Fausta's Blog

Univision’s documentary, The Iranian Menace, on Iran’s sleeper cells in Latin America, in Spanish, (below the fold, since it starts immediately),

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Stakelbeck on Terror: Hezbollah in Your Backyard

Watch as former George W. Bush administration officials Roger Noriega and Jose Cardenas discuss Hezbollah’s alliance with Venezuela, its new terror base in Cuba, its work with Mexican drug smugglers along America’s southern border, and more.

Prior post The Mounting Hezbollah Threat In Latin America

h/t Gates of Vienna

The American Enterprise Institute has an excellent report on The Mounting Hezbollah Threat in Latin America, via Phyllis Chesler,

The immediate US national security concern related to Hezbollah activity in Latin America is Mexico, where the terrorist group has ready access to the US border.

Key points:

• To ward off its international isolation and undermine US influence in the region, Iran, with its Hezbollah proxy in tow, has made a major diplomatic and economic push into the Western Hemisphere.

• Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and other radical anti-American populists have made common cause with Iran and Hezbollah in waging asymmetric warfare against the United States.

• Hezbollah’s criminality in the region has multiplied as it has established deeper relations with transnational criminal organizations.

• Evidence indicates Hezbollah is sharing its terrorist experiences and techniques with Mexican drug cartels along the US borde

Additionally,

Long-term readers of this blog will not be surprised by most of this information, however, this is an excellent report and you must read every word. It’s also available on easy-to-print PDF format.

After last week’s Carnival got postponed due to hurricane damage, the Carnival is back, on Labor Day!

This week’s featured article is on the Cuban Communist regime’s war on freedom: Castro vs. the Ladies in White
Rocks, iron bars and sticks are no match for the gladiolas and courage of these peaceful Cuban protesters.

ARGENTINA
Brush fires in Argentina: No logran controlar varios focos de incendio en Córdoba
El gobierno provincial combate las llamas en la zona de Punilla y en Traslasierra, pero no consigue extinguir las llamas

Argentina Debates Foreign Land Buys

BRAZIL
China tries to win over Brazilian consumers

Brazil’s economy
Changing direction
Fiscal tightening, monetary loosening

CAYMAN ISLANDS
Are Tax Havens Moral or Immoral?

CHILE
Chile: All 21 aboard crashed military plane died

COLOMBIA
Brazil and Colombia
Less far apart
A wary friendship begins

CUBA
Hezbollah in Cuba for Attacks on Israeli Targets in the Americas

Cuba’s Terror Smoking Gun

Blogger sends uncensored news to Cuban cell phones
A Spanish blogger said the Cuban government cannot block or censor texts he’s sending to cell phones on the island.

Hello USA: Was it really 47 years ago?

Alan Gross: An American Prisoner in Cuba
The Castro government should not receive any concessions until USAID worker Alan Gross is released.

Castro regime marks another Sunday of repression

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
As Refugees From Haiti Linger, Dominicans’ Good Will Fades

ECUADOR
Chevron says rule of law no longer exists in Ecuador

JAMAICA
Jamaican Kingpin Pleads Guilty in New York

MEXICO
GunWalker Cover-Up Comes Apart At The Seams, and White House Cover-up Makes Continuation of Fast and Furious Investigation Imperative

More Confusion, Now From the F.T.

Mexico Sets Guinness Record for Largest Folk Dance Performance

Not surprisingly, Casino arson massacre in Mexico may be rooted in corruption

Fox’s “plan” in Mexico

The Rise of the Cult of Death
The origins of the Santa Muerte are a mystery even to adherents.

PANAMA
Panama’s ruling alliance is dead

Sunday Morning in the Park

PERU
Peru’s new government
Mining and the man
A calm start for Humala. Mining, in the hands of a culture minister who’s a singer – what could go wrong?

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico businessman accused in $7M money laundering case

Ronald Fernandez, Scholar on Plight of Puerto Ricans, Dies at 67

VENEZUELA
Plastics

The Fonden Papers Part V: More Information Suddenly Available

The week’s posts,
New rumors on Fidel Castro
Tuesday night tango: 2011 Salon world championships
Plan Colombia?

ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires va a las urnas con alta probabilidad de reeditar duelo de 2007

Argentina Charges Economists

BRAZIL
Competition policy in Brazil
Too little, too late
Merger plans puts weak antitrust enforcement in the spotlight

CHILE
Knight News Challenge winner Poderopedia aims to map power in Chile (Interview with Miguel Paz)

COLOMBIA
Security in Colombia
Never-ending
The FARC is not finished yet

CUBA
Travel to the ‘Authentic’ Cuba!

Cuba and Venezuela Both Face Succession Challenge

GUATEMALA
Gunmen kill folk singer Facundo Cabral in Guatemala

HONDURAS
The ultimate hypocrisy

Honduran Truth and Reconciliation Commission Issues Ruling

MEXICO
LulzSec doc drop: Arizona Officials Say Hezbollah Operating in Mexico

Fighting in Michoacán, Attacks on Hotels

State elections in Mexico
A hat trick for the PRI

PERU

Obama Meets Peru’s Incoming President

The White House said Obama dropped by Wednesday while the incoming Peruvian leader was meeting with U.S. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon.

Natural resources in Peru
The trials of miners

Romantic outsiders see in the events in Puno an uprising by Aymara-speaking Indians against multinationals. But the truth looks much uglier. The towns around Lake Titicaca are at the centre of a huge contraband trade. The protesters are silent about large-scale informal gold mining, which pollutes rivers far more than formal mines. In Puno’s lowlands, cocaine production is rising. Some locals say that the protests are a rebellion inspired by the leaders of illegal businesses against the rule of law.

Visit to Russia by brother of Peru’s Humala results in controversy

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rican scholar Ricardo Alegria dies at 90

VENEZUELA
The Bolivarian patient
Venezuela’s president returns, but his illness raises many questions about the country’s political future

Years, not months

The week’s posts,
Gunwalker in 1 equation
Fast and Furious from stimulus money?
The Invisible Hugo & the worst of both worlds

Arab Times article,
Kuwaitis Among Trainees In ‘Guards’ Latin Camp (h/t Vlad) (emphasis added)

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is allegedly training a large number of Kuwaitis, Bahrainis and Saudis in a private training camp located in Waheera, a remote area near the borders of Venezuela and Columbia, and intends to use them to carry out terrorist activities within their respective countries and other areas across the world in case Iran is attacked militarily, Al-Seyassah daily quoted a reliable source as saying.

Since the reports come from Arab-language newspapers, I speculate that the location of Waheera is actually Guajira (whose phonetical pronunciation is the same as “Waheera”) in this map,

The article continues,

The trainees are first sent to Venezuelan capital Caracas or Columbian capital Bogota via Damascus and from there, they are sent to the border region in cars, one of the militants who broke away from the Iranian group told the daily.

Reportedly, the training camp is run by some Iranian intelligence officers and others affiliated to the Revolutionary Guard in cooperation with Hezbollah and Hamas. The trainees were given courses in making bombs, carrying out assassinations, kidnapping people and transporting the hostages to other locations.

The operations are financed through the drug trade,

When asked about the financing of this militia, the source said the money Iran makes through drug trafficking and money laundering is equal to the budget of some countries. “For example, Dutch police, in cooperation with security authorities of seven other countries, arrested 17 drug smugglers in 2009 in Korasu and confiscated 2,000 kilos of cocaine from them. The huge quantity was smuggled through tankers from Venezuela to West Africa and then to Holland, Lebanon and Spain. Smugglers also transported cocaine by air from Korasu to Holland, Belgium, Spain and Jordan. The Dutch authorities had then announced that the smuggling network was linked to Hezbollah and Iran,” he added.

These reports have been surfacing recently (including Kuwaiti newspapers), but long-time readers of this blog know about the Iranian and Hezbollah presences in Latin America. Interestingly, now the reports are including Hamas.

Cross-posted at Real Clear World Blog.

UPDATE, 10 May,
Welcome, Blogs for Victory readers!

