The "crime-terror nexus" in South America and the securitization of Hezbollah in Colombia: the Cassandra Project (2008-2016)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5380/cg.v12i2.90776Abstract
This paper aims to analyze the securitization process of Hezbollah in South America based on Project Cassandra, focusing on the case of Colombia. Project Cassandra (2008-2016) was proposed by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration to investigate an alleged Latin American drug money laundering scheme involving Hezbollah. Despite contradictions and inconsistencies in the charges, the U.S. was successful in pressuring South American countries, such as Colombia, to recognize Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. It is hypothesized that the construction of the perception of this threat, initially developed in the US and accepted by Colombia, was based, in the discursive and legal sphere, on the construction of a crime-terror nexus, ensuring the confluence of interests of a Colombian ruling class and the US governments in South America. This supposed link between Hezbollah and narco-terrorism meets domestic agendas, referring to Colombian public security, and international security agendas concerning the fight against terrorism, especially those of the United States. We analyze that such policies allow the remodeling of a neocolonial order in which punitivism and terror are indispensable for the success of government discourses and actions in the name of security. This research, qualitative and historical-documentary in nature, used primary and secondary sources, and employed, as method, Critical Discourse Analysis and Critical Terrorism Studies as theoretical approach.
References
AMARAL. Arthur B. do. Para além da Guerra ao Terror? Balanço atual e perspectivas futuras sobre a questão da Tríplice Fronteira. In: ZHEBIT, Alexander; DA SILVA, Francisco C. T. (Orgs.). Neoterrorismo: reflexões e glossário. Rio de Janeiro: Gramma, p. 245-278, 2009.
AZEVEDO, Fernando Silva. GUERRA FINANCEIRA, SANÇÕES ECONÔMICAS E GEOPOLÍTICA DA EURÁSIA. Revista Hoplos, v. 5, n. 8, p. 7–27, 2021.
BBC. Hezbollah nega envolvimento em ataque na Argentina. BBC Brasil, 11 nov. 2005. Disponível em: <https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/noticias/story/2005/11/051111_hezbollahcg>. Acesso em: 02 mar. 2023.
BOGOTÁ, Embaixada dos Estados Unidos. Colombia y Estados Unidos: fortaleciendo nuestra alianza. Embaixada dos EUA na Colômbia. Disponível em: <https://co.usembassy.gov/es/colombia-y-estados-unidos-fortaleciendo-nuestra-alianza/>. Acesso em: 28 mar. 2023.
BUZAN, Barry; WAEVER, Ole. Regions and Powers. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
CASTRO, Isabelle Christine Somma. Securitização da Tríplice Fronteira: uma análise dos Country Reports on Terrorism publicados durante a administração de Donald Trump (2017-2020). Conjuntura Austral, p. 77–91, 2021.
CHEAITO, Karime Ahmad Borraschi. O Processo de Designação do Hezbollah como Organização Terrorista pelos Estados Unidos da América: Acusações, Contradições e Consequências (1985-2006). Dissertação (Mestrado em Estudos Estratégicos da Defesa e da Segurança) – Instituto de Estudos Estratégicos da Defesa e da Segurança, Universidade Federal Fluminense. Niterói/RJ, 169 p. 2023.
CONGRESS. Project Cassandra. Congressional Record, vol. 163, n. 208, December, 2017. Disponível em: <https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/volume-163/issue-208/house-section/article/H10335-2>. Acesso em: 02 abr. 2023.
COSTA, Renatho José. Hezbollah: Organização Terrorista ou Anseio De Uma Nação? In: RODRIGUES, Thiago; MARCUCCI, Cynthia (orgs.). Notas Internacionais. São Paulo: Editora Desatino, p.121-158, 2004.
DAHER, Aurélie. Hezbollah: mobilisation and power. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
FRANKS, Jason. Rethinking the Roots of Terrorism: Beyond Orthodox Terrorism Theory—A Critical Research Agenda. Global Society, p. 153–176, 2009.
FREIXO, Adriano; ARMELE, Vinícius. A Lei Antiterrorismo brasileira e a circulação internacional de regimes jurídicos punitivos. Passagens - Revista Internacional de História Política e Cultura Jurídica, vol. 13, n. 1, p. 105-128, 2021.
GUARIN, Jeferson Peralta. FARC-Hezbollah: The success of Venezuela-Iran proxy groups and their convergence in the Americas. Security and Defence Quarterly, vol. 31, n. 4, p. 117–134, 2020.
HOWELL, Alison. Forget “militarization”: race, disability and the “martial politics” of the police and of the university. International Feminist Journal of Politics, vol. 20, n. 2, p. 117-136, 2018.
HUTCHINSON, Steven; O’MALLEY, Pat. A Crime–Terror Nexus? Thinking on Some of the Links between Terrorism and Criminality. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, n. 30, p. 1095-1107, 2007.
IRETON, Daisy. The Threat That Grows While America Sleeps’: The US Securitisation of Hezbollah in Latin America during the Obama Administration. Master Thesis, International Relations in Historical Perspective, Faculty of Humanities, University of Utrecht, 2019.
JACKSON, Richard. Writing the war on terrorism: language, politics, and counter-terrorism. New York: Manchester University Press, 2005.
JACKSON, Richard; SMYTH, Marie Breen; GUNNING, Jeroen (Ed.). Critical terrorism studies: A new research agenda. Taylor & Francis, Routledge, 2009.
KHATIB, Lina. How Hezbollah holds sway over the Lebanese state: Hybrid status means power without responsibility. Chatham House, p. 23-32, junho/2021.
LEVITT, Matthew. Hezbollah: Party of Fraud - How Hezbollah Uses Crime to Finance Its Operations. Foreign Affairs, July 27, 2022. Disponível em: <https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/benin/2011-07-27/hezbollah-party-fraud>. Acesso em: 10 jan. 2023.
