Paraguay Designates Hamas, Hezbollah, Iranian Guards As Terrorist Organizations
It is seen as a move bringing Paraguay, much like Argentina, closer to the orbit of Israel and the U.S.
Since August of 2023, Paraguayan President Santiago Peña has demonstrated an unparallelled support for the defense of the State of Israel and stalwartly supported the Jewish nation in many multilateral organizations including the United Nations General Assembly and other international political platforms. On April 24, Peña took the historic step of officially designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hamas, and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations. The emblematic decision taken by the Paraguayan president must be followed by other nations in Latin America and across the world, in order to defeat Iran’s intentions to continue with its agenda of exporting terrorism and extremism while it threatens stability in the Middle East and global peace.
President Peña’s executive order comes only a few days before departing to New York City, where he is slated to receive a prestigious award on April 28 from the American Jewish Committee (AJC) for his unwavering political support provided to Paraguay’s Jewish community and the State of Israel, demonstrated by his leadership in relocating Paraguay’s embassy to Jerusalem on December 11 of last year. Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gideon Sa’ar has applauded Peña’s decision to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hamas, and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations. Minister Sa’ar wrote on X: “I applaud Paraguay and President Peña for this landmark move.”
History has shown that Iranian ayatollahs are the world’s leading exporter of terrorism and extremism, preserving deeply rooted ties with high level officials. During the government of former President Mario Abdo Benítez, the former Mahan Air Aircraft operating as Venezuela’s Emtrasur cargo Aircraft was allowed to land in Paraguay in May 2022. Former president Abdo Benitz has yet to apologize for his anti-Israel behavior and his other wrongdoing, which included the countenancing of money-laundering by the now proscribed terrorist organizations.
Furthermore, Abdo Benitez, in September 2018, only three weeks after taking office, decided to re-locate Paraguay’s embassy from Jerusalem and back to Tel Aviv. Abdo Benitez’s underhand diplomatic maneuvers against the security and integrity of the State of Israel, was commended by the then Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad al-Maliki, who promised to “immediately” open an embassy of Palestine in Paraguay. Former President Abdo Benitez with his scandalous diplomacy and incompetence scoffed at the suffering of the Jewish nation, and security of the State of Israel. Luis Alberto Castiglioni Soria, Benitez’s Minister of Foreign Affairs (2018 – 2019), conducted an official two day visit in July 2019 in Lebanon and held meetings with Hezbollah leadership.
The historic executive order issued by President Peña embodies the strongest alliance between Paraguay and Israel ever and illustrates once again Asuncion’s commitment to fight terrorism and organized crime, which are imminent threats to democratic institutions in South America, permeating Paraguay’s judicial branch and allegedly bribing Abdo Benitez.
Paraguay’s decisive posture in the international fight against terrorism must be followed by more countries in order to destroy Iranian aggression and terrorism on the world stage. Recently, the office of the president of Paraguay announced that he had signed new decrees expanding the previous designations of the terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah: “Our country reaffirms its firm and non-negotiable stance in the fight against terrorism, one of the most harmful threats to the civilized international community, the upholding of human rights, democracy, and the economic and social development of nations,” he declared. On December 11, 2024, Peña inaugurated the country's new embassy in Jerusalem. In his address to the Knesset, Peña called the return of his country’s embassy to Israel’s capital “a tipping point in our own history,” emphasizing it as “a moral obligation” and “a testament of who we are.”
Peña, 44, previously served as finance minister during the 2013-2018 presidency of Horacio Cartes, who near the end of his presidential term, moved Paraguay’s Israeli embassy from a Tel Aviv suburb to Jerusalem. In December 2017, President Donald Trump announced he was similarly moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Paraguay established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1949. It has often lent its support to Israel, abstaining from resolutions in the UN General Assembly that criticize Israel for taking unilateral actions in Jerusalem and in the occupied territories. When the United Nations voted on the Partition of Palestine on November 29, 1947, Jews around the world huddled around their radios to listen to the roll call. By the time Paraguay voted “yes,” becoming the thirty-third country to do so, they knew a dream of 2,000 years was about to become a reality – an independent Jewish state.
On December 12, 2023, the United Nations General Assembly passed a nonbinding, symbolic resolution to demand an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza, and Paraguay together with Guatemala and the United States, Israel voting against it but an overwhelming number of member states were in favor of an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A total of 153 countries voted in favor of that resolution.
This year, on April 24th, Paraguayan Minister of Foreign Affairs Rubén Ramírez Lezcano held a meeting with the Israeli Ambassador Amit Mekel, where they shared an extensive breadth of topics affecting the bilateral agenda. Such meetings have further strengthened the bilateral Alliance that will have a growing impact on the economies and level of industrial innovations that are vital for both nations.
Peter Tase writes on geopolitics in Latin America and Central Europe.