Hezbollah Latin America Warnings: 30 Years, Zero Attacks
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- 1992 Israeli embassy bombing in Buenos Aires killed 29 people and the 1994 AMIA bombing killed 85, both blamed on Iran and Hezbollah, but the article notes evidence was "largely circumstantial" and alternative theories pointed to Syria or Argentine neo-Nazis
- State Department concluded in 2013 that Hezbollah had no operational presence in Latin America, but weeks later Congress held a hearing featuring Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy testifying the opposite — that Iran maintained a network "tasked with sponsoring and executing terrorist attacks in the Western Hemisphere"
- Joseph Humire, now holding a high-level policy post at the Pentagon, promoted the Iran/Hezbollah threat narrative through his Center for a Secure Free Society think tank; his credibility suffered when it was revealed he oversaw fake news about Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua
- Brazilian authorities arrested two men in late 2023 for an alleged Hezbollah plot against Jewish targets in Brasilia, but rejected suggestions the plot indicated a wider problem they couldn't handle, and the broader investigation uncovered no further attack plans
- RAND Corporation issued a report inaccurately claiming that "academic literature and government reports almost universally indicate" Hezbollah's activities in the region pose potential threats to U.S. national security, per the article
- The 2023 State Department global terrorism report shows Iran and Hezbollah activities in Latin America amount to "little more than a fundraising operation," according to the article
- No sleeper cells were activated in response to U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities in June 2025 or amid the current U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran, with lawmakers from both parties having introduced legislation in March 2025 to more aggressively counter the purported Hezbollah threat in the region
Why it matters: Bipartisan March 2025 legislation would require federal agencies to counter a Hezbollah threat in Latin America that the State Department's own 2023 terrorism report describes as essentially fundraising. The gap between policy and evidence risks diverting counterterrorism resources from genuine regional threats like homegrown gangs and guerrilla groups.
Ask SkimNews
