The Minister of Security of Argentina, Patricia Bullrich, detailed this Thursday (25) in Chile how the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah operates in the Triple Border region between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, where it launders money – activities widely documented by investigations Brazilian police officers.
“They use the PCC (First Command of the Capital) from Brazil, they use Argentine and Paraguayan organizations that carry out kidnappings, robberies and drug trafficking. And they buy and launder money”, said Bullrich in a forum at the National Business Meeting (Enade) 2024, in Santiago de Chile.
Bullrich, who is also Argentina’s Secretary of State, stated that “facade organizations” are used, while the operators appear as “merchants or businessmen from the region”.
“Perhaps for this reason, we Argentines have a special sensitivity, because last week our highest criminal court in Argentina just issued a decision saying that Iran acted in Argentina as a terrorist state. And that their tool was Hezbollah,” he said.
“But the same may be happening with other organizations, which are appearing with a level of sophistication and planning typical of contexts linked to the Armed Forces,” he added.
The judicial decision to which Bullrich referred was handed down by Room II of Argentina’s Federal Court of Criminal Cassation, which this month attributed responsibility to Iran for the two biggest terrorist attacks in the history of the South American country: the attack in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people in 1994 at the headquarters of the Associação Mutual Israelita Argentina (Amia) and the attack on the Israeli Embassy two years earlier, which left 29 people dead.
The judges concluded that the attacks were carried out by Hezbollah “under the inspiration, organization, planning and financing of state and parastate organizations subordinate” to Iran.
The decision paves the way for states and relatives of victims to sue Tehran in international courts.
On Tuesday (23), the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that Javier Milei’s government called for the international arrest of those responsible for the attack on Amia’s headquarters and highlighted the demand that the Iranian Interior Minister be arrested, Ahmad Vahidi.
The Argentine Foreign Ministry made specific requests to the governments of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, where Vahidi is on a schedule this week.
Last week, Chilean President Gabriel Boric summoned Argentina’s ambassador to Santiago, Jorge Faurie, to protest Bullrich’s statements about Hezbollah’s alleged presence in the city of Iquique, in the north of the country.
The minister later apologized and did not refer to this episode at this Thursday’s event.