Teaching Terror: Tehran’s Changing Latin America Strategy

In 1992, a pickup truck loaded with explosives detonated after slamming into the Israeli embassy in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires. Two years later, a van filled with an ammonia nitrate fertilizer and fuel mixture exploded near the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina- AMIA) building, collapsing the entire structure. Both the western world and the intelligence community held Hezbollah and Iran responsible for the 114 men, women, and children who lost their lives in the deadliest terror bombings in Latin American history.

Following the initial investigation, it became evident that Mohsen Rabbani, the cultural attaché for the Iranian embassy in Buenos Aires, was the mastermind behind these attacks. In 2007, Interpol officially labeled Rabbani as the planner and placed his name under the Red Notice category for immediate location and arrest. After his escape from Buenos Aires, Rabbani continued Iran’s war against the west in a more subtle way. By hiding in plain sight as the director of the Oriental Thought Culture Institute located in the Iranian city of Qom, Rabbani has become a greater threat to the western hemisphere’s security than he was before.

Mohsen Rabbani’s strategy has shifted from building terror networks while living in Latin America, to importing and radicalizing Latin American students in Iran. In the Brazilian city of Curitiba, near the country’s southern border with Argentina and Paraguay, Rabbani’s brother acts as the lead recruiter for the Oriental Thought Culture Institute. Young men from around the continent who show interest in Islam are given the opportunity to travel to Iran, all expenses paid for by the Iranian government, in order to learn more about Islam and Iranian culture. However, some ex-students claim a more malicious purpose, declaring that they visited Hezbollah controlled areas; sparking fears that the program is intended to train future terrorists. Following their indoctrination, the students are returned home to their respective countries in order to spread Iranian influence to a continent that has grown weary of American intervention.

Iran’s strategy of introducing radical anti-western converts in Latin America should not only be seen as a major concern to their native countries, but also the entire western world. Growing anti-American sentiments combined with Iran’s exportation of their revolution ideology is a recipe for instability on the continent. Should this problem not be addressed, Latin American Jihadis will pose a grave threat to any country that Tehran deems a menace to their objectives.