Lagniappe

 

 

Todd Bensman: Iran's push into
Nicaragua a worry for U.S., allies

 

MONKEY POINT, Nicaragua - The second military helicopter in as many
days hovered over the jungle and then landed to a most unwelcome
reception from several dozen angry Rama Indian and Creole villagers.

Rupert Allen Clear Duncan, a leader of some 400 Creole who live along
the shoreline, confronted the foreigners dressed in suits and military
uniforms that day in March and demanded to know the purpose of their
aerial trespasses.

"This is our land; we have always lived here, and you don't have our
permission to be here," Duncan spat, when refused the courtesy of an
explanation.

Not until Duncan threatened to have his machete-waving followers damage
the aircraft did they learn that some of the men were from the Islamic
Republic of Iran and had come promising to establish a Central American
foothold in the middle of their territory.

As part of a new partnership with Nicaragua's Sandinista President
Daniel Ortega, Iran and its Venezuelan allies plan to help finance a
$350 million deep-water port at Monkey Point on the wild Caribbean
shore, and then plow a connecting "dry canal" corridor of pipelines,
rails and highways across the country to the populous Pacific Ocean.
Iran recently established an embassy in Nicaragua's capital.

In feeling threatened by Iran's ambitions, the people of Monkey Point
have powerful company. The Iranians' arrival in Nicaragua comes as the
Bush administration and some European allies hold the threat of war
over Iran to force an end to its uranium enrichment program and alleged
help to anti-U.S. insurgents in Iraq.

What worries state department officials, former national security
officials and counterterrorism researchers is that, if attacked, Iran
could stage strikes on American or allied interests from Nicaragua,
deploying the Iranian terrorist group Hezbollah and Revolutionary Guard
operatives already in Latin America. Bellicose threats by Iran's
clerical leadership to hit American interests worldwide if attacked, by
design or not, heighten the anxiety.

"The bottom line is if there is a confrontation with Iran, and Iran
gets bombed, I have absolutely no doubt that Iran is going to lash out
globally," said John R. Schindler, a veteran former counterintelligence
officer and analyst for the National Security Agency.

"The Iranians have that ability, particularly from South America.
Hezbollah has fronts all over Latin America. That is not new. But it's
certainly something we're starting to care about now."

American policymakers already had been fretting in recent years over
Tehran's successful forging of diplomatic relations, direct air routes
and embassy swaps with populist South American governments that abhor
the U.S., such as President Hugo Chávez's Venezuela, Bolivia and
Ecuador. But Iran's latest move places it just a few porous borders
from Texas, where illegal Nicaraguan laborers routinely travel.

The disquiet with this proximity is rooted in Iran's track record and
Bush administration saber rattling that has gone unabated despite a
recent National Intelligence Estimate report that concluded Iran could
build nuclear weapons if it wanted but had ended a clandestine weapons
program.

Diplomats or terrorists

Four consecutive American administrations have designated the Islamic
theocracy a State Sponsor of Terrorism since 1984 for ordering
Hezbollah and Iranian intelligence operatives, sometimes posing as
diplomats, to conduct bombings, assassinations and kidnappings
worldwide.

Among the more indelible of these were the suicide bombings of Marines
in Beirut, the 1996 Kobar Tower bombing in Saudi Arabia and
assassinations from Beirut to Washington.

Few Nicaragua observers believe Iran seriously plans to follow through
on any of its $500 million promises or has any obvious need for trade
ties with one of Latin America's poorest countries.

Opposition politicians say they understand why Iran might want
relations with oil-rich Venezuela and Bolivia but wonder aloud if Iran
really is so interested in Nicaraguan bananas as their return on
investment.

Those who view Iranian intentions with suspicion point to the new
Iranian diplomatic mission in Managua as one reason for all the
promises.

