HEZBOLLAH’S INROADS INTO THE WESTERN Th e American HEMISPHERE Foreign Policy Council Ilan Berman Washington, DC August 2011 No. 4 year after the attacks of September ings in their own geopolitical backyard. 11th, then-Deputy Secretary of State Th e relatively low profi le of Latin America A Richard Armitage, in contextualiz- in our national security policymaking is ing the terrorist threat facing the country, deeply counterintuitive, given the region’s made a telling assessment. “Hezbollah may proximity to the U.S. homeland. It is also be the A-team of terrorists,” Mr. Armitage potentially dangerous, because its politi- told an audience at the United States In- cal environment—marked by large un- stitute of Peace in Washington, DC, “and governed areas and typifi ed by widespread maybe al-Qaida is actually the B-team.”1 anti-American sentiment—has created a Th e description was apt, and remains so. fertile operating environment for a range With a presence in an estimated forty of radical groups, including those from countries on fi ve diff erent continents, the the greater Middle East. According to U.S. Lebanese Shi’ite militia represents one of government estimates, no fewer than six Is- the very few terrorist groups active today lamic terrorist groups (including al-Qaeda that possess a truly global presence and and the Palestinian Hamas movement) are reach. now active in Latin America.3 Th is footprint extends not only to the Hezbollah, however, is far and away greater Middle East and Europe, but to the the most prominent. Its presence in the Western Hemisphere as well.2 Over the past region stretches back to the 1980s, when quarter-century, Hezbollah has devoted operatives—taking advantage of weak re- considerable energy and resources to estab- gional governance and with support from lishing an extensive network of operations Iran—began to expand the organization’s throughout the Americas. Today, its web of already-substantial international drug- activity in our hemisphere stretches from traffi cking and smuggling activities from Canada to Argentina, and encompasses a Lebanon’s Beka’a Valley to the “Tri-Border wide range of illicit activities and criminal Region” at the intersection of Argentina, enterprises, from drug traffi cking to re- Brazil, and Paraguay.4 Hezbollah’s regional cruitment to fundraising and training. presence and capabilities were dramatically demonstrated in March of 1992, when the A STRONGHOLD SOUTH OF organization carried out a suicide bomb- THE BORDER ing against Israel’s embassy in Buenos It is something of a truism of American Aires, Argentina, killing 29 and injuring politics that policymakers in Washington 242 others. Two years later, in July 1994, pay only sporadic attention to the happen- the group struck again, bombing the Ar- Ilan Berman is Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council. This brief is adapted from his testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Se- curity Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence on July 7, 2011. 1. Richard Armitage, “Ameri- gentine-Israel Mutual Association (known lah; the organization is also known to have ca’s Challenges in a Changed World,” remarks to the Unit- as AMIA) in Buenos Aires. Th ese attacks, formed cells in the country, exploiting the ed States Institute of Peace, 9 Washington, DC, September 5, which still rank as the most devastating in sizeable Shi’ite Muslim community there. 2002, http://web.archive.org/ South American history, led U.S. offi cials And, as a result of its narcotics traffi ck- web/20020917202341/www. state.gov/s/d/rm/2002/13308pf. to conclude that Hezbollah had become ing activities, Hezbollah is also believed to htm “the major international terrorist threat” in have forged close and collaborative ties to 5 2. For a detailed overview of He- the region. the country’s premier terrorist group, the zbollah’s global activities, see Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the “Hezbollah” chapter of the 10 American Foreign Policy Coun- More than a decade-and-a-half later, or FARC. cil’s World Almanac of Islamism, Hezbollah’s footprint in the region remains which is accessible online at http://almanac.afpc.org/hezbol- extensive. It encom- Paraguay. Paraguay, lah. passes: According to with its lack of com- 3. Rex Hudson, Terror and Orga- prehensive counterter- nized Crime Groups in the Tri-Bor- der Area (TBA) of South America, Th e Tri-Border Re- U.S. government rorism laws, similarly Library of Congress, Federal gion. Th e lawless has emerged as a major Research Division, December 2010, http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/ territory where Ar- estimates, no fewer fundraising hub. Hez- pdf-files/TerrOrgCrime_TBA. gentina, Paraguay bollah was estimated pdf. and Brazil meet than six Islamic at one time to raise as 4.Rachel Ehrenfeld, Funding Evil: continues to serve much as $10 million How Terrorism is Financed—and 11 How to Stop It (Chicago: Bonus as the epicenter of terrorist groups are annually