General: Islamists find Latin America funds

www.miami.com Posted on Sun, Mar. 09, 2003 BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER aoppenheimer@herald.com

Latin America is becoming a major fundraising base for radical Islamic groups in the Middle East, which are getting between $300 million and $500 million a year from various criminal networks in the region, a top U.S. military commander told The Herald.

Gen. James T. Hill, commander of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees U.S. military relations in Latin America, said much of this money comes from drug trafficking, arms dealing and other illegal activities. He said the funds are sent abroad from several Latin American areas with large Middle Eastern populations, such as the triple frontier between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, and Margarita island off the coast of Venezuela.

''The fastest-growing religion in Latin America today is Islam,'' Gen. Hill said during an interview at his office. ``We think that there are between 3 and 6 million people of Middle Eastern descent in Latin America. There are radical Islamic groups associated with that population that are using it to create lots of money for their organizations.''

Hill said that about ``$300 million to $500 million a year, easily, goes [from Latin America] to groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al Gamaat.''

Only in Paraguay, news reports in December said the government was investigating suspicious transfers of more than $100 million into Lebanon, he added.

While U.S. officials have long pointed at large flows of money from Middle Eastern population enclaves in Latin American to Islamic radical groups, they had been reluctant to provide specific estimates. Monday, at a conference on ''Building Regional Security'' organized by the University of Miami's North-South Center, Hill had put the figure at ''hundreds of millions of dollars,'' but did not elaborate further.

At the conference, attended by military officers from several Latin American countries, Hill had called for ''increased coordination'' among armed forces to fight narco-terrorism, conduct disaster relief operations, and to help stop the flow of money to international terrorist groups. Many Latin American countries are cautious about discussing security agreements with the United States, fearing they could lead to U.S. interventions in the region.

In an apparent response to such fears, Hill told The Herald that he sees no need to create a multinational military force against narco-terrorism. ''I don't see that happening,'' he said, adding that the 34-country Organization of American States has enough mechanisms to allow a collective fight against international criminal groups.

Asked whether Latin American governments are cooperating with U.S. authorities in the fight against Islamic terrorist groups, he said, ``To varying degrees, different governments are.''

He said Paraguay, in particular, has offered ''a lot of support'' over the past two years.

But Hill played down speculation that there may be al Qaeda terrorist cells or other radical Islamic groups' training bases in Latin America. He said he wouldn't be surprised if they existed, but there isn't enough evidence to say they do.

Emilio Viano, a terrorism expert at American University in Washington, said he is not surprised by Hill's assertions that hundreds of millions of dollars are going from Latin America to radical Islamic groups. But he added that in some cases, such as that of the ''triple frontier,'' increased international scrutiny after the Sept. 11 attacks has made it harder for terrorist groups to launder money there.

''Pressure is being put on Paraguay,'' Viano said. ``The activities have diminished there, but not disappeared.''

Some experts, however, are skeptical about the new estimates of Islamic groups' fundraising in Latin America.

Eduardo Gamarra, director of Florida International University's Latin American and Caribbean Center, called the estimates ``absolutely ridiculous.''

''A lot of figures have been bouncing around, but in the last year I've been looking at these particular issues, and most of what I found was speculation,'' he said.

Herald writer Larissa Ruiz Campo contributed to this report.