Today’s – and any day’s – must-read,
Middle East-Latin America Terrorism Connection: Analysis

In a global triangulation that would excite any conspiracy buff, the globalization of terrorism now links Colombian FARC with Hezbollah, Iran with Russia, elected governments with violent insurgencies, uranium with AK-103s, and cocaine with oil. At the center of it all, is Latin America—especially the countries under the influence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

There are enough connections to make your hair stand on end: the FARC, Venezuela, Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua,

So, on one side Venezuela is funding and arming the FARC; on the other it is purchasing nuclear reactors and weapons from the Russians; on yet another, it is sending money to Iran and helping it find and enrich uranium. And then there is Hezbollah, Iran’s Lebanon-based asset.

Reports that Venezuela has provided Hezbollah operatives with Venezuelan national identity cards are so rife, they were raised in the July 27, 2010, Senate hearing for the recently nominated U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, Larry Palmer. When Palmer answered that he believed the reports, Chávez refused to accept him as ambassador in Venezuela. Meanwhile, Iran Air, the self-proclaimed “airline of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” operates a Tehran-Caracas flight commonly referred to as “Aeroterror” by intelligence officials for allegedly facilitating the access of terrorist suspects to South America. The Venezuelan government shields passenger lists from Interpol on that flight.

Iran, meanwhile, has developed significant relationships elsewhere in Latin America – most prominently with Chávez’s allies and fellow Bolivarian Revolutionaries: Bolivian President Evo Morales, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

And let’s not forget the Tri-Border Area,

Argentine officials believe Hezbollah is still active in the TBA. They attribute the detonation of a car bomb outside Israel’s embassy in Buenos Aires on 17 March 1992 to Hezbollah extremists. Officials also maintain that with Iran’s assistance, Hezbollah carried out a car-bomb attack on the main building of the Jewish Community Center (AMIA) in Buenos Aires on 18 July 1994 in protest of the Israeli-Jordanian peace agreement that year.

Most of this report will not come as a surprise to long-term readers of Fausta’s blog, but you must read it all.

More, much more, including Walid Makled, here.

At least according to this report, Terrorist Group Setting Up Operations Near Border
Hezbollah Considered To Be More Advanced Than Al-Qaida

A terrorist organization whose home base is in the Middle East has established another home base across the border in Mexico.
“They are recognized by many experts as the ‘A’ team of Muslim terrorist organizations,” a former U.S. intelligence agent told 10News.
…

Hezbolah has operated in South America for decades and then Central America, along with their sometime rival, sometime ally Hamas.
Now, the group is blending into Shi’a Muslim communities in Mexico, including Tijuana. Other pockets along the U.S.-Mexico border region remain largely unidentified as U.S. intelligence agencies are focused on the drug trade.
“They have had clandestine training in how to live in foreign hostile territories,” the agent said.
The agent, who has spent years deep undercover in Mexico, said Hezbollah is partnering with drug organizations, but which ones is not clear at this time.
He told 10News the group receives cartel cash and protection in exchange for Hezbollah expertise.
“From money laundering to firearms training and explosives training,” the agent said.
For example, he tracked, along with Mexican intelligence, two Hezbollah operatives in safe houses in Tijuana and Durango
“I confirmed the participation of cartel members as well as other Hezbollah individuals living and operating out of there,” he said.
Tunnels the cartels have built that cross from Mexico into the U.S. have grown increasingly sophisticated. It is a learned skill, the agent said points to Hezbollah’s involvement.

While one should take unnamed sources with a grain of salt, Hezbollah has maintained a presence in Latin America for decades. It’s hardly surprising that they’re getting closer to the US border.

Border security is national security.

UPDATED, Friday 6 May,
Welcome, The Other McCain readers! You will probably find today’s follow-up post interesting: The Middle East-Latin America Terrorism Connection.

Brazil’s Revista Veja, which in the past has detailed how Hugo Chavez is a threat to Latin America’s stability and democracies (calling him “Totalitarianism’s clone” six years ago), is now reporting on al-Qaeda’s presence in Brazil.

Reuters has the story,

Al Qaeda operatives are in Brazil planning attacks, raising money and recruiting followers, a leading news magazine reported Saturday, renewing concerns about the nation serving as a hide-out for Islamic militants.

