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| Caribbean-Latin America | |
| The Murky Latin American Connection | |
| 2004-12-10 | |
| Fears of Islamic terrorists using Latin America as a base for operations against the United States have, so far, not produced much evidence. There are six million Moslems in Latin America, most of them immigrants from the Middle East. The area most often mentioned as the center of Islamic terrorism in South American is the tri-border area. Here, where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet, the Paraguayan city of Ciudad del Este has long been known as a haven for smuggling, counterfeiting and all manner of illegal activities. The local government officials have been bribed into inactivity. But only about seven percent of the 300,000 city residents are Moslem. And most of those are Shia, who do not get along with the Sunni Arab dominated al Qaeda at all. But some of the Shia Arabs in Ciudad del Este do openly support Hizbollah, an Iranian supported, Shia Arab terrorist organization in Lebanon. The Ciudad del Este Hizbollah supporters are believed to have had something to do with two bombing attacks against Argentinean Jews in the 1990s. But beyond that, there's nothing but rumors. Many Moslems throughout Latin American favor Palestinian terrorists in their attacks against Israel. But efforts to find proof of any tangible involvement have so far failed. Part of the reason is the corruption, and indifference (to Islamic terrorism) in many Latin American countries. Businesses run by Christians and Moslems must deal with the suffocating government bureaucracies in the region. The deals often involve bribes, and the bureaucrats do their part by looking the other way. At the same time, the local Moslems know they are a religious, and ethnic, minority in a very Christian part of the world. Tolerance could quickly turn to hatred, persecution and expulsion if Moslems were found to be involved in terrorist activities. Since many of the South American Moslems are refugees from various wars and tyrannies in the Middle East, they don't want to ruin their welcome and have to flee again. This, more than anything else, is what is keeping al Qaeda from setting up shop in South America. Most of the local terrorists are either communist (atheist) or Christian. There has been a lot of terrorism in South American over the last half century, and terrorists are not very popular, no matter what their cause.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #6 As I recall, Chavez was reported to have given up to 20,000 Venezuelan visas to Arabs who are not friendly to the US. He is Not Our Friend and would not need bribing. |
| Posted by: too true 2004-12-10 3:05:43 PM |
| #5 Let's face it, the Southern and Central American nations are knee deep in corruption, so that fact in itself makes for a fertile ground for AQ operatives to thrive. So, if you take the corruption thread on rantburg today and this one, and add them to the "lack of imagination" finding of the 9/11 commission-what do you have? Opportunity. Why wouldn't the jihadis take this chance: Bribe Brazil (the hypercorrupt) to enter Venezuela, bribe Venezuela to get on a boat to Mexico (thereby bypassing extra palm grease and all those pesky Central American borders), and blend into a crowd of thousands of other people sliding across the border between Mexico and the US? |
| Posted by: Jules 187 2004-12-10 2:57:28 PM |
| #4 How're ya doin, Rex? |
| Posted by: .com 2004-12-10 2:46:44 PM |
| #3 OTOH, Michele Malkin has live links to articles that dispute the "no worries/only rumors/no evidence" starategypage assessment of the terrorist threat from south of the border countries. Also read the links provided in the comments that follow, particularly the one about Mexicans cheering OBL in a recent soccer game. BTW, there are currently Islamic schools in 13 different Mexican cities - are we to believe that Muslim clerics in Mexico are preaching solely the peaceful variation of Islam? : "What's the Spanish word for terrorist" July 24, 2004 http://michellemalkin.com/archives/000275.htm Hispanics are the fastest growing ethnic group re: conversion to Islam: http://www.islamfortoday.com/americanlatinos2.htm But in growing numbers, Hispanics, the country's fastest-growing ethnic group, are finding new faith in Islam, the nation's fastest-growing religion. In the Washington region, the population of Latino Muslims is largely from Mexico and Central America, as it is in western states, according to Latin American Muslim Unity, an advocacy group in Fresno, Calif. In other eastern cities, including Miami, significant numbers of converts are from Puerto Rico and Cuba. "I think what many [Hispanics] are finding in Islam is a community that they find more nurturing," said Nicole Ballivian, a Los Angeles documentary filmmaker who is completing a movie about Latino Muslims called "Luces Sobre Islam" ("Islam in Focus"). She has traveled