Hamas Expands Operations into Latin America, Exploiting U.S. Blind Spot

The article argues that Washington’s focus on Hezbollah has left a growing Hamas presence in the Western Hemisphere unchecked. Leveraging porous borders and criminal corridors, the group is funneling cash, recruiting on university campuses and probing for sanctuary across Latin America. Argentina, Ecuador and Costa Rica have officially designated Hamas as a terrorist organization, and Costa Rican intelligence recently seized a Hamas-affiliated Palestinian with Spanish documents.

In contrast, Venezuela is said to be issuing official passports to Hamas members, while left-wing governments in Bolivia, Colombia, Chile and Brazil provide diplomatic cover and public praise for the Oct. 7 attacks. To counter this, the author proposes three steps: create a Southern Periphery Financial Task Force with real-time intelligence sharing, attach a Hamas-disruption annex to all U.S. security aid, and launch a Spanish-language narrative denial campaign targeting university propaganda networks. Failure to act, the piece warns, could allow Hamas to become the primary non-state security threat in the region.