"They use their embassies to smuggle in weapons. They used them to
develop and execute plans," said Oliver "Buck" Revell, who served as
associate deputy director over FBI intelligence and international
affairs. "Diplomats have immunity coming and going. It is a protected
center for both espionage and, on occasion, for specific operations. So
an embassy in Managua is definitely an area that will be of concern to
our national security apparatus."

Front and center on many minds is Argentina's contention that Iran,
using its embassy as cover, orchestrated two Hezbollah bombings of
Israeli and Jewish community targets in Buenos Aires in the early
1990s.

This year, Argentina secured Interpol arrest warrants for five former
Iranian officials, most of them who worked as diplomats in the Buenos
Aires embassy. Iran denies Argentina's charges.

Also in recent months, the U.S. military repeatedly has accused Iran's
Revolutionary Guard of using diplomatic cover in Iraq to help
insurgents kill American soldiers. Iran denies that charge too. In
October, the Bush administration and Congress designated the
Revolutionary Guard and its elite arm, the Quds force, as global terror
organizations.

Israel is worried about Nicaragua, too, noting the Israeli business
community in next-door Costa Rica, Jewish populations throughout Latin
America and Iran's repeated vows to militarily destroy the Jewish
state. Israel has promised to take action alone if diplomacy fails to
halt Iran's nuclear programs.

Said one Israeli envoy in the region who requested anonymity, "It's
just that they could use their diplomatic infrastructure to repeat
Argentina. They'll promise millions, they won't send a penny. But they
will send a delegation."

Publicly so far, U.S. administration officials, who opposed Ortega's
bid for the presidency last year, aren't saying much. But privately,
State Department officials in Washington hint that Iran's move to
Nicaragua - and Ortega's warm reception - isn't being taken lightly.

Some intelligence experts presume the Iranian move to Nicaragua already
has stepped up foreign espionage operations to an extent not seen since
in that country since the Cold War.

To be sure, not everyone views the Iranian move to Managua as
nefarious. Some foreign policy analysts depict Iran's outreach to
anyone offering a welcome mat as a logical response to defeat two
rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions and gain voting U.N. friends
as more rounds are contemplated.

"Iran has its own foreign policy. They're just trying to extend their
influence," said Peter Rodman, a senior fellow in foreign policy for
the Brookings Institute. "They'll stick to economic activity."

Other analysts see as entirely logical that Iran would project a
deterrent in America's backyard to make Washington think twice about
military action.

"When you've got Washington calling you evil, and there's a steady
stream of reports from Washington about bombing campaigns, what would
you do if you were an Iranian strategic planner?" said Dennis Jett,
dean of the International Center at the University of Florida in
Gainesville. "These guys have a track record of using diplomats and
diplomatic missions as a mechanism for terrorism, so why wouldn't they
be making that calculation now?"

A mystery compound

Twelve-foot-high concrete walls topped by neat rolls of razor-sharp
concertina wire protect the manicured grounds of a mansion inside. The
compound is not unlike many others in the affluent Managua suburb of
Las Colinas, except for a telltale identifier.

From the street outside, through the wire at just the right angle, can
be seen the top half of the distinctive red, white and green flag of
Iran. This is the temporary embassy of Iran's new envoy to Nicaragua,
Akbar Esmaeil-Pour.

The envoy, however, hasn't been in a talking mood lately, since local
media stirred just the sort of questions that fuel Yankee fears. Last
month, the country's largest-circulation newspaper, La Prensa,
published leaked government documents that showed Nicaragua's chief
immigration minister personally authorized 21 Iranian men to enter the
country, without visas that would have left a record.

Officials denied the report until confronted with the document but
refused to explain why the men were let in that way or what became of
them.

Another report named as Revolutionary Guard operatives several men who
accompanied the Iranian envoy to his new digs. A Honduran newspaper in
June reported that Iranians had entered that country without permission
from Nicaragua.

Knocks on embassy gates over four days recently drew Nicaragua national
police guards and two polite aides but no interview. A call to
Esmaeil-Pour's private cell phone showed how much curiosity his
presence has stoked lately.

