangely, many of the postings are in French, not Spanish. Some examples include: the Brigade Silahudine Al Ayubi (Military wing of Jaami) announced nine attacks in Baghdad; an announcement of attacks by the Brigade of the Mujaheed Abu 'Ubadah of the al-Qaeda organization in Iraq; material of the Information Center al Fajir belonging to the Army Ansar al Sunnah; an announcement of a new address for the forum al Firdaws (http://al-firdaws.frbb.net/index.forum); several preaching audios of Sheikh Abu Qatada; many videos of the sniper Juba and beheadings of kidnapped people; and the announcement of the Rafidayn Center concerning the formation of the Islamic State in Iraq.

Local sympathizers or activists of al-Qaeda probably evaluate that the opening of “the bombing propaganda campaign” by Hezbollah LA presents a good opportunity to begin their own campaign of recruiting and indoctrination in Venezuela and other Latin American countries.

Conclusion

On November 2, 2006, Hezbollah Venezuela announced, “for respect to the revolution and its leader”, Hezbollah Venezuela will suspend “the repetition of its presentation until after the elections of December 3, an example of a good citizen, humanity and respect as well as revolutionary condition” (see Annex 4).[38] It is clear from this statement that Hezbollah Venezuela refers to the Bolivarian Revolution, the great political project of President Chavez, and to the December 3, 2006 Presidential elections. It shows an open solidarity with the regime and an attempt not to hamper it during the last days of the election campaign.

Indeed, on November 6, 2006, the Internet user identified as “Samir237” posted an announcement in the name of Sheidy Teodoro Darnott asking “to vote on 3-D [3^rd of December] against the United States and for Chavez, the anti-imperialist candidate of Hezbollah Venezuela”.

The end of this “episode” in the short history of Hezbollah Latin America does not yet permit us to draw a clear conclusion regarding real characteristics and goals of the group. It is possible that Israel’s war against Hizballah in Lebanon this summer has given incentive to the leadership of Hezbollah LA to go public and materialize their threats. Darnott, Hezbollah Venezuela’s leader, denies any link to the Lebanese Hizballah. Indeed, the religious and ideological foundations of his documents are very poor and superficial. In the case of the Argentinean “branch”, the Shi’a and Iranian link is quite obvious and could prove more dangerous.

In view of the Hezbollah Venezuela’s first terrorist attempt, even if it was only for propaganda purposes, several worrying aspects should be stressed.

The special permissive atmosphere in Venezuela could send a message to the group (after the December Presidential election) and to more dangerous terrorist organizations that their activities on Latin American soil or from Latin American territory will be tolerated, or even politically permitted.

There is a growing trend of solidarity between leftist, Marxist, anti-globalization and even rightist elements with the Islamists. The fact that the Lebanese Hizballah sponsored a strategic conference of anti-globalization groups and movements in Beirut in September 2004, already pointed to this potentially dangerous coalition for the future.[39]

Finally, there is the possibility that the Lebanese Hizballah and al-Qaeda try to recruit "converted" Latin American terrorists for their international operational terrorist activity, as they did in the past in the Middle East and Europe.

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[1] Caracas daily El Universal, October 23, 2006

[2] CNN, October 23, 2006

[3] See at http://groups.msn.com/jUSticiadivinavenezuela/general.msnw?action=get_message&mview=1&ID_Message=25

[4] The Wayuu are a pastoral tribe living on the Guajira Peninsula, on the north coast of Colombia and Venezuela where they live without taking into account the frontier between the two countries. Their territory extends over approximately 15,300 km², of which 12,000 km² are in Colombia in the Department of the Guajira and 3,380 km² are in the State of Zulia in Venezuela. Their territory is hot, dry and inhospitable; the rains are scanty and badly distributed. Merciless sunlight, constant winds and very high evaporation rate are distinctive factors of the Guajira; in short, all the characteristics of a desert. Human health, agriculture and animal husbandry all suffer from the lack of available water, and as a result the people have few options available for their own livelihoods. The latest census (1993) shows the Wayuu population to be more than 130,000 inhabitants. The Wayuu culture is being gradually eroded, and already many traditional skills have essentially been lost. This loss of culture is also increasingly accompanied by a lack of self-esteem, particularly among youth. The Wayuu have traditionally had a very loose social structure with few local organizations. In modern times, the clan system has become much weaker than it once was, but has not yet been replaced by alternative social structures. As a result, there is a lack of institutional capacity at the local level and a lack of human resources for the development of new associations or other organizational structures. For more information, see The Wayuu Jayuir Foundation, at http://www.geocities.com/jayuir/wayuu_en.html.

[5] This paragraph is based on Gustavo Coronel, “The Hezbollah Venezuelan Metastasis,” Venezuela Today, September 4, 2006, at http://venenews.net/gUStavo-coronel/hizbula-hezbollah-hizbullah+venezuela+hugo-chavez.html

[6] Ibid

[7] Manuel R. Torres Soriano, “La Fascinación por el exito: el caso de Hezbollah en América Latina,” Jihad Monitor Occasional Paper No 1, October 17, 2006, at http://www.ugr.es/~terris/ Hezbollah%20Latino.pdf

[8] Ibid

[9] Hezbollah Venezuela, “Nuestra posición oficial respecto a la revolución venezolana. Editorial,” August 3, 2006

[10] Gustavo Coronel, “Chavez joins the terrorists: his path to martyrdom,” Venezuela Today, September 2, 2006, at http://venenews.net/gUStavo-coronel/hezbollah+venezuela_hugo-chavez_syria-iran_wmd+terrorism.html

[11] See http://www.radioislam.net/islam/spanish/sion/terror/cap2.htm. Radio Islam was a Swedish radio channel, now a website, allegedly dedicated to “the liberation struggle of the Palestinian people against Israel”, one of the most radical right wing anti-Semitic homepages on the net, which espouses Holocaust denial and praises Adolf Hitler and Nazism.

