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Naturally:<ref>[https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2022/03/10/Two-guilty-of-2005-Hariri-slaying-on-appeal-UN-tribunal- Two guilty of 2005 Hariri slaying on appeal: UN tribunal] Al Arabiya, Mar 10, 2022.</ref><blockquote>Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Hezbollah movement, refused to hand over any of the suspects or to recognize the UN-backed court, which has issued an international warrant for the arrest of Ayyash.</blockquote>
Naturally:<ref>[https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2022/03/10/Two-guilty-of-2005-Hariri-slaying-on-appeal-UN-tribunal- Two guilty of 2005 Hariri slaying on appeal: UN tribunal] Al Arabiya, Mar 10, 2022.</ref><blockquote>Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Hezbollah movement, refused to hand over any of the suspects or to recognize the UN-backed court, which has issued an international warrant for the arrest of Ayyash.</blockquote>
A 2022 repory showed, Jihad in Latin America increased in recent years: Illicit activities in the region fund Hezbollah
Even though jihad is such a foreign concept for Latin America, jihadist organizations are indeed present in the region.
Whike it grew especially since "bromance" – between then-Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and his contemporaneous Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
And while in the 1990s it was more of a form of direct terror attacks, recent connections' objectives are:
1. to collect intelligence on soft targets that Israel or the United States have in Latin America, a region where most people follow the Catholic faith.
2. to be involved in all illicit activities in the region, such as smuggling, drug trafficking, falsification of documents and money laundering.
It "take place in areas such as the tripartite border between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, the border between Colombia and Venezuela close to the city of Maicao, or even in the Chetumal region between Mexico and Belize." As there are "suitable regions to be the focus of groups such as Hezbollah and other jihadist organizations, to proliferate or finance themselves.”
<ref>Debbie Mohnblatt, [https://www.jpost.com/international/article-720003 Jihad in Latin America: Illicit activities in the region fund Hezbollah], The ''Media Line'', October 19, 2022.<blockquote><font size=1>
Jihadist groups currently have a broad presence in Latin America, where they find benefits that are crucial to their survival and operations, according to John Marulanda, author of the book Yihad en Latinoamérica (Jihad in Latin America).
Marulanda is a defense and security consultant for multinational energy companies that have a presence on the continent. He is a retired colonel who held several senior positions in the Colombian military, including founder and commander of the 25th Aviation Brigade, founder and first director of the School of Civil-Military Relations, and commander of the Revéis Pizarro Mechanized Cavalry Group on the border with Venezuela.
Iran’s presence in Latin America grew with the political alliance – some would say "bromance" – between then-Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and his contemporaneous Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They both led large oil-producing countries at the time. This political liaison allowed Iran to create a strong presence in Latin America and it was this Iranian prominence that facilitated the spread of Hezbollah cells across the continent.
Marulanda told The Media Line that even though jihad (Arabic for "struggling," a term often applied in Islamic contexts to the waging of a holy war) is such a foreign concept for Latin America, jihadist organizations are indeed present in the region.
‘A brewing presence of Islamic fighters’
“We believe that there is a brewing presence of Islamic fighters scattered over the Latin American region,” he said.
In the region, says Marulanda, we can see the presence of two jihadist actors, Iran and Hezbollah, with the latter subordinate to the former.
Iran is the main sponsor of jihad all over the world, while Hezbollah is in this case the representative or the one who carries the name of jihad in Latin America, he adds.
Marulanda notes that jihadist groups do not represent an imminent risk for Latin America – at least for now.
"But it is important to point out that jihadists that belonged to Hezbollah were the ones who carried out the terror attack on the Israeli Embassy and later on the AMIA [Jewish center] in 1994 in Buenos Aires, Argentina," says Marulanda.
"These are the two most severe terrorist attacks in Latin America that emerged from Islamist extremism," he says.
However, Marulanda notes that as jihad has in the past represented an immediate risk of terrorist attacks in Latin America, today its presence has a different connotation.
He explains that these groups have two main objectives in the region.
The first one, according to Marulanda, is to collect intelligence on soft targets that Israel or the United States have in Latin America, a region where most people follow the Catholic faith.
The second, he says, is to be involved in all illicit activities in the region, such as smuggling, drug trafficking, falsification of documents and money laundering.
These illicit activities, he says, take place in areas such as the tripartite border between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, the border between Colombia and Venezuela close to the city of Maicao, or even in the Chetumal region between Mexico and Belize.
“These are suitable regions to be the focus of groups such as Hezbollah and other jihadist organizations, to proliferate or finance themselves,” he explains….
Marulanda says Hezbollah could target communities and institutions related to Israel, Jews and the United States, which should all be aware of the danger posed to them by the group’s presence in the region….</font></blockquote></ref>
==See also==
==See also==