Gonzaga Debate Institute 13 Hegemony Core Brovero/Verney/Hurwitz

Iran

Iran Rising Now – Latin America

Iran is increasing relations with Venezuela and Latin America to counter the US

(Ely, September/October 2010, “Iran Challenges the United States in Its Backyard, in Latin America,” American Foreign Policy Interests, Volume: 32, Issue: 5, page 276-277, Academic Search Complete, Accessed 7-7-2013. RH)

The drive behind those long-standing bilateral relationships has been Iran’s nonaligned position in foreign policy, the efforts by the United States at keeping Iran in diplomatic and economic isolation, and the election of a reformist president in 1997 that made it possible for countries like Brazil ‘‘to engage Iran with enough confidence to withstand pressures from the United States.’’

What is Ahmadinejad looking for in Latin America?

He is seeking Latin American support to counter U.S. and European pressures to stop Iran from developing nuclear capabilities. Venezuela and Cuba were, alongside Syria, the only three countries that supported Iran’s nuclear program in a February 2006 vote at the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).5

Ahmadinejad wants to strike back at the United States in its own hemisphere and possibly destabilize U.S.-friendly governments, which suggests that he seeks a permanent Iranian presence on the U.S. doorstep.

Ahmadinejad is interested in boosting his popularity at home by showing his people he is welcomed as a hero abroad.

Since Ahmadinejad’s ascendancy to power, he has made four diplomatic tours of Latin America in search of an alliance of ‘‘revolutionary countries.’’ He visited Venezuela in July of 2006; Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Ecuador in January of 2007; Venezuela and Bolivia in September of 2007; Brazil and again Venezuela and Bolivia in November 2009. Ahmadinejad also hosted President Chavez of Venezuela (eight times) and President Ortega of Nicaragua, President Morales of Bolivia, and President Correa of Ecuador and is expecting a visit of Brazil’s President Lula da Silva in 2010.

The cornerstone of Ahmadinejad’s Latin America policy is the formation of an anti- American axis with Venezuela. During a July 2006 visit to Tehran, Chavez told a Tehran University crowd, ‘‘We have to save humankind and put an end to the U.S. empire.’’ When Chavez again visited Tehran a year later, Ahmadinejad and Chavez used the visit to declare an ‘‘Axis of Unity’’ against the United States.6

Commander Kavon Hakimzadeh, a special assistant in the U.S. Southern Command’s Washington office, considers the relationship between Iran and Venezuela ‘‘the result of a convergence of unique geopolitical circumstances. Both countries are seeking out all of the allies they can find in order to avoid isolation. Chavez and Ahmadinejad have similar personalities and seem to like each other, have taken advantage of every opportunity to antagonize the United States, and have been successful in doing so primarily because they are unpredictable.’’7 Both leaders use their relationship to overcome international isolation and sanctions and their petrodollar boon to encourage other states in Latin America to confront the United States.8

Iran’s influence is growing in the region – the Obama administration is simply downplaying it

Tribune-Review editorial, 13

(6/25/13, “The Iranian threat in Latin America,” http://triblive.com/opinion/editorials/4249085-74/iran-iranian-latin#axzz2YPkdyCeh, Tribune-Review, accessed 7/7/13, IC)

The House ordered the study, and a strategy for countering Iranian influence in the region, based on the premise that Iran represents a “growing hostile presence.” That was based, in part, on information gathered in the 1980s and 1990s showing Iran had built clandestine groups to “sponsor, foster and execute terrorist attacks,” according to an account in The Long War Journal. The 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina that killed 85 is widely believed to have been carried out by the terrorist group Hezbollah, at Iran's behest, The Washington Times reports.

But The Times also reports that the coming study, despite concluding that sympathizers “provide financial and ideological support” to Hezbollah and al-Qaida, suggests there's no evidence of anything deeper. The report concludes that Iran is not supporting active terrorist cells in the Western Hemisphere.

Yet Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., says that just last August, during a visit to Paraguay, local officials told him how “Iranians and their proxy are very active in that region,” a contention watered down by U.S. officials there. Mr. Duncan tells The Times he thinks the Obama administration is downplaying Iran's Latin American influence to “placate” Iran to obtain concession on its nuclear ambitions.