"I've had hundreds of requests for interviews, and yours is only one!
I'm very busy," the ambassador snapped before hanging up.

The Ortega government also wouldn't talk as internal criticism mounts
about the country's new alliance. But politicians from his Sandinista
Party were quick to defend the country's right to relations with Iran
or any other country willing to invest in Nicaragua. Several predicted
Iran would follow through and said Nicaragua never would knowingly
allow terrorist activity.

"Nicaragua's agenda in its international relations does not depend on
whether a third country has good or bad relations with x or y country,"
said Walmaro Gutierrez, a Sandinista Party congressmen. "To identify a
country as terrorist just because of nationality, race, ethnicity or
religion is discriminatory. I want to make clear we have signed the
(U.N.) international convention against terrorism. We are very
responsible."

Opening the door

No one disagrees that old grudges and American neglect helped open the
door for Iran. From 1980 to 1988, the CIA clandestinely fielded the
Contra rebels for a guerilla war on Ortega's Soviet-backed regime, at
one point funding them from secret arms sales to a Sandinista ally at
the time, Iran.

Ortega boasts solid anti-American credentials, aligning in the old days
with Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, and more
recently defending Iran's right to develop nuclear bombs.

U.S. relations with Ortega's successors improved during the 1990s, but
did not entail much in the way of foreign aid that could be leveraged
now.

Nicaragua remains neglected, with the western hemisphere's third-lowest
per-capita income, a vast foreign debt and energy shortages so profound
that electricity must be rationed.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saw opportunity in Ortega's
election. He was in Managua talking about hydroelectric and oil
projects the week of Ortega's January inauguration. By August,
Ahmadinejad had committed to fantastic promises that, along with Monkey
Point, include fixing the Pacific port of Corinto and building 10,000
houses.

Ortega's alignment with Iran and Venezuela is causing some political
blowback that may erode his thin public support. Some opposition
leaders and reform-minded Sandinistas don't like that Nicaragua has
taken sides in a fight that doesn't involve it.

Recent presidential candidate Eduardo Montelegre, who finished as the
runner-up to Ortega, said Ortega is "irresponsible" to risk Nicaragua's
rebounding trade and good standing with the West by providing Iran a
possible staging ground - even unwittingly.

"This is very simple. You draw a line between democracy and terrorist
countries, and we don't want to be on the wrong side of the line,"
Montelegre said. "If the U.S. goes to war on Iran, those who are on the
wrong side are not going to fare well."

But most Nicaraguans hardly can afford to consider such intrigue. They
are living hand-to-mouth existences in slums or squatting on bits of
land. Sufficient numbers of them voted to elect Ortega and don't seem
to particularly care who he brings to the dinner table.

Neglected port

A pile of scrap metal, rusted to a brownish orange, is all that remains
of oil tanks that CIA-led Contras blew up in a 1983 speedboat raid on
Nicaragua's port town of Corinto. The shrapnel-riddled tanks stood
until just four months ago, when new Sandinista port directors decided
to tear them down.

The pile symbolizes a new dawn for Nicaragua, insisted Absalón Martínez
Navas, the neglected port's newly installed Sandinista vice manager.

"We have investors," Navas announced. "It's nothing concrete yet. But
we're making studies. We're making plans, not only to develop the port
but also the community."

One of the biggest backers, he said, is going to be the Iranian
government. Probably. Two months earlier, the Iranians signaled they
were serious when they sent a top transportation official to tour the
port's crumbling surfaces, decommissioned warehouses and out-of-date
machinery.

The Sandinista government's hope for Corinto is a $100 million upgrade
and two new wharfs, to then be connected by the dry canal to Monkey
Point. This scheme, Navas explained, would enrich Nicaragua by drawing
Venezuelan oil and shipping business from the Panama Canal, Costa Rica
and El Salvador.

