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Column 021108 Brewer

Monday, February 11, 2008

State Involved Terrorism Threatens Hemispheric Stability

By Jerry Brewer

While followers of world news track the bouncing balls of

partisan lead stories, the astute devotees of stability issues in
the Western Hemisphere are gaining clearer visions. Such is
the case of destabilizing issues in Latin America that have been
reaching boiling points over the last decade. With Middle
Eastern terrorism as the popular theme of world crisis, a more
sinister enemy of architects of mayhem are hard at work in the
southwestern hemisphere, and they pose a very clear and
present danger to North America.

Trying to stop this terrain tsunami at any border with walls or

fences is the height of insanity. Spending billions of US dollars
on papier-mâché described as "securing our borders" is further
evidence of that form of lunacy. Is this just an exaggerated
statement by those against the proposed strategy or rationale
for the border barriers? Perhaps we can collectively help
lawmakers decide on how to spend those wasted dollars, set
priorities, and decide which greater threats exist.

Let’s do the homework.

In September 2007, in Havana, Cuba, leaders of the Non-

Aligned Movement (NAM) nations met and made speeches at
their 14th conference. Although the conference's main theme
was how to develop backward economies and societies, it was
reported by sources that "three groups of intelligence experts"
were off in a well-protected corner room discussing their
leader's hostile rhetoric and slogans, and discussing covert
action against democracies. This smorgasbord of clandestine
espionage experts consisted of intelligence officers and civilian
officials on the staffs of the rulers of Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba,
"with ties to underground and terrorist organizations."
At the conclusion of the NAM conference, the Iranian and
Venezuelan teams moved their talks to Caracas, on September
17 and 18, where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran
continued his talks with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

What is surprising is that although Iran's Islamic revolutionary

leaders have cooperatively maintained close ties and mutual
assistance with Cuba since they came to power in 1979, Fidel
Castro has declined to give Iranian agents a free hand for
espionage and subversion against the United States. In 2003
Castro admonished Iranian diplomats residing in Cuba for
installing "jamming equipment" against television programs
relayed from the US through satellite to Iran. Castro made the
Iranian diplomats evacuate their farm and remove the
equipment.

Castro did not have a change of heart. He had previously

launched his terrorist war against the US in 1958, against what
he described as the "US presence in Latin America."

After taking power in 1959-60, Castro and his chief of

clandestine operations, Che Guevara of Argentina, began to
export Cuba's armed revolution to Panama, Haiti, the
Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua. Cuba's intelligence
service, known as the General Directorate of Intelligence (DGI),
was born in 1961. Cuba began to organize guerrilla training
programs and a "Liberation Directorate” for the Caribbean,
Central America, and South America. This group also trained
and funded African revolutionaries.

Was this terrorist threat to the hemisphere the sole act of a Latin
American revolutionary?

By the end of 1966, under the supervision of the Soviet KGB

intelligence service, more than a dozen international guerrilla
training camps were established. One of the terrorist graduates
was the Venezuelan Ilich Ramirez Sanchez (known as "Carlos
the Jackal").

Argentina got into the act in 1978, when the military intelligence
Unit 121 regime sent undercover operatives to Mexico to spy on
activists. Today the tri-border area of Argentina has their
strategic attention, and the head of Argentina's intelligence
service, SIDE, recently traveled to Washington to garner
support for a new terrorist offensive launched from South
America against Middle Eastern terror cells in the region. An
Arab population of around 20,000 Syrians and Lebanese are
within the area. Potentially hostile elements of these operational
cells have been spotted on Margarita Island, Venezuela since
the 1990s.

Sinister espionage is alive and well in the hemisphere. Ciudad

del Este, in Paraguay, has been described as the Casablanca
of Latin America – "a regional center of international intrigue."

On the Mexican front, President Felipe Calderon is waging war

against drug cartels and professionally trained paramilitary
terrorists known as “the Zetas," deadly and ruthless groups that
are well-armed with incredible weaponry.

US law enforcement is currently no match for these elite groups

of transnational terrorists. Reportedly many are now residing in
US cities, and there is a fear of more to come. Law enforcement
and fences have been no match. The police are simply
outgunned and without comparable training.

——————————

Jerry Brewer, the Vice President of Criminal Justice

International Associates, a global risk mitigation firm
headquartered in Miami, Florida, is a guest columnist with
MexiData.info. He can be reached via e-mail at
Cjiaincusa@aol.com.