Iran is expanding operations – Khamenei’s nomination of candidates involved with the AMIA bombing proves

Ros-Lehtinen, US Representative and Chair of the Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee, 6/26/13

(Ileana, Florida Republican, 6/26/13, “U.S. Must Remain Vigilant, We Cannot Ignore Iranian Threat from Latin America, Says Ros-Lehtinen,” http://ros-lehtinen.house.gov/press-release/us-must-remain-vigilant-we-cannot-ignore-iranian-threat-latin-america-says-ros, Ros-Lehtinen.gov, accessed 7/7/13, IC)

(WASHINGTON) – U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee, made the following statement in response to a State Department report on Iranian activities in the Western Hemisphere. Statement by Ros-Lehtinen:

“We should not underestimate the Iranian influence and presence in the Western Hemisphere. We cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that many individuals have been sanctioned, indicted, and prosecuted due to their involvement with the Iranian regime, or its proxy Hezbollah, in this region of the world.

“We know that terrorist cells are working throughout the Hemisphere to fundraise and finance their illicit and nefarious activities. The AMIA bombing conducted by Hezbollah in 1994 serves as a somber reminder of the threat the Iranian regime poses to our allies in the region and our own national security, and the regime openly touted this connection when Supreme Leader Khamenei selected two individuals intimately connected with the bombing as final candidates in this month’s presidential elections.

“Whether it’s the foiled plot by an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps member to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador on U.S. soil, or the DEA-led investigations into the Lebanese Canadian Bank money laundering scheme to finance terrorism using drug money, or Operation Titan which helped to dismantle Hezbollah activities in South America, it is clear that the Iranian regime is supporting operatives in the region. We must remain vigilant and do whatever is in our means to counter this growing threat.”

Iranian influence is spreading throughout Latin America

Garamone, American Forces Press Service, 13

(Jim, 3/20/13, US Southern Command, “Kelly warns of potential crime-terrorism nexus in Latin America”, http://www.southcom.mil/newsroom/Pages/Kelly-Warns-of-Potential-Crime-Terrorism-Nexus-in-Latin-America.aspx, 7/9/13, AL)

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2013 – A potential connection between crime syndicates and terrorists in Latin America would constitute a clear danger to the region, U.S. Southern Command’s senior leader told reporters at the Pentagon today.

Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly said the increase in Iranian influence in Latin America is worrisome, and an example of the peril that the combination of criminal networks and states that sponsor terrorism, like Iran, could pose.

Kelly, who took over U.S. Southern Command in November, told reporters at a Pentagon news conference that in the past six years Iran has tried to increase its influence in Central and South America. The Iranian government, he said, has built embassies and cultural centers in the region.

“The concern is that … they’re looking … for influence -- say for votes in the U.N. on sanctions,” he said. “But also, and I've … made mention to some of our friends in the region that these guys are very, very good at what they do, and very, very skilled at what they do, and that people should just be careful as to who they're dealing with.”

The general stressed he is not accusing Iran of sponsoring terrorism in Latin America, but he noted that Iran is involved in terrorism in other areas of the world.
Iran is a threat due to growing economic and political sway.

Berman American Foreign Policy VP 12

[Ilan, Summer 2012, Middle East Quarterly, “Iran Courts Latin America”, http://www.meforum.org/3297/iran-latin-america, accessed 7/7/13, ALT]

Tehran's formal political and economic contacts with regional states are reinforced by a broad web of asymmetric activities throughout the Americas. Illicit financial transactions figure prominently in this regard. Over the past several years, Tehran's economic ties with Caracas have helped it skirt the sanctions being levied by the international community as well as to continue to operate in an increasingly inhospitable global financial system. It has done so through the establishment of joint companies and financial entities as well as the formation of wholly Iranian-owned financial entities in Venezuela and the entrenchment of Iranian commercial banks there.[23] Experts note that this financial activity exploits an existing loophole in the current sanctions regime against Tehran—one that leverages the freedom of action of Venezuelan banks to provide the Islamic Republic with "an ancillary avenue through which it can access the international financial system despite Western pressure."[24]

Tehran is also known to be active in the region's ubiquitous gray and black markets as well as its free trade areas—operating both directly and via its terrorist proxy Hezbollah.[25] Most notoriously, these include the so-called "Triple Frontier" at the crossroads of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil as well as Venezuela's Margarita Island.

