Presentations
Illicit Finance

18th Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum – Illicit Finance

Joseph Humire

Executive Director, Center for a Secure Free Society

June 30, 2021

Panama City, Panama

This panelist focused on the impact of the Hezbollah Group in Latin America and how active it is in the region. The two major terrorist attacks occurred in Panama and in Argentina. Those are:

  • March 7, 1992: bombing in the Israel Embassy (Argentina)
  • July 18, 1992: AMIA Jewish bombing
  • July 19, 1994: attack on Alas Chiricanas flight

According to a 2014 report on Risky Business of the Combatting Terrorism Center, 97% of 2,700 known criminals and terrorists have financial connections.

He then later went on talking about Venezuela’s Crime Terrorist Convergence, which is

  • Repressive Apparatus
  • Transactional and organized crime
  • Transregional threats

Later he spoke about the Venezuela-Iran bridge route and how they trade oil among other illicit things and how Hezbollah is being financed by all this activity To date, there are a number of countries that still don’t categorize Hezbollah as a terrorist group, even though all the indicators are there. On a positive note, Colombia designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization on January 16, 2020; Paraguay on August 9, 2019; Argentina on July 16, 2019.

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