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Written by Kevin Mooney, CNSNews.com Staff Writer Presidential candidates who want to make inroads with Hispanic-American voters should devote more time and energy to the dangerous and de-stabilizing trends in Latin America, instead of fixating on immigration politics, says U.S. security expert Chris Brown. Brown is director of education and research programs at the American Security Council Foundation (ASCF), a Washington D.C.-based think tank that works to raise awareness about the global dangers to America's security. To that end, ASCF recently released a new documentary - Crisis in the Americas - about Hugo Chavez, the Marxist leader of Venezuela. Chavez has been actively courting states identified by U.S. officials as terrorism sponsors, particularly Cuba, Iran and North Korea. The close relationship between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Chavez figures prominently in the film. After 9/11, the U.S. virtually gutted its intelligence capabilities in Latin America in exchange for bolstering its Middle Eastern operations, Brown told Cybercast News Service. However, an effective counter-terrorism strategy must take Chavez and his allies into account, if the U.S. expects to avert dangers in its own hemisphere, Brown said. "Presidential candidates who are reaching out to the Hispanic population should discuss Latin America - that's one way to get their attention," Brown said. "Anytime you talk about immigration issues you are walking into a minefield where you can't win. But first, second, and third generation Hispanics still have family members in Latin America and they are concerned about Chavez, and more aware of the dangers than other Americans," Brown added. The mainstream media and the political class in Washington, D.C., have largely ignored Chavez's assault on democratic institutions in his own country and his manipulation of the political process in neighboring states to the detriment of U.S. national security, Brown argued. The inflammatory speech Chavez delivered on the floor of the U.N. General Assembly in September 2006, attacking U.S. policy in general and President Bush in particular, stands out only because it generated media coverage, he observed. "Chavez has been working with terrorists for years and has a pathological hatred of the United States," Brown said. "He blames America for all the evils in the world. The rhetoric he used at the United Nations was not at all unusual." Although he was elected a few years after initially attempting to seize power by coup d'etat, Chavez has been aggressively undermining democratic institutions since the late 1990s when he came to power, according to ACSF. For this reason, he is described in the documentary as an illegitimate dictator who has rigged the election system, while maneuvering political cronies into influential positions. Former President Jimmy Carter, who monitored the 2004 referendum aimed at removing Chavez from power, voiced support for an election process riddled with fraud and ballot manipulated, said Brown. Every exit poll showed Chavez losing by about a 60 percent to 40 percent ratio, but the final results were exactly reversed, he said. "The electronic votes were flipped so that yes became no, and no became yes," Brown said. "Jimmy Carter should be arrested under violation of the Logan Act for legitimizing this election." The political strategy Chavez is employing to subvert Latin America is also being applied by Iranians in the Middle East to infiltrate and destabilize the Iraqi government, said Brown. The idea is to gradually and methodically dismantle democratic institutions after acquiring a certain degree of legitimacy after winning an election. "The brilliance of the Chavez strategy in Latin America and the Iranian strategy in Iraq is that we are being hung by our own democratic ideals," he said. "It is a mistake to confuse the mechanics of democracy with the principles of democracy." Two of largest political parties in Iraq maintain close relationships with Iran, Brown said. The Supreme Council for Islam and the Al Zawa both have Iranian ties that reach back at least 30 years, he said. They have been able to position agents into political slots at the local level, and they have also made inroads into the Iraqi Department of Interior, which oversees the national police force, Brown said. Meanwhile, Chavez has sought to gain political leverage in neighboring states, the documentary details. He is already closely aligned with Bolivia and Ecuador but has also attempted to extend his reach into Peru, Argentina and Mexico (See Related Story). The aggressive, well-coordinated support Chavez provided to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist candidate for president of Mexico in 2006, is particularly disconcerting, in Brown's estimation. Felipe Calderon, who defeated Obrador in the narrow, hotly contested race, "is not exactly a friend of the U.S.," Brown said, but an alternative result would have presented genuine dangers. "Just imagine the kind pressure that would be put on the U.S. border with a Chavez ally in Mexico," he said. "Latino Americans are concerned the political climate in their countries of origin and see freedom under attack. They will listen to presidential candidates who directly address this issue." "Crisis in the America's" includes interviews with high ranking U.S. officials such as Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.), Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), and Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and former Ambassador to Venezuela Otto Reich. It was recently screened before members of Congress to call attention to the nexus between Chavez and other rogue elements seeking a foothold in the American Hemisphere. | ||