from there. Books, 2003), 145–48. Hezbollah activity (Notably, much of 5. U.S. Department of State Co- in Latin America. that sum could be ordinator for Counterterrorism now active in Latin Phillip Wilcox, Jr., Testimony Since the 1980s, the attributed to Assad before the House of Represen- organization has ex- Barakat, a Lebanese tatives Committee on Interna- America. Hezbollah, tional Relations, September ploited the region’s immigrant to Para- 28, 1995, http://dosfan.lib.uic. permissive politi- guay, who transferred edu/ERC/bureaus/lat/1995/ however, is far 950928WilcoxTerrorism.html. cal atmosphere and some $6 million annu- lack of governmen- ally to the group from 6. See Gregory F. Treverton et al., and away the most Film Piracy, Organized Crime, and tal controls for a his successful smug- Terrorism (Santa Monica: RAND, broad range of il- gling and counterfeit- 2009), xi, http://www.rand.org/ prominent. pubs/monographs/2009/RAND_ licit activities, in- ing activities between MG742.sum.pdf. cluding smuggling, 1999 and his arrest in 7. Ehrenfeld, Funding Evil, 147. extortion and narcotics traffi cking. Th ese 2003.12) As in Colombia, the organization 8. Chris Kraul and Sebastian Ro- enterprises are highly lucrative; the RAND exploits Paraguay’s Muslim community to tella, “Drug Probe finds Hezbol- Corporation estimates that Hezbollah cu- establish cells and operational capabilities lah Link,” Los Angeles Times, Oc- 13 tober 22, 2008, http://articles. mulatively nets some $20 million annually within the country. latimes.com/2008/oct/22/world/ from the Tri-Border Region alone.6 As a fg-cocainering22. result, experts say, the area constitutes the Venezuela. Over the past decade, the regime 9. Wilcox, testimony before the House of Representatives Com- organization’s most signifi cant source of of Hugo Chavez in Caracas has forged an mittee on International Rela- independent funding.7 increasingly intimate strategic partnership tions. with the Iranian government. As a corol- 10. Steven Moonblatt, “Terror- Colombia. In 2008, U.S. and Colombian lary of those burgeoning ties, and in a re- ism and Drugs in the Americas: the OAS Response,” Americas investigators capped a two-year investiga- fl ection of Chavez’ own support for radical Forum IV, no. 2 (February/March tion by successfully dismantling a major causes, Venezuela has emerged as a major 2004), http://www.oas.org/ ezine/ezine24/Monblatt.htm. transnational cocaine smuggling and mon- hub for Hezbollah. In 2008, the Bush ad- ey laundering ring originating out of Bo- ministration directly accused the Chavez 11. Julio A. Cirino, Silvana L. Elizondo, and Geoffrey Wawro, gota, Colombia. Th e illicit network, run by regime of serving as a safe haven and fi nan- “Latin America’s Lawless Areas and Failed States: An Analysis Lebanese national Chekry Harb, was found cial supporter of the Lebanese militia. Th at of New Threats,” in Latin Ameri- to have funneled at least part of its profi ts year, the Treasury Department’s Offi ce of can Security Challenges: A Collab- 8 orative Inquiry from North to South to Hezbollah. Colombia, however, is more Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) formally (Newport, RI: Naval War College than simply a fundraising hub for Hezbol- designated two individuals, one of them 2004), 24, http://www.dtic.mil/ 2 Hezbollah’s Inroads Into the Western Hemisphere • August 2011 a Venezuelan diplomat, for assisting the sphere, the group is also active throughout cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA430 425&Location=U2&doc=GetTR group. In making the designation, Adam North America. Doc.pdf. Szubin, OFAC’s director of political aff airs, 12. Casey L. Addis and Chris- specifi cally referred to “the government of In the United States, law enforcement topher M. Blanchard, Hezbol- lah: Background and Issues for Venezuela employing and providing safe authorities estimate active Hezbollah cells Congress (Washington, DC: harbor for Hezbollah facilitators and fund- and/or supporters to exist in no fewer than Congressional Research Ser- 14 vice, January 3, 2011), http:// raisers.” Hezbollah is known to use Ven- fi fteen metropolitan centers, stretching www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/ ezuela’s free trade zone of Margarita Island from New York to Los Angeles.22 Th ese R41446.pdf. as a major fi nancing and fundraising center, cells, like their counterparts in Latin Amer- 13. Wilcox, testimony before as well as to possess “support cells” there.15 ica, are engaged in a range of criminal ac- the House of Representatives Committee on International Re- Th e organization has also been accused tivities. Th e scope of these enterprises was lations. of training Venezuelan militants in south laid bare in the year 2000, when an FBI 14. Martin Arostengui, “U.S. Lebanon for possible attacks on American sting dismantled a Hezbollah ring in Char- Ties Caracas to Hezbollah Aid,” Washington Times, July 7, 2008, soil, and of operating training camps inside lotte, North Carolina.