Latin America in American national security

The Christmas bombing attempt at blowing up a Northwest Airline flying from Amsterdam to Detroit has rightly raised the level of concern regarding national security.

If some still believe that the 9/11 attacks were isolated cases that were not likely to be repeated, the Christmas event as well as the massacre perpetrated by a radical Islamist at a military base at Fort Hood Texas and the capture of five Pakistani-Americans who tried to enlist with Al Qaeda, confirm that national security issues need to be comprehensively addressed. This is why paying full attention and giving priority to events occurring in Afghanistan, Yemen and Pakistan is imperative.

However, a national security policy cannot be subject to emotions or to the ideology of people who profess mere pacifism or wrongly believe that the enemy would not be our enemy if we treat it differently. Likewise, it is reasonable to say that no national security policy should be based only on a reaction to one specific dramatic event.

With all the bad news we have been hearing lately, there is also good news. The Christmas episode is the beginning of the end of illusions about the nature of our enemies. It is now up to the Obama Administration and the political community to lead us towards a systematic and well-thought national security policy. This policy should not be reactive. It should not only focus on areas that have been clearly identified as enemy bastions but also on those regions where no attack has yet been perpetrated on us but where we know there are potential threats.

A case in point is Latin America. The following are some of the challenges faced in that part of the world, which also happens to be a region in close proximity to our shores:

In the summer of 2009, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report at the request of the U.S Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  What they found was that the flow of cocaine transiting Venezuela towards the U.S., West Africa and Europe increased more than four times from 2004 to 2007 and continues to sharply increase. The majority of the cocaine originates in Colombia and goes to the United States but also a substantial amount goes to Europe. It takes place with the cooperation of Venezuelan authorities via air, land and sea. Venezuela has extended a life line to Colombian illegally armed narco- terrorist groups like the FARC by providing them with support and safe heaven both inside their country and along the border.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is engaged in a deliberate policy aimed at weakening the Colombian state by strengthening drug trafficking. The GAO report also states that Venezuelan officials provided material support primarily to the FARC in order to help sustain "the insurgency and threaten security gains achieved in Colombia". Cooperation between Venezuela and the FARC was documented in the computers seized from the FARC by a Colombian army raid into Ecuador in March 2008.

It is also established that the Venezuelan government may have provided hundreds of millions of dollars to the FARC as well as weapons and ammunition from official Venezuelan army stocks and facilities. Likewise, Venezuelan documents such as passports and identification cards have also been given to illegally armed groups. Finally, it was reported that top Venezuelan government officials are involved in these operations.

What is worrisome about this is not the mere criminality of these actions. Drug trafficking enables these criminals to buy law enforcement officials and thus destroys state mechanisms to enforce the law. Drugs promote corruption among state institutions including the police, the military, the rule of law, public officials and all those actors and public entities that enable governability in society. Mexico is a case in point.

In Mexico, drug cartels have been able to co-opt, bribe and kill hundreds of policemen, judges, and politicians at all levels. In the Mexican states bordering the United States there is no distinction between law enforcement and drug cartels. Drug trafficking has caused anarchy, general violence and societal fear.  Bolivia and Ecuador have already removed the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)’ from their territory.  With more countries in Latin America and the Caribbean facing an increasing amount of drug related crimes, the prospect of a widespread general state of anarchy and lawlessness in the region becomes a real possibility. If that turns out to be the case, a situation similar to the one existing in Afghanistan will take place just south of our border.

Naturally, where chaos exists, terrorist groups flourish. As in the Middle East and Central Asia, the FARC has a presence in countries such as Ecuador and possibly Bolivia. Encouraged by Hugo Chavez, Hezbollah has dramatically increased its presence in Latin America. Hezbollah is cooperating with the FARC and the drug cartels. It also has training camps in Venezuela.  The more anarchy spreads in Latin America, the number of Hezbollah and other Islamic radicals will increase, putting at risk institutions and citizens alike. By the same token, should this scenario play out, there will be a higher risk of penetration into U.S territory as Hezbollah uses routes already paved by Mexican drug cartels.

As it is known, Hezbollah is one of the most precious tools of Iran, an archenemy of the United States and an imminent nuclear power. Iran has spread its presence in Latin America in the last two years. Iran not only seeks to use Latin America to avoid sanctions as many analysts, including Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, have pointed out. Iran might also be seeking to increase the presence of armed groups such as Hezbollah as the latter represents a weapon of subversion and asymmetric war. Iran has invested more in subversion and nuclear military power than on conventional weapons because it is aware that its leverage would not exist if it were to rely on conventional weapons only. Iran can only deter through either terrorism or nuclear power.

Thus, Hezbollah’s presence in Latin America could turn the area into an instrument of Iran from where they could launch terrorist attacks. Likewise, Venezuelan territory could serve as a place from where a nuclear threat might emerge. 

Indeed, as international pressure on Iran increases and Iran is less willing to make concessions, Iran will seek means to deter the United States up to the point of threatening its own existence. Hugo Chavez has been Iran’s staunchest supporter in the world. Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah, have comfortably penetrated Latin America thanks to Chavez. Venezuela and its ALBA allies (Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua) have provided the friendliest welcome to Iran second only to the Southern Lebanese Shiites.

Given all of the above, it should not be difficult to imagine a nefarious scenario: if Iran is to develop an atomic bomb, it will either transport clandestine nuclear missiles to Venezuela or provide direct nuclear technology or even a nuclear weapon to the Venezuelan regime which is also a revolutionary regime and an archenemy of the U.S.

Pressure in Central Asia and the Middle East should not reduce the focus in other regions of the world such as in Latin America. National security must be a worldwide comprehensive enterprise. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton seems to have some awareness of the dangers of the growing Iranian presence in our hemisphere as evidenced by her December 11, 2009 speech on Latin America. It is now up to her team and other members of the Obama Administration to uphold our national security interests and take this threat seriously and pursue the appropriate counter-measures.  

Dr. Luis Fleischman is Senior Advisor for the Menges Hemispheric Security Project at the Center for Security Policy in Washington D.C.