Infobae, 21 Nov 2011.

A newly published document on terrorism finance warns that due to international isolation, Teheran will seek to tighten its relations with Latin-American through Caracas. 
Iran, a country singled out as a terrorism supporter over and over again by the United States, opened six embassies in Latin America in the last 5 years. It has also intensified its diplomatic and commercial ties, specially, with Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia, hence rising awareness in Washington. It´s on this recent activity that the report by Daniel Glaser, assistant secretary for terrorist financing at the U.S. Treasury, focuses to depict the relevance that the region has taken upon the Islamic country, under an increasing international pressure to put an end on its nuclear program.

The document does not target to alarm, as it clears out that “so far, Iran has failed to establish a significant relationship with the region. “Whenever there had been initiations, we have been quick to act”.  It also signals out the International Development Bank, a Venezuelan subsidiary of the Iranian Export Development Bank, whose funds were blocked by U.S. treasury, accused of being a “large weapon manufacturer”, as an example.

The text also says: “We have proactively engaged with governments and the private sector to advise them on the dangers involved from closing business with Iran. The U.S. treasury is also working on building an antiterrorist agreement against laundering to protect the whole region against these threats.”

The report describes that in August 2010, David Cohen, then U.S. secretary, traveled to Brazil and Ecuador to explain how sanctions passed on the U.N. Security Council a month ago were to be implemented.

Political bond

The report was presented on October 13th, before a parlamentary meeting on security and terrorist threats in the region. This occurred a few days after a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington was denounced by the White House.

During the meeting, William Brownfield, a Department of State veteran, insisted that Iran had strengthened its ties with Venezuela. When asked to explain the relationship, he summarized it on three topics:  “There is much more official presence than ten years ago. Furthermore, there is a stronger political relationship between both presidents, as well as compromises on a higher level. In third place, there is more cooperation in international forums, such us U.N. or IAEA, than before.”

Guerilla complicity

The report presented by Glazer underlines that “during the recent years, the U.S. treasury has shown a strong compromise exposing terrorism financial aids and how this works out in Venezuela”. It also says, “The connection between the narco-guerrillas (FARC) (…) and Venezuelan government representatives has been an important aim”

In this sense, reminds us that in September 2008 three high ranking security Venezuelan officials were accused, following the 1999 Kingpin act, that bloqaids all activities related to foreign individuals or organizations suspected of drug trafficking and prove a threat for national security.

The officials were accused, among other things, of “protecting drug cargo from the Venezuelan anti-narcotic authorities and providing weapons and official Venezuelan ids to FARC members, as well as pushing for improved government-FARC relationship”.

Hezbollah and the Triple Frontier

According to the report, The U.S. treasury has been investigating terrorism finances on the triple frontier between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, besides leads in Venezuela. It underlines that, “nor Al-Qaeda or its allies, receive significant financial support in the area”.

The report points out that the White House is also “worried about ties between Caracas and Hezbollah”. Although they would not be as large as the ones developed with FARC, it illustrates with some cases, such as, Ghazi Nasr el Alboroto Al, “who used its position as an important Venezuelan diplomat to provide Hezbollah with financial support”, and Fawzi Kan'an, “a Caracas based tourism agency owner and key facilitator and fundraising figure for Hezbollah officials”

Glaser warned the terrorist network seeked financial support and facilitators in the triple frontier. The U.S. treasury has identified at least a dozen individuals and groups since 2006, accused of supporting the Libyan group. “The most recent case, December 2010, was against Bilal Mohsen Wehbe main Hezbollah representative in South America and responsible for counter intelligence in the are” , the report assures.

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