CIAO DATE: 05/2008
Volume: 1, Issue: 1
October - December, 2006
Javier Jordán, Humberto Trujillo
The Spanish mass media have transmitted during the past weeks various news concerning the presence of jihadist activities in the cities of Ceuta and Melilla (two enclaves of Spain in North Africa): including the detention of suspected jihadists implicated in the terrorist attack of Casablanca in May 2003; the expulsion from the Spanish Army of three members belonging to professional troops for their supposed sympathy with radical Islam; and the appearance of a declaration on a internet forum from a group called Nadim al-Magrebi, calling for jihad against Spain and demanding expressively for the 'liberation' of both cities through terrorist attacks.
The March 11 attacks and the hundreds of detentions exercised before and after this date have demonstrated that the jihadist militancy is extended all over the Spanish geography, especially in Madrid, Catalonia, Eastern Andalusia and Eastern Spain (Valencia and Murcia). However the situation is far worse in Ceuta, especially in the neighbourhood of Principe Alfonso, to the point that it can be affimed that this district is one of the most favourable social situation for the jihadist recruitment in Spain. Analyzing the motives that allows us to formulate such conclusion is the purpose of this Athena Paper.
Considerations on the first (frustrated) action of 'Hezbollah in Venezuela' (PDF)
Javier Jordán, Manuel R. Torres
On the 23rd of October the Venezuelan police discovered two explosive devices nearby the United States embassy in Caracas. The alarm necessitated the evacuation of a school situated a small distance away and two controlled explosions were carried out a few hours later.
On the same day the police detained the suspected culprit, Josk Miguel Rojas, a 26 years old student of Bolivariana University. When arrested, he was carrying a rucksack containing black gunpowder (similar to that used in the fabrication of fireworks), electric material for the detonation, folders with the name of Hezbollah and various religious books.
Apparently the second device, placed near the American embassy, had in fact been intended for the Israeli embassy, but José Miguel had lost his nerve and abandoned the second packet nearby of the first embassy. According to the arrested man's testimony, he had used instructions received on the internet to make the explosives.
It is clear that we are talking about the actions of an amateur. In addition, he had already aroused the suspicion of the taxi diver who had driven him to the scene if the explosions and who later helped identifying him for the police.
However, this incident still deserves special attention because it signifies the first (frustrated) action of ‘Hezbollah in Latin America’/’Hezbollah in Venezuela’, a group analyzed only some weeks ago by Manuel R. Torres in JihadMonitor.org.
The Attraction for Success: the 'Hezbollah in Venezuela' Case (PDF)
Manuel R. Torres
A lo largo del verano de 2006, de manera paralela a la crisis desatada entre Hezbollah en el Libano y el Estado de Israel, hizo su aparición ante la opinión púiblica una organización que proclamaba ser "Hezbollah en Amtrica Latina". Aunque su "presentación en sociedad" se produjo el 29 de julio de 2005 (fecha en la que se crea su primera página web), fue en los albores del conflicto militar en el Líbano cuando este grupúsculo adquirió mayor notoriedad. La preocupación ante la posibilidad de que organizaciones terroristas de inspiración yihadista estuviesen extendendo sus tentáculos por en Sudamérica confirió, a las proclamas procedentes de este grupo una considerable publicidad y reabrió el debate sobre las posibles derivas del fenómeno terrorista en esta región.
En el siguiente estudio realizamos un análisis del contenido de la página principal de esta organización con objeto de conocer la naturaleza del grupo, su posible potencialidad y su significado en el entorno geoestratégico de América Latina.