The land-locked country of Paraguay, neatly tucked between Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia is seldom given much notice. However, there are elements of the country that are worth taking a look at. Last April Paraguay elected a new president, Horacio Cartes. Cartes is a member of the Colorado party, a party that held Paraguay’s presidency for 60 years. Thirty five of those years were ones of dictatorship. Cartes, however, joined the Colorado Party only four years ago. Cartes’s...

Early this year the Argentine prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, disclosed a 500-page document of evidence of Iran’s terrorist networks in Latin America. It included a number of countries, among which were Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guyana, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, and Uruguay. Iran’s activities in some of these countries are carried out with the direct or indirect support from the local government. For example, in my , I described the role played by the...

Illegal activities such as drug trafficking, money laundering and smuggling are financing the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah in Latin America, according to experts and authorities. Increasingly strong evidence shows the Lebanon-based Shiite militia sponsored by Iran maintains ties with drug cartels and receives contributions from organized crime groups. “The money is used to maintain a military structure and finance social activities among Shiite populations in Lebanon and the...

"History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid" - Gen. Eisenhower. The Iranians and their terrorist proxy Hezbollah has been building forward operating bases in the Tri-Border area of South America and Mexico for the last three decades. Venezuela's uranium deposits have been an important and rarely reported on component fueling Iran's efforts to win the hearts and minds of the people in Latin America and Mexico. Iranian Press Expose the Hispanic...

By In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the possibility of al-Qaeda infiltrating Latin America became a priority for U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials. However, the most publicized incidents of radical Islamist activity in Latin America have not been linked to al-Qaeda but instead to the Lebanese Shi’ite Hezbollah, which is ideologically and politically close to Iran. These include the March 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the July...

Ever since Iran's President Mahmoud was elected in 2005, Iran has been working resolutely to establish a foothold in the Latin American countries - in the U.S.' backyard. The Iranian president's partners in promoting this policy are the presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia, who provide him with a springboard for activity in Latin America. Iran is exploiting its growing ties and common interests with Latin American countries to deploy there its familiar pieces from the Middle Eastern and African...

An Ethiopian terrorist captured in Ecuador was engaged in the traffic of undocumented migrants. The character, named Yaee Dawit Tadese, was deported in March to the United States. He is said to have links to Al Qaeda (something that hasn't been independently confirmed) and reportedly committed one attack in Pakistan in which 38 people were killed. The illegal migrants came from Somalia, Bangladesh, Eritrea and Kenya. They used to arrive in Ecuador via Cuba or Venezuela, after a long journey...

The Tri-Border Area (TBA) along the junction of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay is a hotbed of illegal activity that includes money launderers, arms traffickers, counterfeiters, drug traffickers, and terrorists. In fact, it is one of the most dangerous places in the world. According to a recent U.S. Government study, this area annually generates over $6 billion of illicit money and is nearly devoid of all governmental control. Given the combination of a porous border and known terrorist...

In recent years, U.S. concerns have increased over activities of Hezbollah and the Sunni Muslim Palestinian group Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) in the tri-border area (TBA) of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, which has a large Muslim population. The TBA has long been used for arms and drug trafficking, contraband smuggling, document and currency fraud, money laundering, and the manufacture and movement of pirated goods. A 2009 RAND study examines how Hezbollah has benefitted from...

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad must love the tropics', commented ironically The Miami Herald.[1] He has spent more time in Latin America than President Bush. Since his inauguration in 2005, Iran's foreign policy focus has shifted from Africa to Latin America in order to, as Ahmadinejad puts it, ‘counter lasso' the US.[2] Iran's Goals in Latin America Farideh Farhi argues that while Iran's increased attention to Latin America as a region is a relatively new development, its...