LEVITT, Matthew. Iranian and Hezbollah Operations in South America: Then and Now. Prism: A Journal of the Center for Complex Operations, p. 119-133, 2015.
MACIEL, Tadeu; VIEIRA, Paulo Roberto. O Processo de Veridicção e Governamentalidade planetária no combate ao terrorismo durante o governo George W. Bush. Revista Conjuntura Global, vol. 9, p. 162-179, 2020.
MAIA, Natália Nahas Carneiro. Um Novo Olhar Sobre o Hezbollah: O Terrorismo Frente ao Reformismo Socioeconômico do Partido e à Teoria da Sociedade de Resistência. Boletim Malala, n. 1, p. 67-93, 2013.
MAKARENKO, Tamara. The Crime-Terror Continuum: Tracing the Interplay between Transnational Organised Crime and Terrorism. Global Crime, n. 6, pp. 129-145, 2004.
MAMDANI, Mahmood. Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: A Political Perspective on Culture and Terrorism. American Anthropologist, vol. 104, n. 3, p. 766–775, 2002.
MEIHY, Murilo. Os Libaneses. São Paulo: Contexto, 2016
MELGAR, Ana. Gobierno de Colombia designa a Hezbollah como grupo terrorista y retira a las FARC de la lista. CNN Español, 20/01/2020. Disponível em: <https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2020/01/20/alerta-gobierno-de-colombia-designa-a-hezbollah-como-grupo-terrorista-y-retira-a-las-farc-de-la-lista/>. Acesso em: 20 mar. 2023.
MEZA, Ricardo V. Drogas, conflicto armado y seguridad global en Colombia. Nueva Sociedad, n. 192, p. 117-131, 2004.
NEOCLEOUS, Mark. The Dream Of Pacification: Accumulation, Class War, And The Hunt. Socialist Studies, vol. 2, n. 9, p. 7-31, 2013.
NORTON, Augustus R. Hezbollah: a short history. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2009.
NORTON, Augustus Richard. The Role of Hezbollah in Lebanese Domestic Politics. The International Spectator, vol. 42, n. 4, p. 475–491, 2007.
PECEQUILO, Cristina Soreanu. Os Estados Unidos e o século XXI. Rio de Janeiro: Elsevier, 2012.
REGO-MONTEIRO, Lício Caetano. Esperando os bárbaros: geopolíticas da segurança no Brasil do século XXI. Rio de Janeiro: Consequência, 2021.
ROLLINS, John; WYLER, Liana Sun; ROSEN, Seth. International Terrorism and Transnational Crime: Security Threats, U.S. Policy, and Considerations for Congress. UNT Digital Library. Disponível em: <https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc462115/>. Acesso em: 1 abr. 2023.
SAINT-PIERRE, Héctor Luis; VITELLI, Marina Gisela (orgs.). Dicionário de segurança e defesa [recurso eletrônico]. São Paulo: Editora Unesp Digital, 2018.
SCHMITT, Carl. The concept of the political. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
TICKNER, Arlene. Colombia, the United States, and Security Cooperation by Proxy. Wola Report, Washington Office of Latin America, March 2014. Disponível em: <https://www.wola.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/140318_Colombia_US_Security_Cooperation.pdf>. Acesso em: 30 mar. 2023.
TICKNER, Arlene. La securitización de la crisis colombiana: bases conceptuales y tendencias generales. Colombia Internacional, n. 60, p. 12-35, 2004.
UNITED STATES. NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 2002. Disponível em: <https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/63562.pdf>. Acesso em: 05 abr. 2023.
US DEPARTMENT OF STATE. Country Reports on Terrorism 2006. April 2007. Disponível em: <https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2006/index.htm>. Acesso em: 05 abr. 2023.
VIEIRA, Paulo Roberto S. Veridicção e terror: uma genealogia do terrorismo fundamentalista a partir das estratégias de segurança nacional dos Estados Unidos (1987 – 2015). Dissertação de Mestrado, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos Estratégicos da Defesa e da Segurança (PPGEST), Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), Niterói, 2022.
VILAS BOAS, Vinícius; HUMBERTO, Márcio; MATOS, Tiago; FORMI, Marcela Forni. Estudos Críticos de Terrorismo: O Caso das Forças Armadas Revolucionárias da Colômbia (FARC). Fronteira, vol. 18, n. 35, p. 128 – 147, 2019.
VILLA, Rafael Duarte. O paradoxo da macrossecuritização: Quando a Guerra ao Terror não securitiza outras “guerras” na América do Sul. Contexto Internacional, vol. 36, n. 2, p. 349-383, 2014.
WALKER, Rob B. J. Inside / Outside: Relações Internacionais como teoria política. Rio de Janeiro: Editora PUC-Rio/ Editora Apicuri, 2003.
WIGHT, Colin. Theorising Terrorism: The State, Structure and History. International Relations, vol. 23, n. 1, p. 99–106, 2009.
The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook. POLITICO. Disponível em: <https://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/obama-hezbollah-drug-trafficking-investigation/>. Acesso em: 20 dez. 2023.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Conjuntura Global (ISSN 2317 - 6563) editors reserve the right to adapt the submissions to the journal's editorial standard format. The articles and reviews are under the responsibility of their authors and do not express the opinion of Conjuntura Global's editors.
Authors who publish in this journal agree with the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), that allows the work to be shared with recognition of authorship and initial publication in this journal;
- Authors are allowed to assume additional contracts separately, for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (e.g., to publish in an institutional repository or as a book chapter), with recognition of authorship and initial publication in this journal;
- The approval of the submission automatically implies the authorization to Conjuntura Global to forward the relevant information to the scientific journals' indexing databases.
