By Curt Mills
The Paraguayan ambassador, German Rojas Irigoyen, looked visibly distressed following the Foundation for the Defense of the Democracies’ event on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. His country had just been implicated as a vanguard of sorts in narco-trafficking, and by extension, narco-terrorism. “I understand that Paraguay has become a significant jurisdiction for the Latin American activities of Hezbollah,” remarked Dr. Jonathan Schanzer on a panel that featured Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Eliot Engel, ranking member. “It’s not limited to Paraguay, but we just know that’s one of significant areas.”
Schanzer directed the audience to the work of Dr. Emanuele Ottolenghi, the FDD’s point man on the topic. Irigoyen approached Ottolenghi (and me) following the event. Ottolenghi noted Asuncion’s cooperation on some notable matters, but he said it’s also true the country isn’t doing enough.
Paraguay wasn’t the only country discussed at Tuesday’s event, meant to highlight the rise of Hezbollah, the emboldening of Iran, and their ties to narcotrafficking. “It depends how you define the Iranian regime. The way I define it, Hezbollah is a big component of Iran, and Hezbollah around the world is operating like a major drug cartel,” argued Derek Maltz, former head of the DEA’s Special Operations Division. Maltz also namechecked Peru and reported that “Venezuela, over the last several years, has been a command-and-control hub for the movement of cocaine worldwide.”
Implicit in the FDD’s presentation was a criticism of the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal, as hot an issue as any right now with the president required to recertify Tehran’s compliance by mid-month. FDD says that Iranian financial support for Hezbollah -- and by proxy, drug trafficking -- has increased since the U.S. inked the deal, while 2014-2016 saw Iran cut back aid “in the midst of mounting sanctions pressure prior to the implementation of the the JCPOA.” “We know Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. That is one of the reasons I voted against the Iran act, the JCPOA,” Congressman Engel, a Democrat, reminded.But some are crying foul on this whole approach. The FDD’s president, Clifford May, argues there’s a Latin American “socialist-Islamist-narco-terrorist alliance.” But a former State Department and U.S. Trade Representative official tells me: “There's smoke there and probably a little fire. But it's easy to get overheated on the issue and lose perspective. Something to watch, mostly a long distance marriage of convenience, but don’t blow it out of proportion. This ain't the Middle East, East Africa, or Southeast Asia.”
https://scout.com/military/warrior/Article/Is-America-on-a-Collision-Course-with-Hezbollah-108434322
