“What is happening in Latin America has an impact on the rest of the world,” said Daniel S. Mariaschin, vice president of the B’nai B’rith International Executive during a luncheon meeting in Washington on Monday.

With the geographic proximity and close economic ties, the safety and security of Latin America have a direct impact on the United States.

Developments south of the border, principally incursions into almost every country in South America, though in some more so than others by the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shia organisation, Hezbollah, has security experts, lawmakers, diplomats and specialists in terrorism and counter-terrorism seriously concerned. “An arms race is taking place in the region,” said Mariaschin. Indeed, besides the arms race going on in countries such as Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez is out on a shopping spree, scooping up everything he can get his hands on, from helicopters to tanks, there are further reports that the Iranians and their proxy militia are also funneling weapons into the area. 

The Middle East Times reported last February that the United Stares was stepping up scrutiny of Iranian security and military personnel in the Lebanese communities of Latin America. 

Several security analysts who have just returned from the ‘tri-border area’ where Puerto Iguazu, Argentina, Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, and Foz do Iguacu, Brazil, converge is believed to have become a ‘breeding ground for terrorist  groups.’   Islamist terrorists have found allies in the largely lawless area where Latin American crime syndicates generate billions of dollars from narco-trafficking, prostitution, counterfeiting and money laundering and arms smuggling. Part of Hezbollah’s alarming expansion is being fueled by narco-dollars coming from Latin American drug cartels, and American concern stems from the possibility that Al Qaeda and Hezbollah, both of which have contacts with wealthy and powerful Latin American drug organizations, could use the area to stage attacks on US interests in the region or at home, US officials had told the Middle East Times.

US officials said that in addition to boosting rates of recruitment, Hezbollah agents, supported by Iran, are using very effective routes to smuggle drug profits to the Middle East to aid anti-US counterparts, thanks to cooperation with Cuban intelligence, which has effective operations in southern Florida.

Last fall, Charles Allen, undersecretary of Intelligence and Analysis in the Department of Homeland Security said, “The threat of ties between criminal and drug smuggling networks and Islamic terrorism may be less pressing than the Middle East, but the threats in this hemisphere are genuine, insidious and not always limited to recruiting 
and finance.”

Again, as reported late last year by the Middle East Times, US and Colombian law enforcement agencies say they broke up a Hezbollah drug trafficking ring that was funneling profits to markets in Europe, the United States and militias in Lebanon, according to Department of Justice reports.

Hezbollah spokesmen have always denied their involvement in the Latin American drug market.

“There is no doubt that Hezbollah is a formidable conduit for Iran’s interests in Latin America,” said a US intelligence official to the Middle East Times’ Richard Sale. The arrest of Hezbollah operatives in Colombia was proof of that, he said.

Of particular concern is Iran’s recent diplomatic initiative to tighten its ties with Venezuela led by virulently anti-American Hugo Chavez. Direct flights from Caracas and Tehran began in early 2007 and relations have grown, US officials said.

While many specialists agree there is cause for concern, US intelligence officials told the Middle East Times that there was no evidence yet. “But they said, “We are keeping a close eye on it, you can bet on that,” said an official who asked not to be named.

Others are harshly skeptical. “The whole issue of Hezbollah expansion down there is overblown,” former CIA official Larry Johnson told Sale. “It’s total bull—just another way for neo-cons to beat the Iranian fear drum so that we’ll join Israel in a nice little war with Tehran.” The neo-cons are now no longer in control, yet the drums continue to beat.

Claude Salhani is editor of the Middle East Times and author of “While the Arab World Slept: the Impact of the Bush years on the Middle East.”