How Paraguay Matters In the Global War On Terrorism

In a period of profound geopolitical transformation and constant realignment of alliances and partnerships, Paraguay’s bilateral ties with the state of Israel appear to be feigned, insincere and far from strategic partnership, due to a deeply troubled judiciary and law enforcement institutions that favor money laundering Islamic terrorists on one hand and official Asuncion’s cozy and pro-Israel public discourse on the other.

On September 17, 2024 Amir Ohana became the first Knesset Speaker to visit Paraguay. He was decorated by Raúl Luís Latorre Martinez, President of  the country’s Chamber of Deputies, with the country's highest award. Moreover, Ohana signed a cooperation agreement binding the two parliaments. During his September 18 visit, Ohana inaugurated the reopening of Israel’s embassy to Asuncion, the capital city.

As Israel’s legitimate war against terrorism and ruthless autocracies continues with great success in the Middle East, in South America, particularly in Paraguay, the picture is surprisingly different. There, financial operations benefiting Middle Eastern terrorist organizations continue to rise. A rampant and sophisticated black market system in Paraguay is believed to generate about $20 billion a year, while over half is calculated to directly benefit terrorist groups that kill innocent civilians inside the sovereign territory of Israel and across the Middle East. 

On December 12, Paraguayan President Santiago Peña will travel to Jerusalem to inaugurate the reopening of his country’s embassy, making it the sixth embassy established in Israel’s historic capital city. That embassy was initially opened in May 2018, but Peña’s predecessor, Mario Abdo Benítez, who is of Lebanese ancestry, reversed the move shortly thereafter in September of that year. Paraguay’s embassy went back to Tel Aviv. Israel then subsequently shuttered its embassy in Asuncion, using its embassy in Montevideo for relations with both Uruguay and Paraguay.

Smuggling and money laundering in Paraguay has benefited enemies of Israel over the last thirty years, as these illicit activities have been carved out by various high ranking Paraguayan army officials in a tradition inherited from the days of dictator Alfredo Stroessner all the way to the present. In public, high-level Paraguay officials praise Israel and its people. Behind the scenes, there is a darker reality emerging.

Professor Andrew Nickson of the University of Birmingham argues that Paraguayan officials “smuggle out cigarettes using military planes of the armed forces” or semi-trucks crossing into Brazil, which are major fundraising operations for Hezbollah operatives in South America and beyond. Weapons trafficking, drug trafficking, and human trafficking are on the rise in the border cities of Paraguay’s Pedro Juan Caballero and Brazil’s Ponta Porã interlocking with one another.  In this region the barely distinguishable Brazil-Paraguay border separates what appears to be one city into two. As Nickson argues: “You just cross the road, and you go from one country to another, there are no border authorities there at all.”

Furthermore, Paraguay’s Ciudad del Este is another hub of a growing terrorist financial activity and money laundering, due to the near absence of Paraguayan law enforcement and justice system. In the city near the Triple Frontier region, where the borders of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay converge, there is a community of Muslim Lebanese and the largest mosque in Latin America, This is in a nation where 97 percent of its population is Catholic. Ciudad del Este is home to about 30,000 Muslims, not only of Lebanese ancestry. There are also other minority groups from China, Japan, South Korea, and Ukraine, in a city noted for moneychangers, duty-free shops, and fake Rolex watches.

It is disturbing to observe the large amounts of counterfeit goods, contraband tobacco and weapons, and cocaine entering Paraguay that fund Middle Eastern terrorist groups. Its national authorities – despite their sugarcoated language in favor of Israel – have demonstrably failed to address these threats to Israel’s national security and to South American security overall.

Most likely, President Santiago Peña will deliver an energetic speech, full of poetic language in praise of Israel. But there is another reality afoot in his chaotic country, which has succumbed to a dark, underground dark economy – money laundering operations led by Hezbollah affiliates, using Asuncion’s public banking sector to funnel money to terrorists. It would benefit Israel, and South America, for the Jewish state to expand its human intelligence operations within Paraguay and combat this source of weapons financing destined for Israel’s enemies.

While Paraguay is among the four poorest nations in Latin America, it has shamefully amiss regarding antisemitism, and for failing to clamp down on terrorist organizations inside its territory. It has failed to embolden law enforcement, mainly the national police force.

While President Pena will inaugurate his embassy in Jerusalem, a move of global implications, his government has proved to be the antithesis of diplomacy. He is surrounded by surrogates who are clearly identified by the U. S. government for having clear ties to global terrorist organizations.

Paraguay has potential in fighting against terrorist financing and should offer unconditional support and logistical assistance to Israel’s Operation Northern Arrows and allow Israeli intelligence experts to eradicate Hezbollah’s and Iran’s financing in South America.

President Peña will address the Knesset on December 11, followed by a special Knesset ceremony with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Knesset Speaker Ohana and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid.  This is the perfect time for Peña to publicly announce that Israel will assist his government by signing a strategic cooperation agreement with Israel, to root out all terrorist financing that benefit Hezbollah and Iran’s terrorist schemes. 

Paraguay’s two-faced diplomacy must be exposed, and Santiago Peña also has an opportunity to become Israel’s top loyalist in South America by energetically denouncing the belligerent, pro- terrorist behavior of the United Nations’ leadership. He has also expressed his deep disagreement and concern about the lack of professionalism of the current U. S. Ambassador Marc Ostfield by requesting the Biden administration to immediately terminate his tenancy in Asuncion. 

Paraguay has a long history of friendship with Israel, dating back to its vote in 1949 for the membership of the Jewish state to the United Nations. In his upcoming speech, Santiago Peña must also apologize for Paraguay’s abstention of a vote on a December 3 resolution at the UN General Assembly. That resolution called for a “two-State solution” and urged for a ceasefire in Gaza and called on Israel to permit food and aid deliveries ahead of the cold winter months.

Paraguay’s president and political elite must do more to combat terrorist financing on its soil. Asuncion’s current lip service of Asuncion towards Jerusalem is no different from the days of dictator Alfredo Stroessner who maintained diplomatic relations with Israel but turned his country into a perfect hideout for Hitler’s henchmen, Martin Bormann, Eduard Roschmann and Josef Mengele, and ultimately the Islamist terrorist bent on destroying Israel and Jews worldwide.

Peter Marko Tase is an analyst of international affairs based in the United States.