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to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations tournament. Three
people were killed in the incident. Rather than targeting
the Angolan population or the local government, terrorists from the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of
Cabinda (FLEC), a group promoting the independence
of that region, selected a foreign target, hoping to draw
international attention to their cause. Likewise, supporters, players, and delegation members present at the 2006
Germany World Cup, the 2010 South Africa World
Cup, and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, lived under
the threat of terrorist attacks, which fortunately did not
take place, perhaps because this possibility was seriously
considered by local authorities. During the South Africa
World Cup, for example, the al-Qaida in the Islamic
alone, Brazil shares a 3,421 km (2,126 mile) frontier, longer than the 3,162 km (1,965 mile) United States-Mexico
border. Furthermore, the Brazilian Federal Police (PF) is
currently estimated to deploy fewer than 1,000 agents to
monitor this huge area. This situation facilitates not only
the illegal entry of persons across the borders, but also
international drugs trafficking and weapons smuggling.
In addition, terrorist incidents close to Brazilian
borders are apparently not new or mere isolated acts. In
1992, a car bomb struck the Israeli embassy in Buenos
Aires, Argentina, killing 29 people. In 1994, at least 96
people were killed when a bomb exploded at the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) headquarters, a
Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. During most
of the 1980s and 1990s, Peru
and Colombia were ravaged
by political violence brought
about by perhaps the two most
widely known terrorist groups in
Latin America, the Shining Path
(“Sendero Luminoso”) and the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC), respectively,
which together were directly
responsible for the death of
more than 350,000 civilians.
Despite their current relatively
low to moderate operational
capabilities, these groups are still
operating in those countries. The
Shining Path is staging a comeback, fueled by the resurgence of
cocaine manufacturing in Peru,
while the FARC are still a very
active group and have something
As Brazil rushed to build new stadium infrastructure in time for the 2014 FIFA
between 7,000 to 10,000 fighters.
World Cup, it faces tough security challenges to ensure a safe tournament. PoliceIndubitably, terrorism is
men don riot-gear in anticipation of mass protests outside stadia.
far from being just a memory
from a distant past in South
Maghreb (AQIM) issued statements warning that suicide
America. Rather, intelligence reports from several sources
bombers might target the England versus United States
consistently detect signs of the existence of clandestine
match, among other threats, and during the World Soccer
activities conducted by individuals and cells linked to
tournament in Germany, the German Federal Crime OfHamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaida, and Jama’at al Islamiyya in
fice (BKA) categorized 21 out of the 64 matches as being
the region known as the “tri-border area” (TBA), where
under “high risk” of being attacked by terrorists, due to
Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay meet, in spite of the Braconcrete threats disseminated over the internet through
zilian government’s repeated assertion that there are no
homepages of extremist organizations.
terrorists in the region. The TBA was already known to
On the other hand, besides the low level of risk perthe intelligence community as a center for a wide range
ception regarding the extent of the terrorist menace, other
of criminal smuggling enterprises, from drug trafficking
factors contribute to increasing the Brazilian vulnerability
to money laundering and tax evasion, trade in pirated
to this kind of threat. One is the length and porousness
goods and document fraud to weapons smuggling. Now,
of the national borders. Brazil borders all but two of the
the region is also known in the intelligence community
twelve countries of South America (the exceptions being
as a potential safe haven and breeding ground for terrorChile and Ecuador). Brazil shares half of its 17,099 km
ists, an arena for Islamic radicals to pursue fund-raising,
(10,625 miles) border with the world’s three largest corecruiting, money laundering, plotting, propaganda, and
caine producers, Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru, most of it in
other activities in support of their organizations. The
sparsely populated areas in jungle regions of difficult access
possibility of an expansion of the terrorist potential in
to intelligence, police, and security forces. With Bolivia
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H A R V A R D I N T E R N A T I O N A L R E V I E W • Summer 2014
Photo Courtesy Reuters