Biden Administration Has Not Adequately Addressed Hezbollah's South American Allies

Amid the brewing war at Israel’s northern border, it would seem exceedingly difficult for Hezbollah to fly under the radar in any respect. Yet the Lebanese terror group is doing precisely that with the help of one of its South American enablers. 

The roots of the problem are planted in the Triple Frontier — the tri-border region connecting Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay –  that is a hub for terrorism financing through money laundering and illicit activity. The United States government has ascertained that Hezbollah operatives use front companies in that region to finance terrorist activities in the Middle East.

In January 2023, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned former President of Paraguay Horacio Manuel Cartes and his former vice president, Hugo Adalberto Velazquez, for their participation in “systemic corruption that has undermined democratic institutions in Paraguay.” At the time, U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay Marc Ostfield acknowledged Cartes’ and Velazquez’s ties to Hezbollah, while the Treasury Department alleged that “representatives of both Cartes and Velázquez have collected bribes” at private events held by Hezbollah in Paraguay.

However, the underground financial operations that benefit Hezbollah’s war machine in the Middle East will likely continue to grow for as long as Paraguay’s current attorney general Emiliano Rolón, remains in office. This is in no small part due to the communication facilitated by Cartes’ private envoy to Rolón, attorney Victor Manuel Galeano Perrone. A close associate of Rolón, Perrone is the link between Cartes’ pro-Hezbollah policies and Rolón’s refusal to investigate the terrorist organization’s money laundering network in Paraguay.

Consider the other crimes that remain unresolved under Rolón’s tenure. The masterminds behind the murder of Paraguayan Prosecutor Marcelo Pecci, who was killed in Colombia in May 2022, are still unknown. Rolón has flippantly remarked that “not even Mandrake the Magician” could solve the Pecci case. According to Dr. Benjamín Fernández Bogado, a distinguished Paraguayan philosopher and international lecturer, such comments indicate that Rolón “has not displayed the will, nor the determination, to know and investigate who is behind the crime of prosecutor Marcelo Pecci,” and that the attorney general “is afraid to investigate and reveal the truth.”

Now, with Israel facing the daunting prospect of a multi-front war, Rolón’s presence also means that Cartes and Velazquez can continue to scoff at Washington while they conduct influence peddling in favor of the money-laundering operations that support Hezbollah. Despite the Treasury sanctions, the Department of Justice and other U.S. law enforcement authorities have not taken immediate actions to clearly confront and disrupt the involvement of Cartes and Velazquez with terrorist organizations in the Middle East.

Historically, the White House has failed to combat Hezbollah’s financial ties with South America and with Paraguay in particular. The Biden administration is no exception.

President Joe Biden has failed to send a clear message to Iran and to publicly commit that the U.S. will take military action against Iran if Hezbollah attacks Israel from Lebanon. Over the past three years, Washington’s appeasement toward Tehran has emboldened countries such as Paraguay to ensure that a growing stream of funding continues to flow from South America to the pockets of Hezbollah. 

Consequently, Hezbollah’s rockets are now raining down on Israel. The Biden administration should not shoulder all the blame, as the Paraguay-Hezbollah nexus is overlooked on both sides of the aisle in Washington. U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, penned an August 2023 letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas that details the illicit tobacco trade of Mexican cartels — in which the Congressman also notes a prior case in which two brothers trafficked cigarettes in the U.S. to raise funds for Hezbollah. The letter makes no mention, however, of Hezbollah’s South American money laundering operation. Green had visited Paraguay’s capital of Asunción in August 2022, meeting with President Mario Abdo Benítez and law enforcement officials. It appears that the leaders in Asunción successfully diverted Green’s attention away from Hezbollah’s deeply ingrained presence in Paraguay.

Especially during this tense time in northern Israel, the ongoing concerns regarding Hezbollah activities in Paraguay will also continue to cast a cloud over what could otherwise be promising relations between Jerusalem and Asunción. In August 2023, Paraguay’s newly inaugurated President Santiago Peña announced plans to reopen the country’s embassy in Jerusalem and declared himself to be “Israel’s greatest friend.” On the surface, there is no reason to doubt Peña’s intentions. And yet, Rolón stands in the way of Israel-Paraguay ties reaching their full potential, given the attorney general’s penchant for giving cover to Hezbollah’s South American money laundering operation.

It is time for Israeli and American leaders alike to end their timid posture on this issue, and work to root out the corruption of Hezbollah’s South American enablers. It is incumbent upon them to grasp the full extent of the threat that Hezbollah’s foothold in Paraguay poses to their countries’ national security interests. Until then, that foothold will remain strong — and Israeli civilians will be the ones to suffer the consequences.

Peter Marko Tase is an independent analyst of South American geopolitics and author of six books on international relations.