The terrorist group Hezbollah is no longer just operating in the Middle East, but are now in South America. They are openly operating in Venezuela, as Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez has proved to be a strong ties to Syria and Iran. Chávez has just returned recently from a visit to Syria.
Hezbollah has two websites on Yahoo and MSN. Both websites have incorporated the AK-47 Russian designed assault rifle as part of their logo. In a recent article in Venezuela Today, Gustavo Coronel describes how Hezbollah are importing their terrorist activities to the Americas:
On the Venezuelan side of the Guajira Peninsula, a territory shared with Colombia, the members of the tribe of the Wayuu walk across political boundaries without restrain. They were there before Venezuela and Colombia existed and they think of themselves as a nation. Recently a disturbing group has appeared, as alien visitors, in their desert landscape: Hezbollah. The Islamic fanatics of Hezbollah are rapidly infiltrating the tribe of the Wayuu. They are indoctrinating the members of this tribe, to convert them into Islamic fanatics in charge of disseminating the terrorist message that has already created chaos, death and misery in the Middle East. The Hezbollah group invading Venezuela is doing its work openly in the Venezuelan side of the Guajira Peninsula. They are disseminating, via Internet, a strategy "to change Venezuela," including:
While these gangsters roam at will in a country that has become a tropical version of Gotham City, Hugo Chávez is touring the world looking for allies in his quest to create an anti-U.S. coalition. President Bush has said that he "does not consider Chávez as a threat" ("Chávez's War of Words," By Jackson Diehl, The Washington Post, August 7, 2006). In this article Diehl reports in detail the attempts Chávez is making at creating the alliance but dismisses these attempts simply as a "war of words."
I would not be so sure. Chávez has been under estimated for some time now. He is generally perceived as an uncultured clown, as a person with unrealistic dreams of grandeur and as a wasteful political leader with an obsolete ideology. This is all true but Hugo Chávez is also a very dangerous man, with a big bag of money and a deep inferiority complex rooted in social and racial components. I think he is willing to do anything to leave an imprint in history, no matter what, how or when. This is a scenario that has to be taken into account if very unpleasant surprises for the national security of the Western Hemisphere are to be avoided.
Today, Hugo Chávez is openly siding with North Korea, Iran, Syria and Cuba, four rogue, terrorist states. By creating a Mission Manager post for Cuba and Venezuela, something only previously done for Iran and North Korea, the U.S. government is finally assigning the Castro-Chavez axis the priority it deserves. This is a move that has both flattered and worried Chávez. Therefore he has decided to accelerate his efforts to create a global coalition against the U.S.
If Chávez is not considered a threat by President Bush, then what is he? You can judge Chávez by the company he keeps.
Posted by Walt in Islam, South American Politics, Terrorism