S America 'funding terrorists'

The "Tres Fronteras" region where Brazil, Paraguy and Argentina come together is crawling Moslems, mostly Lebanese. The Moslems run small shops in Foz do Iguazu, Brazil and Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. I didn't see any in Puerto Iguazu, Argentina. Most of the organized crime in this area focuses on smuggling, mostly electronics and cigarettes, which rumor has it the Lebanese gangs have a large piece of.

There are three or four large mosques in Foz do Iguazu Brazil. I didn't scout around enough in Ciudad del Este (which is one of the world's really bad places) enough to see anything other than Lebanese street vendors, over aged hookers and the Policia National - blond guys in coal shovel helmets carying old Mauser KARs. The whole place has kind of a scarey time warped feeling to it.

Brazilian and fundamentalist Islamic cultures are not a natural fit. A Brazilian cab driver told me a local joke a few years ago -- "Temos dos problemas en o sul do Brasil, Mosques y Mosqitos." Translation -- We have two problems in Southern Brazil, Moslems and Mosqitos. Look for trouble in this area some time in the future.

" "We think that there are between 3 and 6 million people of Middle Eastern descent in Latin America."

This "swarming" is how they spread. Once they are in place they gather political and financial influence. Remember, they had to be driven out of france and Spain because they were taking over the known world. They're back!

Doesn't it just make you wonder what nuclear secrets the new marxist Brazilian President my be trading in and with whom? I have a bad feeling that after we clean out the rat's nests of Iraq, Iran and North Korea, we will end up being the evil "Yanqui" again in all of South America with a much longer military occupation there than any other region.

Some years ago we were waiting to catch a flight from Puerto Iguazu back to BA. There was an actual ayatollah there waiting for the same flight, and he was surrounded by a gaggle of Arabic-speaking men.

And Ciudad del Este (ex Puerto Stroessner) was quite an experience. Who would've expected a sleepy little port on the Rio Parana to be such a haven for smugglers?

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