Wiesenthal Center Slams Brazil Appeasement of Iran and Hezbollah Activity

April 23, 2018

“At the same time as former President and Brazilian national hero, Lula, was sent to jail for corruption and Hezbollah was drug running and money-laundering across the Brazil borders with Argentina and Paraguay (the lawless Triple Frontier), President Michel Temer gave a state welcome to Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Zarif, in Brasilia,” noted Simon Wiesenthal Center Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels.  

Together with Dr. Ariel Gelblung, the Center’s Latin America Representative, a protest was made to Temer and two Protocol officers warning that Brazil was following in the path of Venezuela, much of which is controlled from Tehran and their local Hezbollah minions [Pictured right: Samuels and Geblung with President Temer (C) at the Summit of the Americas in Lima earlier this month].  

The murdered Argentine Prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, had shared his findings with the Center, claiming such a terrorist presence in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Surinam, Venezuela, and sleeper cells sown in the Caribbean.

“President Temer argued legitimate commerce, while Brazil's first responsibility should have been to its Argentine neighbour, to respect the INTERPOL Red Notice arrest warrants for five Iranian suspects, especially the current Koranic advisor to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khameiny, Mohsen Rabbani who, allegedly, planned the 1994 AMIA Jewish Centre bombing, leaving 85 dead and over 300 wounded,” reported Gelblung. 

On 17 April, the so-called successor to fugitive Rabbani, Shiite Sheikh Bilal Wehbe, reportedly “Hezbollah Ambassador in Latin America”, was received with honors by Sao Paolo State Governor Marcio Franca [right]. Wehbe, apparently, fled Paraguay for cocaine-shipping and is wanted by the United States. He now heads a mosque in Sao Paolo.

“Brazil is playing a dangerous game. These relationships are anything but commercial. In a culture of corruption and appeasement in a continent of porous frontiers and primitive anti-terrorism security controls. This situation not only menaces Latin America. It is a direct threat to the United States, much more dangerous than Cuba at the height of the Cold War,” alerted Samuels.

"Iran and its alter ego Hezbollah, seek the destruction of the State of Israel, promote hatred against the West and are infiltrating Latin America. Most worrying about Brazil is total oblivion to these threats. A situation reminiscent of the Titanic orchestra. who continued playing as the boat submerged," Dr. Gelblung concluded.

For further information, please contact Dr.Shimon Samuels at +336 09770158 or Dr.Ariel Gelblung at +54 9 11 49695365.

For more information, please contact the Center's Communications Department, 310-553-9036. Join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

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