[12] See http://www.islam-shia.org

[13] Alberto Garrido, “Chavez y la relacion con el mundo musulman,” El Universal, February 13, 2006, at http://www.lanuevacuba.com/archivo/notic-06-02-1320.htm

[14] Norberto Ceresole, “Carta abierta a mis amigos iranies,” at the Holocaust denial website http://www.vho.org/aaargh/espa/ceres/arta.html

[15] See the ideological material athttp://www.quebracho.org.ar .

[16] Bonafini was one of the founders of the Association of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a protest organization of Argentine mothers who lost their children during the Dirty War, the persecution and suppression of dissident groups by the military regime that ruled Argentina between 1976 and 1983.

[17] See at http://www.organizacionislam.org.ar/index.htm .

[18] See Roza Çiðdem Erdoðan / Mutlu Þahin, “Entrevista a Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, dirigente máximo de Hezbollah Sobre la resistencia contra las tropas de Israel, los regímenes colaboracionistas, el Ché, Chávez, los socialistas y el frente único contra el imperialismo,” Izquierda Punto Info, at http://www.organizacionislam.org.ar/conflib/reporsayyed.htm.

[19] Taylan Bilgic Cihan Celik, “Statement from Evrensel Daily about the Forged Nasrallah Interview,”
Foreign News Desk Evrensel Daily/Istanbul Turkey, September 2, 2006, found at
http://greenleftbloggers.blogspot.co2006/09/evrensel-statement-re-forged-nasrallah.html

[20] For a discussion on Lebanese Hezbollah’s activity in Latin America, see Ely Karmon, ‘Fight on All Fronts: Hezbollah, the War on Terror, and the War in Iraq”, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Policy Focus, No. 46, December 2003, pp.9-10 found at http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/pubPDFs/PF46.pdf . See also Blanca Madani, “Hezbollah’s Global Finance Network: The Triple Frontier,” Middle East Intelligence Bulletin 4, no. 1 (January 2002). Available online at www.meib.org/articles/0201_l2.htm.

[21] Gustavo Coronel,The Hezbollah Venezuelan Metastasis

[22] Jose Orozco, “Venezuelan Jews Fear Chavez-Iran Ties,” The Jerusalem Post, September 19, 2006

[23] Ibid

[24] “Chavez Journeys the World,” Democracia Y Desarrollo, October 16, 2001, found at http://www.venezuelatoday.org/01-10-17_in.htm

[25] El Universal, June 1, 2006

[26] Yossi Melman, “Argentina bombing case moves ahead”, Haaretz, September 8, 2003

[27] Ze’ev Schiff, “Argentine lawyer asks to jail Iran officials for Jewish center blast,” Haaretz, October 25, 2006

[28] Chavez took from late Norberto Ceresole the real formula of power (leader-army-people) and the certainty that the revolutionary process had to be international. Power centers were necessary to create a pluripolarity that could fight the unipolarity of the United States. See Alberto Garrido, “The Scenarios For Rupture,” El Universal, March 9, 2004.

[29] The proposal was made in a letter to Jorge Olavarría and later published in the Venezuelan Magazine Primicia. See Alberto Garrido, “Vida y Muerte De Ceresole,” El Universal, May 3, 2005.

[30] See “El Centro Simon Wiesenthal urgió al Comité Interamericano contra el Terrorismo la investigación sobre la presencia de Hezbollah en la region” at http://www.itongadol.com.ar/shop/detallenot.asp?Noted=15255 .

[31] For a detailed description of the strategy of Islamist penetration in Latin America, see transcripts of a presentation by Yahya Juan Suquillo, Imam of the Islamic Center of Quito Ecuador, “Islamic Principles in Latin America” at the Fourth Annual Conference of Latin American Muslim Leaders in Curacao [Curacao], September 16-18, 2003 in the Latino Muslim Voice (November 2003). The official newsletter of the Latino American Da’wa Organization can be at http://www.latinodawah.org/newsletter/oct-dec2k3.html#9.

[32] The group is an international Sufi order founded in the 1970s by Sheikh Abdel Qader as-Sufi al-Murabit, a controversial Scottish Muslim convert born Ian Dallas. Aurelino Perez heads the Murabitun’s campaign in Chiapas, where he competes with Omar Weston, a British-born Muslim convert who resides in Mexico City and heads the Centro Cultural Islamico de Mexico (CCIM), for adherents in Chiapas and the rest of Mexico.

[33] María Teresa Del Riego, “Celebran indígenas musulmanes,” at http://groups.msn.com/autonomiaislamicawayuu/general.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=544&LastModified=4675592423029140791

[34] Chris Zambelis, “Radical Islam in Latin America,” Terrorism Monitor, Jamestown Foundation, Vol. 3, No. 23, December 2, 2005

[35] Ibid

[36] Fausto Giudice, “Y si el subcomandante Marcos fuese la encarnación del Mehdi,” found at
http://groups.msn.com/autonomiaislamicawayuu/general.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=542&LastModified=4675592299897498067

[37] “[El] Kaide"(1) Magazine Published Openly in Turkey!” MEMRI Special Dispatch Series, No. 951, August 5, 2005

[38] See http://groups.msn.com/autonomiaislamicawayuu/general.msnw?action=get_message&mview=1&ID_Message=642

[39] Ely Karmon, “Hezbollah and the Anti-globalization Movement: A New Coalition?” PolicyWatch, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, No. 949, January 27, 2005, found through the following link: http://www.instituteforcounterterrorism.org/apage/5222.php

Source:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1773483/posts