Latin America haven for Islamic terrorists: US officials

www.malaysiakini.com 4:06pm Thu Mar 13th, 2003

LONDON — Latin America is suddenly teeming with Islamic terrorist organisations, according to a string of high-profile statements by US officials and legislators.

This on-again-off-again theme was revived last week by the chief of the US Southern Command, General James Hill, and taken up by the US ambassador to Venezuela, Charles Shapiro.

A variant, linking Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez with al Qaeda and Hamas, was floated by seven Republican lawmakers in a letter to US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

General Hill told participants in a conference organised by the University of Miami's North-South Center, on March 3, that the Middle Eastern communities in Latin America were sending 'hundreds of millions of dollars' to Islamic 'terror' organisations.