Published May 1, 2009
By Patricia Taft, David Poplack and Rita Grossman-Vermaas
Briefing TTCVR0905

In February and March of 2008, FfP staff traveled to South America to assess the conditions that might enable nuclear smuggling and proliferation in the Tri-Border Area of South America. This is one of several regional field-based investigative missions that The Fund for Peace is conducting to map potential pathways for nuclear terrorism in fragile states and ungoverned spaces.

The Tri-Border Area is bounded by Puerto Iguazu, Argentina; Ciudad del Este, Paraguay; and Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil. This report presents a summary of the data and findings gleaned from over thirty interviews with civil society experts and government officials in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay; relevant U.S. officials in Washington, D.C. and in the region; and local officials from the Organization of American States (OAS), and MERCOSUR affiliates. The FfP’s interviews centered on two key themes:
The potential for terrorists to utilize the region to train, fund, transport, or otherwise support activities that could aid in the acquisition of WMD, and
The effectiveness of international assistance programs aimed at preventing nuclear proliferation and terrorism by strengthening governance in the Tri-Border Area countries.

The FfP found that existing regional criminal networks in the Tri-Border Area have the potential to facilitate acts of WMD terrorism through: formal and informal financial networks, communications infrastructure, the provision of safe havens and identity “laundering,” and tested routes for the smuggling of personnel and materials throughout the hemisphere. Therefore, the Tri-Border Area may offer a rich enabling environment that could support a WMD terrorism scenario anywhere in the world—one characterized by corruption; gaps in the capacities of state intelligence, border security, and immigration control services; large legitimate economies and trading networks; sophisticated nuclear technology and expertise; and the presence of transnational criminal networks that overlap with the membership and activities of radical movements and terrorist elements.

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