For some reason Yahoo news (link above) did not mention Hamas and Hezbollah, which the Jerusalem Post does (h/t Gates of Vienna),

Operatives from Hamas, Hezbollah, and al Qaida are in Brazil planning attacks, raising money and recruiting followers, a leading Brazilian news magazine reported on Saturday.

Both Yahoo and the JP continue,

Veja magazine, in its online edition, reported that at least 20 people affiliated with al Qaeda as well as the Lebanese Shi’ite Muslim group Hezbollah, the Palestinian group Hamas and two other organizations have been hiding out in the South American country.

The magazine said these operatives have been raising money and working to incite attacks abroad. The magazine cited Brazilian police and U.S. government reports, but did not give details on specific targets or operations.

The United States has said Islamic militants have been operating in the border region between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. Brazil has denied this, while saying it is aware that some members of Brazil’s Lebanese community legally transferred funds to the Middle East.

The Veja online article (in Portuguese) headline reads, (my translation. Please link to this post and credit me if you use this translation)
Exclusivo: documentos da CIA, FBI e PF mostram como age a rede do terror islâmico no Brasil
A Polícia Federal tem provas de que a Al Qaeda e outras quatro organizações extremistas usam o país para divulgar propaganda, planejar atentados, financiar operações e aliciar militantes
Exclusive: CIA, FBI, and Federal Police document an Islamic terror network in Brazil.
The Federal Police show that al-Qaeda and four other organizations are using the country to spread propaganda, plan attacks, raise funds and recruit militants.

The article then directs its readers to read the report in the magazine’s print edition. I haven’t been able to locate this issue of Veja, so if any of my readers has, please let me know.

For older posts on terrorism in Brazil and the tri-border area,
Piracy, the Tri-Border Area and terrorism
US asks Paraguay to extradite suspected Hezbollah financier, formerly of Broooklyn and New Jersey
Following up on the triborder area nine,

UPDATE
Linked by The Datatech Guy.

I’ve been stating for a while that securing the border with Mexico is a matter of national security. Long-term readers of this blog also know that Hezbollah is carrying out operations in Latin America, frequently associated with drugs. Now this,
Hezbollah leader living across US border in Tijuana

My my… more evidence bubbles to the surface that the US-Mexican border war is about more than the civil rights of illegal immigrants… or the anticipated built in voter bloc for desperate Dems. Today brings good news that the Mexican police are actively working to thwart Hezbollah’s attempt to gain a foothold there. A surveillance operation focused on Hezbollah leader, Jameel Nasr, resulted in his arrest at his Tijuana home. Nasr employed Mexican nationals with family ties to Lebanon for his Hezbollah/Mexico network.

Haaretz reports,
Mexico thwarts Hezbollah bid to set up South American network
Militant group employed Mexican nationals with ties to Lebanon to target Israel and the West, Kuwaiti newspaper reports.

Mexico foiled an attempt by Hezbollah to establish a network in South America, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Hezbollah operatives employed Mexicans nationals with family ties to Lebanon to set up the network, designed to target Israel and the West, the Al-Seyassah daily said.

According to the report, Mexican police mounted a surveillance operation on the group’s leader, Jameel Nasr, who traveled frequently to Lebanon to receive information and instructions from Hezbollah commanders there.

Police say Nasr also made frequent trips to other countries in Latin America, including a two-month stay in Venezuela in the summer of 2008.

Nasr was living in Tijuana, Mexico at the time of his arrest, the report said.

Congresswoman Sue Myrick (R- NC) had written to the Dept. of Homeland Security

In June, a U.S. congresswoman wrote to the Department of Homeland Security to warn that Hezbollah was increasing its presence in Central and South America.

In her letter, Congresswoman Sue Myrick called on the U.S. to work with Mexican forces, as there was intelligence that Hezbollah was working in conjunction with Mexican drug cartels on the U.S.-Mexico border.

I wonder what happened to her request.

Meanwhile, what is the Obama administration doing?
The Department of Justice is suing Arizona over its immigration law. Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion posted the complaint, which you can read below the fold:

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