The dry canal has been around on paper for nearly 100 years. But it
found new life in a drive by Venezuela's Chávez to wean his country's
huge oil industry from loathed dependence on U.S. refineries,
transportation and markets.

This comes as good news on the streets of Corinto's many barrios and at
City Hall, where Mayor Ernesto Mendez adorns his office walls with
Chávez posters and Sandinista propaganda.

Many of the town's 18,000 people live with no electricity or plumbing,
and depend on the port for meager sustenance. Alphonso Jose Estrada,
who spent 30 years working at the port, wishes the Iranians the best of
luck.

"Even the U.S. is accused sometimes of being terrorists," he said.
" Just because the Iranians are coming here doesn't necessarily mean
they're going to cause terrorism. We'll see more ships. That's going to
mean more jobs."

That's a much-shared sentiment in a town where the port is so decrepit
that only a ship or two a week docks.

One recent evening, word went out over an invisible grapevine that a
ship was coming. Hundreds of men wearing yellow hard hats converged in
waves of bicycles to vie for shifts as stevedores or forklift
operators. The pay: a precious $8 per 12-hour shift.

After an hour or two of anxious waiting, only a few dozen were picked,
the rest consigned to pedaling home with bad news. Many who land one or
two shifts a month welcome any plan - by anyone - to bring more.

Some of the bicyclists stopped long enough to talk about the Iranian
proposal but wouldn't give names, for fear of not getting selected to
work.

"It's a bad friend," one young bicyclist said of the Iranians. "But if
the bad friend builds the port, then they're a good friend!"

A land rights clash

Feelings about the Iranian promises mostly break a different way at
Monkey Point, on Nicaragua's other coast. The Rama and Creole here
mostly live on Nicaragua's political margins, subsisting on fish and
jungle animals in isolation. Time is still told by sun and tides.

Because of their separateness, a more contrarian streak prevails that
may, in the end, prove more than just an irritant to the Ortega
government's partnership with the Iranians. Many Monkey Point young men
fought with the Contras against Ortega's Sandinistas. They've been
feeling rebellious again since the helicopters came.

The Monkey Point community wants legal rights to roughly a half-million
acres where generations have lived. Twice in the past 10 years, people
there have resisted development proposals.

Pearl Watson, the self-styled community president who travels the globe
raising awareness, said the community made substantial progress under
previous governments, including a new law under which it can stake a
formal claim. That's why Watson said people felt especially pained when
the Iranians and Venezuelans showed up with another port proposal that
did not seem to recognize all that had gone before.

"They don't want to tell the people nothing; they just want to show up
and do what they want," Watson said in her office in the bustling
coastal town of Bluefields, a 30-mile boat ride from Monkey Point. "Our
people don't like the way the government is imposing development on us,
with no guarantees of how the people will benefit."

Lately, she's been reaching out to human rights organizations to help
fight Ortega, and considering filing a case in international courts if
the port idea progresses before their land boundaries are decided. A
successful campaign could throw quite a wrench in the Monkey Point
plans.

But the fear of forcible removal by their old enemies, the Sandinista
Party, if all this fails is palpable where jungle and beach meet.
Frustration is on the rise. Lately, some of the young men have begun
talking about reminding the Sandinistas that this same community once
fought with the Contras, that they might not have turned in all the
weapons.

"It gonna be total destruction for us if them build it down here," said
Rupert Allen Clear Duncan, the community leader who confronted the
helicopter delegation. "Here we have a beautiful life, man. We never
find us living anywhere else."

Todd Bensman is a outstanding investigative projects reporter of the San Antonio Express-News, in the state of Texas, U.S. (tbensman@express-news.net). Petroleumworld does not necessarily share these views.

Editor's note: This commentary was originally published by Houston Cronicle, on 12/19/2007. Petroleumworld reprint this article in the interest of our readers. Petroleumworld does not necessarily share these views.

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Petroleumworld News 12/19/07

Copyright© 2007 Todd Bensman. All rights reserved.

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