The Iranians also boast an increasingly robust paramilitary presence in the region. The Pentagon, in its 2010 report to Congress on Iran's military power, noted that the Qods Force, the Revolutionary Guard's elite paramilitary unit, is now deeply involved in the Americas, stationing "operatives in foreign embassies, charities and religious/cultural institutions to foster relationships with people, often building on existing socioeconomic ties with the well-established Shia Diaspora" and even carrying out "paramilitary operations to support extremists and destabilize unfriendly regimes."[26]

Iran is establishing ties in Latin America – this comes from the general of SOUTHCOM himself

Simeone, Department of Defense Public Affairs Specialist, 3/20

(Nick, 3/20/13, “Southcom Chief: Iran Working to Expand Influence in Latin America,” U.S. Department of Defense, http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=119586, accessed 7/7/13, IC)

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2013 – U.S. Southern Command’s top officer told Congress today that Iran is actively working to expand its presence in Latin America to cultivate allies at a time when Tehran is facing tough U.S and international sanctions for its alleged nuclear weapons program.

Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly told the House Armed Services Committee that Iran “has been very, very active over the last few years” in cultivating diplomatic and cultural ties to the region, especially by befriending Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who died earlier this month.

“They’ve opened embassies, they’ve opened cultural centers,” he testified, adding that on the surface, all of this appears to be normal.

“But to what end is obviously the issue,” he told the House panel.

Kelly told lawmakers he could discuss details about what the Iranian government’s goals might be only in a closed session. He mentioned Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina as countries that have been the target of Iran’s diplomatic and economic outreach.

Despite Iran’s outreach to countries that he said have interests unfavorable to the United States, the general cast Iran’s overtures as being far from successful and described a region as largely uninterested in Tehran’s diplomatic engagement.

“The region as a whole has not been receptive to Iranian efforts,” Kelly said in his prepared testimony. But he cautioned that Iran’s allies, including Hezbollah, have established a presence in several Latin-American countries to deadly effect, recalling that Iran and Hezbollah were blamed for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, that killed more than 80 people.

“Proselytizers with ties to global Islamic groups are attempting to radicalize and recruit among the Muslim communities throughout the region,” he said, adding that the United States and its partners “should be extremely concerned whenever external extremist groups or state sponsors of terrorism see the Western Hemisphere as attractive or, even worse, vulnerable.”

Kelly pointed out that Venezuelan government officials have been sanctioned for providing financial support to Hezbollah, as well as for supporting rebels in neighboring Colombia.

Kelly said China is another country far outside Latin America that wants to compete with the United States for influence in the region, and is very engaged economically, “buying commodities in a big way and also investing in port facilities.” This, he added, is all the more reason for the United States to continue working to strengthen partnerships in the region.

Iran is increasing presence in Latin America

ITIC, Israeli-based independent research group, 12

(Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, 4/18/12, Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/articleprint.aspx?id=20318, 7/7/13, AL)

Iran's increased activity in Latin America is part of its global strategy, whose objectives go far beyond the desire for hegemony in the Middle East. Iran regards itself as hemmed in by the United States and its allies, stubbornly pursues the nuclear crisis with the West, and seeks to present the United States with a revolutionary challenge in its own backyard by exploiting its relative advantages with countries and populaces in Latin American: Iran's anti-American ideology and rhetoric fall on willing ears; Iranian petrodollars, which can be used for political and propaganda purposes; and a Muslim large population, some of it Lebanese, living in key Latin American countries.

4. Iran's interests and objectives in Latin America are the following:

1) Politics and strategy: Iran has found ideological-political sympathy in a number of Latin American countries, which may enable it to escape from its increasing political isolation and strengthen the so-called "resistance camp" it leads (including Syria, Hezbollah, and Palestinian terrorist organizations). Iran also regards Latin America as good area for defiance and also for challenging the United States in various ways: increased political and military collaboration, economic infiltration and extensive activities to disseminate Shi'ite Islam and eventually export the Islamic revolution to Latin America.

2) Economics: Iran focuses on economic relations with Latin American countries regarding energy and oil, and strives to increase them to help it circumvent the sanctions which have been imposed on it. Thus Iran's relations with Venezuela enable it to coordinate prices with a large oil exporter like itself (Iran and Venezuela are respectively the fourth and fifth largest oil exporters in the world). In addition, Iran wants to exploit uranium deposits in Venezuela and other Latin American countries (in 2009 Venezuela publicly stated that Iran was helping it explore for uranium.) However, Iranian-Latin American economic collaboration is still limited and a relatively small factor in Iran's overall trade.

3) Harming Israel's political relations with Latin America countries: One example was the terminating of Israeli-Venezuelan and Israeli-Bolivian relations during Operation Cast Lead. In addition, Iran's close relations with Venezuela and other countries creates an internal political atmosphere and even infrastructure (encouraged by Iranian propaganda) to harm the Jewish communities in those countries (where, as in other parts of the world, often no distinction is made between anti-Israel policy and harming and Jewish communities).

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