throughout South America and the Caribbean and visited many Hispanic Muslim communities here. Then there's the article in the Washington Times about AQ seeking out ties to local Mexican gangs. The WT article brings out a little known fact-that last year alone 60,000 "Other than Mexican" illegals were caught trying to cross the southern border-that's a small percentage of the number of OTM that got in: www.washtimes.com/national/20040928-123346-3928r.htm The Salvadoran gang, known to law enforcement authorities as MS-13 because many members identify themselves with tattoos of the number 13, is thought to have established a major smuggling center in Matamoros, Mexico, just south of Brownsville, Texas, from where it has arranged to bring illegal aliens from countries other than Mexico into the United States. Authorities said al Qaeda terrorists hope to take advantage of a lack of detention space within the Department of Homeland Security that has forced immigration officials to release non-Mexican illegal aliens back into the United States, rather than return them to their home countries. Less than 15 percent of those released appear for immigration hearings. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24987 Another agent, of supervisory rank, stated, "The smuggling traffic of Mexicans has really slowed. We are experiencing a tremendous increase in OTMs" – border lingo for "other than Mexicans." "Yeah, it varies, but about one in every 10 that we catch, is from a country like Yemen or Egypt." Then there's http://www.nbc4.tv/news/3901282/detail.html " Terrorists at the Border/" 11/08/04 It's a place that used to go by the name "Cocaine Alley" because of all the drugs that were smuggled through. But now some officials are more concerned about human smuggling, specifically illegal entry at the border by individuals who are not actually from Mexico. They're called "Special Interest Aliens," because they're coming from countries believed to be a threat. "People are coming here with bad intentions. I know of 10 that have been detained at my station alone," said a Border Patrol agent whose identity has been withheld at his request. He said this is something that agents have been told not to talk about. "We know for a fact that people coming from the Middle East are now coming into Mexico and spending a year, even two years in Mexico, to learn how to speak Spanish," the Border Patrol agent told NBC4."The key is to pass yourself off as a Mexican," said retired Army Colonel Ben Anderson. He has been following what he calls the terrorist trail and connecting the dots on his website. He said it's a journey that begins on the other side of the world."You come out of Cairo International and you go either to England or Madrid. From there, you either go to Paraguay or Brazil. There is a huge infra structure there waiting for you to learn how to speak Spanish. You're then going to transition your way up through Latin America ... into Mexico," Anderson said. And it's estimated that of the Other than Mexican illegals caught in 2003, 6000 of those in 2003 were Special Interest illegals- from terrorist source nations. http://www.house.gov/tancredo/newsroom/press/2004_08_04.html "Twelve Congressmen Ask DHS for Inquiry into Non-Mexicans Who Enter the U.S. Illegally" And http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/08/15/wmex15.xml "Arab terrorists are getting into the US over Mexican border" Over the past month, border agents from Arizona and Texas have anonymously reported recent encounters with dozens of Arab men, who have made their way across the 2,000-mile Mexican border.Mr Ortiz also claims that immigration officials have privately warned him that a number of suspicious foreigners have been detained on the Mexican border and then released, including some who claimed to have travelled from South and Central America but were unable to speak Spanish. Let's face it, the Southern and Central American nations are knee deep in corruption, so that fact in itself makes for a fertile ground for AQ operatives to thrive. Strategypage's optimism that there's no evidence that there's a terrorist threat to the USA from terrorists Muslims living/visiting in S.and C. America is hogwash. |
| Posted by: Glomosing Crong 2004-12-10 2:24:11 PM |
| #2 IRA was helping to train Columbians. So where Israeli paramilitaries. So clearly its a violent multi-religious wonderland in Latin America. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2004-12-10 11:18:23 AM |
| #1 Most of the local terrorists are either communist (atheist (Shining Path)) or Christian. There has been a lot of terrorism in South American over the last half century, and terrorists are not very popular, no matter what their cause. Christian terrorists? Does the IRA have branch offices in SA, or is it someone else? Or are they talking about last-gasp hold-overs from the military dictatorships that used to infest the continent? |
| Posted by: Ptah 2004-12-10 10:37:25 AM |