Terrorism Threat

There was shock in Times Square, one of the most prominent landmarks of New York, when a car bomb was discovered but did not detonate, due to the fact that it was dismantled in time by police. The suspect of Pakistani origins, and who reportedly had Taliban links and training, was arrested. This recent event in the heart of the World’s capital is another of countless indications regarding a phenomenon involving abominable inspirations and devastating results from which no country is exempt.

In the same metropolis, on Sept. 11th, 2001, lovers of chaos demonstrated, with the destruction of the Twin Towers that were considered symbols of our civilization, what they are cable of doing. Since that day on, humanity knows with certainty that terrorism is a deadly enemy to the human species, capable of committing the most heinous acts.

The respective Inter-American Convention considers it a serious criminal threat to democratic values, peace and international security. Therefore, there is a commitment to strengthen hemispheric cooperation to prevent, control and eliminate terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

Terrorism does not only attack developed nations. In Buenos Aires, individuals admitted to Argentina as Iranian diplomats, caused death and destruction at the Israeli Embassy and the Jewish Community Center. Thus, the Latin American consciousness must never forget these attacks. Furthermore, the recent Iranian expansionism, which supports Islamic fundamentalism, and blindly follows the perverse teachings of the ayatollahs in the sense of actualizing the evil holy war against the West, encouraged by angry clerics who promise paradise, is rightly unsettling.

So much more can be written about this theme as well as about narco-terrorism embodied in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso). For example, the presence of Mexican drug traffickers, which is publicly known, has plunged the esteemed Aztec nation into the lurid environment of corruption and criminality, just because these traffickers regard Central America and the Caribbean as strategic objectives for their despicable actions. It is also in this category where huge amounts of dishonest drug-money, sponsors extreme violence in exchange for armed protection for the Mafia’s interests.

This challenge of terrorism is one of the major risks we now face. In addition, this threat is further complicated by the latent menace of nuclear terrorism which the intentions of the present axis of evil lean towards. The present axis of evil consists of Iran, North Korea and Syria, who all obsessively pursue weapons of mass destruction at the expense of peace, liberty and democracy.