Joni Ernst
The United States can’t ignore emerging terror threats in Latin America as ISIS eyes global expansion, U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) recently wrote in a letter to President Obama.
Ahead of the president’s planned trip to Peru, Ernst raised concerns about the growing influence of ISIS in the region, and she urged Obama to discuss key points of U.S. strategy to defeat ISIS with Latin American leaders.
“ISIS and its sympathizers are growing more overt in Latin America,” Ernst wrote. “Their increased use of messaging in Spanish and Portuguese, coupled with calls for terror in the region, exemplify ISIS’s unwavering determination to change and imbed in new surroundings. A Brazilian extremist group pledging allegiance to ISIS, Ansar al-Khilafah Brazil, will likely not be the last, and the increasing rise of ISIS fighters leaving the Caribbean should indicate to you that this is not a narrowly focused problem.”
Ernst echoed previous concerns of US Southern Command commanders about the growth of extremism in Latin America, and she urged Obama to make it a top priority in his travels this month.
“With decades of violence and illicit activity throughout Latin America, it remains fertile ground for extremist groups, like ISIS, to prosper,” Ernst wrote.
The senator noted the tri-border region of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay was cited by the State Department in 2014 for “remaining an important regional nexus of arms, narcotics, and human smuggling, counterfeiting, pirated goods; and money laundering—all potential funding sources for terrorist organizations.”
“With ISIS setting its sights on global expansion, and a history of Islamic extremism in the region, we cannot afford to continue turning a blind eye to these threats emerging right here in our own hemisphere,” she said.
Specifically, Ernst urged the president to consider how he could encourage more Latin American countries to join the U.S.-led coalition, what missions could be undertaken in Latin America to interrupt the growth of ISIS, and what could be done to expand existing U.S. counter crime and security assistance to incorporate counter terrorism efforts.