Sticking the U.S. nose into everybody's business: Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay - the tri-border area

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Argentina.............Brazil.............Paraguay



The Tri-Border area
Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay

the argentine province of misiones occupies the thumb of the northeastern part of the country that pushes up against brazil on the north and east and against paraguay on the west... it's called the "tri-border" area and has been rife with smuggling for years and years... last year, the u.s. military cut a deal with paraguay to station u.s. troops on its soil...

(from september 2005... my post on the same subject is from december 2005...)

Controversy is raging in Paraguay, where the US military is conducting secretive operations. 500 US troops arrived in the country on July 1st [2005] with planes, weapons and ammunition. Eyewitness reports prove that an airbase exists in Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay, which is 200 kilometers from the border with Bolivia and may be utilized by the US military. Officials in Paraguay claim the military operations are routine humanitarian efforts and deny that any plans are underway for a US base. Yet human rights groups in the area are deeply worried.

Estigarribia Airbase,
Paraguay

now the tri-border area is back on the radar and we can anticipate increasing u.s. involvement in the region, most likely, as this article states, via paraguay, a desperately poor country that, unlike argentina and brazil who keep the u.s. at arm's length, isn't likely to turn down aid of any sort, even if it's from the u.s...

For years, this [tri-border] region -- where the boundaries of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina converge -- has been considered a teeming stew of globalization's more unseemly byproducts. Much of the trade that crosses the borders, officials say, is illegitimate. The region is full of smuggled goods and laundered money.

Now U.S. officials are launching a broad series of new measures aimed at uncovering money-laundering rings that they believe are funding Hezbollah and other radical groups.

Ciudad del Este's Friendship Bridge is a favored route for moving contraband goods into Brazil. U.S. investigators say that Arab immigrants are involved in laundering proceeds from black market sales to support such radical groups as Hezbollah in Lebanon.

"I am highly confident that's the case," said Daniel Glaser, deputy assistant treasury secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes. "We believe there is evidence."

[...]

The U.S. Embassy's legal adviser in Asuncion, Paraguay has held training courses during the past year for investigators and prosecutors in charge of combating possible terrorism links, according to the Justice Department.

the gwot gives the u.s. an excuse to stick its nose into EVERYONE'S business... and it's too bad it has to be in this area which contains one of the world's most spectacular natural attractions - foz de iguazu (iguazu falls)...



Four times the width of Niagara Falls on the
US/Canadian border, Iguazu Falls are divided
by various islands into separate waterfalls
on various levels.

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