MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay to set up joint intelligence base on Triple Frontier

Paraguayan Interior Minister Enrique Riera confirmed the base's creation

Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina have agreed to establish a new intelligence base in Puerto Iguazú, Argentina, within the region known as the Triple Frontier on the border with Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, and Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. This base will focus on combating organized crime and terrorism and will receive support and training from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The initiative was discussed during the recent Mercosur summit in Buenos Aires between the security ministers of the three countries. The new base aims to enhance intelligence sharing, with each nation maintaining an interconnected office and a system of rotating coordination.

It will also work in conjunction with the existing Tripartite Command, a body created in 1996 for regional cooperation, whose operating protocol was updated in May for a five-year period.

The Triple Frontier has long been a focal point for US intelligence due to its association with money laundering and smuggling. Renewed interest in the area has emerged due to the ongoing Middle East conflict, with concerns that militant movements and financing, particularly from groups like Hezbollah, could relocate there. Past terrorist attacks on the Israeli Embassy (1992) and AMIA (1994) in Buenos Aires have been linked to this region.

While the Argentine government has not officially commented on the base, Paraguayan Interior Minister Enrique Riera confirmed its creation, stating that the FBI was training local agents who will work at the new base and within the existing Tripartite Command (which also involves the CIA).

The new base is expected to facilitate intelligence sharing, although further operational details have not been released. Brazil has traditionally been cautious about extensive intelligence cooperation with the US in the region despite significant successes against terrorist cells there.