The Iranian supported and to a large extent controlled terrorist entity Hezbollah is hard at work in Mexico. The Boys In Turbans are active in establishing working relations with the narcotrafficking cartels South of the Border. With success.
The increasingly warm relations between Hugo (The Mouth of the South) Chavez and the mullahs of Iran are disturbing in and of themselves. The establishment of a banking arrangement between Iran and Venezuela serves as a ready conduit for the increasing activities of Hezbollah not only in that country but throughout South and Central America, including Mexico. The shipments of weapons and equipment from Iran to Venezuela are not for the benefit of the latter's armed forces. (With a two gigabuck order on Russian books and funded by generous Russian loans, the New Model Army of Chavez has no need for assistance from Iran.)
No. The weapons, the explosive manufacturing equipment, the money are for the use of Hezbollah as it penetrates Latin America. They are for the use of the Party of God as it establishes firm connections with the cartels and narco-insurgents from Peru to Colombia to Mexico.
A month ago the tip of the Hezbollah iceberg was revealed in New York with the indictment of one Jamal Yousef on arms trafficking charges. Yousef is alleged to have sought to sell a variety of "military grade" arms to a person he believed to be a representative of the Columbian narco-insurgent group FARC. Within the indictment some very interesting and disturbing points can be found.
Hezbollah maintains active operations in Mexico which are directly connected to both weapons and drug smuggling. The activities are not limited to any one Mexican cartel but are spread among at least three such as to cover the entire border between Mexico and the US.
The Turban Crew is willing and able to join forces with any local narco-insurgent group anywhere in Latin America which is seeking to destabilize the status quo regime. This includes Mexico where at least a couple of the cartels have expanded their goals beyond drug smuggling or mere crime to political ends.
As the connections between Hezbollah and the assorted Mexican narco-trafficking cartels expand so also does the ability of Hezbollah to insert weapons, lethal materials, and personnel into the US. This potential expands as the Mexican cartels extend their operations throughout Central and South America. In short, Hezbollah has tied into a "one stop shop" for smuggling any sort of deadly goody as well as the necessary personnel into Yanqui Land.
As Hugo Chavez grows ever more cozy with the Iranians--and his intentions in that direction are quite clear as is indicated by his agreement to provide Iran with 200,000 barrels per day of refined petroleum products--the potential of Hezbollah to conduct operations throughout the Western Hemisphere grows in tandem. This strongly implies that the Obama administration had best take a much stronger approach with the Chavez regime.
Mexico is a happy hunting ground for an anti-American entity with a lot of money and a firm agenda. Hezbollah is such a group. Its cooperation with the narco-trafficking cartels boosts the threat these represent to the stability of the Mexican government. With backing from the Chavez regime, which is not noted for having small ambitions, the possibility of the current instability in Mexico increasing is enhanced.
This reality implies that the Obama administration had best take a stronger approach to assisting Mexico. It also implies even more strongly that the Mexican government had best reevaluate its hyper-nationalist stance regarding foreign investment in and development of the new off-shore oil discoveries as well as rebuilding the decayed infrastructure of the older fields. Oil is the answer to much of Mexico's current difficulties of poverty and lacks in both physical and human infrastructure requirements. But, foreign money and expertise is necessary for this to be accomplished.
There is a powerful possibility that Mexico will experience in the not too distant future a combination of Islamist jihadist and narco-trafficking groups not dissimilar to that which is seen in Afghanistan. It is not that Islam qua Islam is important in the Mexican venue but rather that the political goals of the Islamist jihadist group intersects with the goals of both the narco-traffickers and quite probably the expansive goals of Hugo Chavez.
A political agenda predicated on fear and loathing of the US has produced strange bedmates in the past. It is doing so today. It can do so to an even greater extent in the near future. There is no bright and shining line which can be drawn between the Islamist jihadists of Hezbollah, the profit and power driven goals of the narco-traffickers, and the hemispheric delusions of Chavez.
Far from there being any inherent bars between such different partners, there are strong imperatives for a tight marriage of convenience. Over time the marriage might even be strengthened by the appeal of Islamist jihadist ideology for young men with a cultural background of machismo and a pervasive sense of present day hopelessness--and the warrior ethos of Islam can make for converts, floods of converts.
Religion, particularly a religion which provides emotional release, a sense of personal worth, and control of destiny has always been a key factor in the social and cultural dynamics of Latin America. As traditional Catholicism lost its appeal by an over-identification with the ruling elites, alternatives such as Liberation Theology and, more recently, Charismatic and Evangelical forms of Protestant Christianity have risen. Arguably, and using Africa as the model case, Islam, particularly in its Islamist forms, can have a similar or even greater attraction to the marginalized, disenfranchised, dis-empowered, and ambitious young men of the region.
Yes sir, folks, it's one more foreign policy challenge for the Nice Young Man From Chicago and his Secretary of State, The Not So Nice Older Woman From New York. And, it is a hell of a lot closer to both places than is Afghanistan.
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