By Peter Tase | AzerNEWS
In a period of profound geopolitical transformation and constant
realignment of alliances and partnerships, Paraguay’s bilateral
ties with the state of Israel appear to be feigned, insincere and
far from a strategic partnership, due to a deeply troubled
judiciary and law enforcement institutions that favour money
laundering Islamic terrorists on one hand and official Asuncion’s
cosy and pro-Israel public discourse on the other.
On September 17, 2024, Amir Ohana became the first Knesset
Speaker to visit Paraguay. He was decorated by Raúl Luís Latorre
Martinez, President of the country’s Chamber of Deputies, with the
country’s highest award. Moreover, Ohana signed a cooperation
agreement binding the two parliaments. During his September 18
visit, Ohana inaugurated the reopening of Israel’s embassy to
Asuncion, the capital city.
As Israel’s legitimate war against terrorism and ruthless
autocracies continues with great success in the Middle East, in
South America, particularly in Paraguay, the picture is
surprisingly different. There, financial operations benefiting
Middle Eastern terrorist organizations continue to rise. A rampant
and sophisticated black market system in Paraguay is believed to
generate about $20 billion a year, while over half is calculated to
directly benefit terrorist groups that kill innocent civilians
inside the sovereign territory of Israel and across the Middle
East.
On December 12, Paraguayan President Santiago Peña will travel
to Jerusalem to inaugurate the reopening of his country’s embassy,
making it the sixth embassy established in Israel’s historic
capital city. That embassy was initially opened in May 2018, but
Peña’s predecessor, Mario Abdo Benítez, who is of Lebanese
ancestry, reversed the move shortly thereafter in September of that
year. Paraguay’s embassy went back to Tel Aviv. Israel then
subsequently shuttered its embassy in Asuncion, using its embassy
in Montevideo for relations with both Uruguay and Paraguay.
Smuggling and money laundering in Paraguay has benefited enemies
of Israel over the last thirty years, as these illicit activities
have been carved out by various high ranking Paraguayan army
officials in a tradition inherited from the days of dictator
Alfredo Stroessner all the way to the present. In public,
high-level Paraguay officials praise Israel and its people. Behind
the scenes, there is a darker reality emerging.
Professor Andrew Nickson of the University of Birmingham argues
that Paraguayan officials “smuggle out cigarettes using military
planes of the armed forces” or semi-trucks crossing into Brazil,
which are major fundraising operations for Hezbollah operatives in
South America and beyond. Weapons trafficking, drug trafficking,
and human trafficking are on the rise in the border cities of
Paraguay’s Pedro Juan Caballero and Brazil’s Ponta Porã
interlocking with one another. In this region the barely
distinguishable Brazil-Paraguay border separates what appears to be
one city into two. As Nickson argues: “You just cross the road, and
you go from one country to another, there are no border authorities
there at all.”
Furthermore, Paraguay’s Ciudad del Este is another hub of a
growing terrorist financial activity and money laundering, due to
the near absence of Paraguayan law enforcement and justice system.
In the city near the Triple Frontier region, where the borders of
Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay converge, there is a community of
Muslim Lebanese and the largest mosque in Latin America, This is in
a nation where 97 percent of its population is Catholic. Ciudad del
Este is home to about 30,000 Muslims, not only of Lebanese
ancestry. There are also other minority groups from China, Japan,
South Korea, and Ukraine, in a city noted for moneychangers,
duty-free shops, and fake Rolex watches.
It is disturbing to observe the large amounts of counterfeit
goods, contraband tobacco and weapons, and cocaine entering
Paraguay that fund Middle Eastern terrorist groups. Its national
authorities – despite their sugarcoated language in favor of Israel
– have demonstrably failed to address these threats to Israel’s
national security and to South American security overall.
Most likely, President Santiago Peña will deliver an energetic
speech, full of poetic language in praise of Israel. But there is
another reality afoot in his chaotic country, which has succumbed
to a dark, underground dark economy – money laundering operations
led by Hezbollah affiliates, using Asuncion’s public banking sector
to funnel money to terrorists. It would benefit Israel, and South
America, for the Jewish state to expand its human intelligence
operations within Paraguay and combat this source of weapons
financing destined for Israel’s enemies.
While Paraguay is among the four poorest nations in Latin
America, it has shamefully amiss regarding antisemitism, and for
failing to clamp down on terrorist organizations inside its
territory. It has failed to embolden law enforcement, mainly the
national police force.
While President Pena will inaugurate his embassy in Jerusalem, a
move of global implications, his government has proved to be the
antithesis of diplomacy. He is surrounded by surrogates who are
clearly identified by the U. S. government for having clear ties to
global terrorist organizations.
Paraguay has potential in fighting against terrorist financing
and should offer unconditional support and logistical assistance to
Israel’s Operation Northern Arrows and allow Israeli intelligence
experts to eradicate Hezbollah’s and Iran’s financing in South
America.
President Peña will address the Knesset on December 11, followed
by a special Knesset ceremony with Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Knesset Speaker Ohana and
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid. This is the perfect time for Peña to
publicly announce that Israel will assist his government by signing
a strategic cooperation agreement with Israel, to root out all
terrorist financing that benefit Hezbollah and Iran’s terrorist
schemes.
Paraguay’s two-faced diplomacy must be exposed, and Santiago
Peña also has an opportunity to become Israel’s top loyalist in
South America by energetically denouncing the belligerent, pro-
terrorist behavior of the United Nations’ leadership. He has also
expressed his deep disagreement and concern about the lack of
professionalism of the current U. S. Ambassador Marc Ostfield by
requesting the Biden administration to immediately terminate his
tenancy in Asuncion.
Paraguay has a long history of friendship with Israel, dating
back to its vote in 1949 for the membership of the Jewish state to
the United Nations. In his upcoming speech, Santiago Peña must also
apologize for Paraguay’s abstention of a vote on a December 3
resolution at the UN General Assembly. That resolution called for a
“two-State solution” and urged for a ceasefire in Gaza and called
on Israel to permit food and aid deliveries ahead of the cold
winter months.
Paraguay’s president and political elite must do more to combat
terrorist financing on its soil. Asuncion’s current lip service of
Asuncion towards Jerusalem is no different from the days of
dictator Alfredo Stroessner who maintained diplomatic relations
with Israel but turned his country into a perfect hideout for
Hitler’s henchmen, Martin Bormann, Eduard Roschmann and Josef
Mengele, and ultimately the Islamist terrorist bent on destroying
Israel and Jews worldwide.
Peter Marko Tase is an analyst of international
affairs based in the United States.
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Publish date : 2024-12-06 01:11:00
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