Hezbollah's Operations in Latin America

07/14/11
Claire O'Neill McCleskey
Latin America and the Caribbean
Terrorism

On Thursday, July 7, 2011 the House Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence held a hearing entitled “Hezbollah in Latin America – Implications for U.S. Homeland Security.” Text of the full testimonies and a webcast of the hearing are available at the Subcommittee's website. In addition, video clips of the hearing are available on the Committee's YouTube channel.

Turnout for the hearing was relatively large, with 9 out of 12 Subcommittee members present and a packed audience. The witnesses called to testify at the hearing were former U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States Roger Noriega of the American Enterprise Institute, Douglas Farah of the International Assessment and Strategy Center, Ilan Burman of the American Foreign Policy Council, and Dr. Melani Cammett of Brown University.

In his opening remarks, Chairman Patrick Meehan (R-PA) quoted former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, who said in 2008 that Hezbollah may be the United States' greatest long term threat. He noted that Hezbollah has been implicated in two terrorist attacks in Argentina: the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy and the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center. The Chairman repeatedly expressed concern over the alliance of Hezbollah, "one of the most dangerous terrorist organization in the world," Iran, "number one state-sponsor of terrorism and sworn enemy of the United States," and Venezuela in "the backyard of the United States." (For some background information on Hezbollah as an organization, check out the beginning of Dr. Cammett's testimony or this link from the Council on Foreign Relations.)

Highlights from Witness Testimony

  • The Honorable Roger Noriega: PDF
    • Hezbollah's expanding activities in Latin America "are the result of a conscious, offensive to carry their fight to our doorstep," with support from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
    • "We can identify at least 80 [Hezbollah] operatives in at least 12 countries throughout the region."
    • President Chavez hosted a "terror summit" in 2010 that included senior leaders from Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
    • Noriega admitted that last week a State Department official said that Hezbollah's activities in Latin America are confined to fund raising, but he asserted that the threat is indeed larger than that.
    • Noriega concluded that "if our government and responsible partners from Latin America fail to act, I believe there will be an attack on U.S. personnel, installations, or interests in the Americas as soon as Hezbollah operatives believe that they are capable of such an operation without implicating their Iranian sponsors in the crime.
  • Douglas Farah: PDF
    • "There is growing concern that Hezbollah is providing the technology for the increasingly sophisticated narco tunnels being found along the U.S.-Mexico border, which strongly resembles the type used in Lebanon."
    • Hezbollah's presence "has grown in scope and sophistication over the past years as Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has successfully built close alliances with several governments in Latin America, led by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela."
    • Hezbollah functions as a proxy element for Iran in Latin America. Iran's covert activities in the region include "mining of precursor elements for WMD and advanced weapons systems fabrication" and "a regional base for infiltration and contingency operations aimed at undermining the U.S. and its interests."
    • "Hezbollah's growing presence is a significant part of a larger and more dangerous pattern of the criminalization of the self-described 'Bolivarian' states in Latin America closely allied with Iran. These countries, in turn, support another designated terrorist organization," the FARC. According to t he State Department, around 90% of the cocaine trafficked to the United States comes from Colombia, but Farah made the inaccurate leap that the FARC itself produces "up to 90% of cocaine in the United States."
    • Farah concluded that the "core shared beliefs" of a group of "varied actors" that includes Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, Venezuela, and the FARC is that "the United States is a primary enemy that needs to be destroyed."
  • Ilan Burman: PDF
    • Burman quotes former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage as saying, "Hezbollah may be the A-team of terrorists." This quote was repeated several times by various witnesses and Subcommittee members.
    • The RAND corporation estimates that Hezbollah "nets around $20 million annually from the Tri-Border Region," the border region of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.
    • In 2006, the FBI broke up a "Mexican smuggling ring organized by Hezbollah to transport operatives across the U.S.-Mexican border."
    • Hezbollah's activities in Latin America are intertwined with Iran's regional goals. Iran's 3 principal objectives in the area are to lessen its international isolation, gain access to strategic resources, and to counter U.S. influence and interests in the region.
    • Hezbollah's presence in Latin America is presently confined to "support" activities. Without some "precipitating development in the Middle East, the likelihood of a terrorist attack on the United States by Hezbollah in the near future remains low."
    • Burman concluded that, nevertheless, Hezbollah "represents a significant potential threat to the United States." The organization is clearly "targeting U.S. interests and assets throughout Latin America."
  • Dr. Melani Cammett: PDF
    • Hezbollah engages in "money-laundering, counterfeiting, piracy, and narcotics trafficking in this region, and uses the area as a base for recruitment."
    • Hezbollah has evolved from a "predominantly militant movement" into a three-pronged organization. It still has a militant wing, but it is "keen to differentiate itself from Sunni terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda," from whom it differs both ideologically and strategically. In addition to its militant activities, Hezbollah functions as a political party that participate in formal political institutions in Lebanon and as a provider of social welfare.
    • Hezbollah's militant operations are "almost exclusively directed at Israel" in what it and even non-supporters in Lebanon views as a "protracted war."
    • "At present there is no indication that Hezbollah aims to target the U.S. militarily." Hezbollah condemns the United States' alliance with Israel, but it has not used violence against U.S. personnel or interests for decades.
    • Among Lebanese Shia migrants in Latin America, "sympathy for Hezbollah...as well as paying of religious taxes to Shia clerics" do not equal support for terrorism.
    • Dr. Cammet concluded that the claim that Latin America offers a "geographic platform...from which Hezbollah and other groups can launch terrorist operations against the U.S." seems implausible and is unsupported by evidence.

Highlights from Q & A

  • Hezbollah's plans/capacity to strike the United States
    • As a general rule, the the Subcommittee members seemed more interested in the intentions of Hezbollah as an organization than in the region-specific details of its operations in Latin America. Chairman Meehan and Dr. Cammett shared a somewhat heated exchange over the fact that Dr. Cammett was the only witness to testify that attacking the United States is not one of Hezbollah's present or future goals.
  • Smuggling tunnels on the U.S.-Mexico border
    • Farah claimed that Mexican smugglers and drug traffickers are using Hezbollah technology given to them by Venezuela to dig tunnels across the U.S.-Mexico border. This along with Noriega's claims about Hezbollah's conducting explosives and weapons training for Mexican drug traffickers along the U.S.-Mexico border produced alarm and confusion among the Subcommittee members. Representative Hochul (D-NY), who was recently sworn in as the newest member of the House, exclaimed that "we are sitting ducks here."
  • "Asymmetrical warfare"
    • Ibn addition to Farah's assertion that Hezbollah, Iran, and Venezuela are involved in training fighters within Venezuela in forms of asymmetrical warfare to potentially be used against the United States, Noriega made the surprising claim that Hezbollah's participation in the drug trade is actually in itself a form of asymmetrical warfare against the United States.

This blog was written by CIP Intern Claire O'Neill McCleskey.