The Threat Closer to Home by Douglas Schoen & Michael Rowan

Author:Douglas Schoen & Michael Rowan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2009-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

7

Chávez and the Jihad

Chávez’s ties with Iran are worrisome enough. His ties with Syria are more worrisome—and even harder to explain on any traditional diplomatic grounds.

We have seen through his support of the FARC that Chávez has no qualms about supporting terrorism. His support for terror doesn’t stop with the FARC, nor does his support for Islamic radicals end with the regimes in Tehran and Damascus. At a minimum Chávez turns a blind eye to Islamist terrorism, refusing to help the international community take even basic steps to stop terrorist activity.

We have also shown that Chávez goes further than passive acquiescence. The air link between Tehran and Caracas allows for virtually unlimited movement of terrorist operatives in and out of the western hemisphere, and potentially into the United States. His bank deal with Iran allows terrorists to move money around the globe, evading U.S. and international sanctions.

In this chapter, we will demonstrate Chávez’s record of support for various Islamist terrorist groups—most notably Hezbollah, once described by former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage as the “A-team of Terrorists.” 1 Such support goes well beyond mere friendship with Iran, and certainly has nothing to do with maintaining or improving Venezuela’s position with respect to its neighbors. He can have only one goal: to harm the United States by any means at hand.

“Not Fully Cooperating”

Only one Latin American nation—Cuba—is officially considered to be a state sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. government. If one looks at Cuba’s record, and compares Venezuela’s, it is hard to see where the distinction lies. The first paragraph of the State Department’s explanation for the Cuba designation reads:

Cuba actively continued to oppose the U.S.-led Coalition prosecuting the global war on terror and has publicly condemned various U.S. policies and actions. To U.S. knowledge, Cuba did not attempt to track, block, or seize terrorist assets, although the authority to do so is contained in Cuba’s Law 93 Against Acts of Terrorism, as well as Instruction 19 of the Superintendent of the Cuban Central Bank. No new counterterrorism laws were enacted, nor were any executive orders or regulations issued in this regard. To date, the Cuban Government has taken no action against al-Qaida or other terrorist groups. 2

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