Why US Is on the Trail of Hezbollah’s Money in Latin America

The State Department recently offered a $10 million reward for information about the money-laundering operations of the terrorist organization in Latin America.

Hezbollah members salute and raise the group's flags during the funeral for Ismail Baz and Mohamad Hussein Shohury, who were killed in an Israeli strike on their vehicles, in Shehabiya, Lebanon, on April 17, 2024. AFP via Getty Images

News Analysis

A month before Operation Midnight Hammer—the U.S. military’s attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities—the U.S. State Department offered a $10 million reward for information about the money-laundering operations of Hezbollah, a terrorist organization and key Iranian proxy.

The May 19 announcement concerned the group’s activities in Latin America, not in the Middle East.

Hezbollah established a presence in Latin America in the 1980s, according to a 2023 report published by the Wilson Center.

The State Department said in May that it was seeking “information leading to the disruption of the financial mechanisms” of Hezbollah, specifically in the Tri-Border Area of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s director for Latin America, Ariel Gelblung, told The Epoch Times: “The Tri-Border Area was one of the first places that Hezbollah worked in a clandestine way in Latin America. ... We think that the logistics for the bombing attacks [in Argentina] during the ‘90s were prepared and financed from there.”

Ilan Katz, a criminal defense attorney in Mexico who represents banks and other financial institutions, told The Epoch Times: “If they are operating in the Tri-Border Area, then it’s probably because that is a good place to hide some money, because of the lack of authority, because there’s so many money exchange houses. It’s probably a good place to deposit funds.”

The State Department said Hezbollah financiers and facilitators in Latin America generate revenue for the organization through a range of illicit activities, including drug trafficking, oil and charcoal smuggling, document forgery, counterfeiting U.S. dollars, and the trade in blood diamonds.

In May 2022, Paraguayan prosecutor Marcelo Pecci was assassinated while on his honeymoon in Colombia.

At the time, Pecci was heading up a huge probe into cocaine trafficking and money laundering.

Soon afterward, Emanuele Ottolenghi, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and an expert on Hezbollah, wrote an article for The Tablet that suggested the organization may have been involved in Pecci’s assassination.

Gelblung said he agreed with Ottolenghi, although he conceded he did not have any proof of Hezbollah’s involvement.

He said that the first Lebanese migrants arrived in the Tri-Border Area in the 1950s and that Hezbollah followed 40 years later.

Iran–Venezuela Ties

“The most important activities of Hezbollah are not in the Tri-Border Area, but are in plain sight in Venezuela,” Gelblung said. “There’s a very strong tie between the Venezuelan government and Iran.”

He said that after thousands of Hezbollah members were killed or wounded in September 2024 by exploding pagers, which had been intercepted and booby-trapped by Israel, many Hezbollah leaders fled to Venezuela and other parts of Latin America.

He said there were weekly flights between Caracas and Tehran, despite that there was no significant Iranian community in Venezuela or vice versa.

Hezbollah fighters stand near rocket launchers during a press tour in Aaramta, Lebanon, on May 21, 2023. Anwar Amro/AFP via Getty Images

Claims of Hezbollah involvement in Venezuela date back as far as 2009, when Dorit Shavit, head of Latin America and Caribbean affairs at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo that the organization had increased its presence in Venezuela’s Guajira region and on the island of Margarita.

At the time, Venezuela’s foreign ministry said Shavit’s statement was absurd.

The U.S. State Department said Hezbollah also generates legitimate revenue by investing in a range of commercial activities across Latin America, including construction, real estate, and import-export businesses.

The department said it is offering rewards for information about Hezbollah front companies in Latin America, which are engaging in the international procurement of technology such as circuit boards, microprocessors, switches, oscillators, software, and radio equipment that can be used for military or terrorist purposes.

Katz said there had been some allegations, mostly emanating from the U.S. intelligence community, claiming that Hezbollah had a footprint in Mexico and was either arming the cartels or laundering money, but he said there had been no indictments naming them or their operatives.

He said he did not believe that Hezbollah was involved in drug smuggling in Mexico because it was “well-funded by Iran,” but he said Latin America was probably a “safe haven” for their money.

Hezbollah was founded in 1982 in response to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, according to the U.S. State Department.

“Hezbollah is an Iranian partner force, helping Tehran project power across the region, train allied militias (reportedly including Hamas), and threaten U.S. interests and allies across the region,” a December 2024 Congressional Research Service report read.

On Oct. 7, 2023, its strategic ally, Hamas, led a terrorist attack against Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 Israelis hostage.

Hezbollah then fired thousands of rockets and drones into Israel until November 2024, when it agreed to a cease-fire with Israel.

In 1994, the group was implicated in a terrorist attack in Argentina after a bomb exploded at the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA), a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people.

On June 26, 2025, Judge Daniel Rafecas, sitting in Buenos Aires, ruled that 10 men—all Iranian or Lebanese nationals—who were accused of planning and ordering the terrorist attack on the AMIA could be tried in absentia.

Alberto Nisman, a prosecutor investigating an alleged cover-up of the 1994 AMIA bombing, was found dead in his Buenos Aires apartment in 2015.

“We don’t know who did it, but there’s no doubt this was a murder,” Gelblung said.

People hold pictures of victims during a ceremony to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the Mutual Israelite Association of Argentina bombing attack, which left 85 dead and more than 300 wounded, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on July 18, 2025. Luis Robayo/AFP via Getty Images

Hezbollah’s presence in the Western Hemisphere is not purely historical. Earlier this year, two U.S. senators introduced a bill in Congress called the No Hezbollah in Our Hemisphere Act.

The bill, co-authored by Sens. John Curtis (R-Utah) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), demands that governments in Latin America “put an end to the impunity enjoyed by designated individuals and entities or face the consequences” described in the bill for their inaction.

Curtis and Rosen called for governments in Latin America to follow Argentina’s example and designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

Gelblung said that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula de Silva appeared on the surface to be opposed to Israel, but that did not mean he was supportive of Hezbollah.

“When Lula is speaking openly, he is very anti-Israel, but in the practical things, every time they find someone who is related to Hezbollah, they take him off and they take him to prison,” Gelblung said. “So it’s something they say in the open, but they are working against this manifestation of terrorism very hard.”

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled the name of Foundation for the Defense of Democracies senior fellow Emanuele Ottolenghi. The Epoch Times regrets the error.